Edited by Robyn E. Forrest, James P. Scandol, and Tony J. Pitcher.

DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD

As Director of the Fisheries Centre, I am pleased to present these proceedings, the result of a workshop held in Cronulla, Australia in December 2003.

Over the years, the Fisheries Centre has specialised in building strong collaborative relationships with partners and institutions all over the world and these proceedings are an output of one such collaboration. In 2002, the Fisheries Centre signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (then NSW Fisheries), in order to produce simulation models to aid transition towards ecosystembased management of the fisheries of New South Wales.

Here at the Fisheries Centre, we specialise in developing models of many types and in synthesising all kinds of data in novel and useful ways. But the real experts in any ecosystem are the people who work with its many components every day, who understand the nuances of the data, the subtleties of the behaviour of its organisms and the complexity of its fisheries. Without input from such experts, the modeller is lost. Therefore in December 2003, the Experts and Data Workshop was convened, at the southernmost edge of Sydney, in the waterfront laboratories of the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Cronulla. The workshop provided a depth and breadth of knowledge of the fisheries and coastal environment of New South Wales that had never previously been brought together in one meeting.

Individually, the papers presented here provide useful and detailed information as well as important references. Viewed as a whole, however, these proceedings provide a picture of an ecosystem that is cherished, despite many challenges presented by lack of long-term data, natural variability and enormous complexity in terms of both behaviour of its organisms and in the fisheries themselves. I hope that in reading this volume, you come to appreciate not only the challenges involved with modelling complex marine environments, but that you also come to recognise the importance of collaboration: both at the level of individual scientists, managers, students and others who work in the field as well at the institutional level, where bringing together of expertise in many different fields can truly help to find solutions to the complex problems facing fisheries today.

Daniel Pauly

Director, UBC Fisheries Centre

July 2008

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