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Rosenstiel Researcher Beth Babcock To Speak About Sustainable Fisheries at Miami Book Fair Int’l, Nov. 15

Virginia Key (November 13, 2008) — As part of the 25^th Annual Miami Book Fair International, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Researcher, Faculty Member and Author, Dr. Elizabeth A. Babcock, will participate in a discussion with Mark Kurlansky, bestselling author of The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America’s Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town.  The discussion will take place on Saturday, November 15, at 11:30 a.m. in Room 3208 -09 on Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus. 

Babcock is a fisheries biologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, School of Fisheries. She has worked as a fisheries observer onboard commercial fishing boats in Alaska and her dissertation research focused on the Oregon trawl fishery.  She spent five years at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, conducting scientific analyses in support of conservation efforts for tuna, swordfish, marlins and sharks.  For the last five years, she has been on the faculty of the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School.  Most of her research focuses on analyzing fisheries data to determine how to make fisheries more sustainable, particularly for vulnerable species like sharks. She is also a collaborator on a 10 year field research project studying abundance, and movement behavior of sharks at Glover’s Reef atoll, Belize and is co-editor of the technical book “Sharks of the Open Ocean”, edited by M. Camhi, E. K. Pikitch and E. A. Babcock, from Blackwell Publishing.

She will join novelist Kurlansky, whose new book focuses attention on a disappearing way of life: artisanal fishing.  The book explores a rich fishing tradition, dating back to the Vikings, and how it has defined the town of Gloucester for centuries. Artists and writers such as Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, and T. S. Eliot came to this fishing haven and found inspiration.  Today, overfishing, along with climate change and pollution, are affecting the very species that Gloucester’s fishermen depend on to survive. Scientists, government regulators, and fishermen are trying to work out complex formulas to keep fishing alive in this and other fishing communities worldwide.

The 25th annual Miami Book Fair International, presented by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College, will take place November 9-16 at Miami Dade College, 300 NE 2nd Ave., in downtown Miami. The nation’s largest and finest literary gathering is celebrating its 25^th anniversary and treating book lovers to more than a week of activities, including author readings, book signings, lecture  series, and a variety of other events.  For more information or a complete schedule, visit www.miamibookfair.com.

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