Under The Microscope

MARINE RESOURCES, their management and protection -- a review; Royal Society of New Zealand Miscellaneous Series No. 26; 28pp;

In this report a team of Royal Society top guns sets out to tell government, industry, the public, about the importance of scientific research -- "ongoing active and appropriately funded" -- and to catalogue the problems. It is however hardly a document likely to succeed in getting the real issues across to the wider public, as it lacks both content and style necessary to appeal to the layperson or media. It is more likely to be read as a sort of navel-gazing exercise by the increasing ranks of disgruntled scientists.

There are few surprises: basic science in the Crown Research Institutes and universities is severely underfunded; fisheries legislation needs more to emphasise sustainability; science must be central to the fishery management decision-making process; and so on. There's a lack of adequate research information on commercial fish species just entering into the quota system, which don't attract as much research money as the high-value species which are already heavily exploited. We need better data on recreational fisheries, and once again the question is asked, what are our marine reserves actually created for -- as playgrounds or research reserves? The old chestnut of Maori participation also gets a mention, along with the problem of ignorance among scientists of Maori perspectives and aspirations.

Far less emphasis is given to the complaints I hear most often: the problems of getting long-term finance for projects that cannot reach fruition in one or two years, and the real crisis of morale among the staff of many research organisations.

While the report laments the misrepresentation of science in the media, research organisations could be more pro-active, and put advertising and public relations people to its own service. This doesn't have to be dry and dull: the public will relate to issues like the problem of identifying sponges which contain anti-cancer drugs when the total number of local knowledgeable taxonomists can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Or the real story behind the toxic algal bloom scares, which still hasn't been told and won't be until more scientists recognise that publication means newspapers and TV as well as refereed journals.

When I worked in fishery science myself I sometimes used to get a disquieting suspicion that the reason my masters in Wellington were calling for further research was not to find out answers but to procrastinate or to window-dress. And after reading this document I discovered its raison d'etre was a request from government for further information about problems in marine science ...

Mike Bradstock is a former government scientist.

Mike Bradstock runs Canterbury University Press in Christchurch.