Research Interests
My research focuses on ocean conservation, fisheries management, ecosystem-based approaches, endangered fishes, sharks, and sturgeon. I am involved in work ranging from basic science innovations to domestic and international policy change with the goal of improving ocean conservation.
I am committed to advancing the use of ecosystem-based fisheries management, a strategy which recognizes that the oceans’ problems are interconnected and that species and habitats cannot be successfully managed in isolation. I spearheaded the first scientific consensus on ecosystem-based fishery management, which was published in the journal Science in 2004.
My collaborators and I are developing scientific approaches to sustainably manage forage fish, small schooling fish that are food for marine mammals, seabirds, and humans, but are being depleted from our oceans. I am chairperson of the new Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, a team of preeminent scientists and policy experts from around the world that will address this escalating environmental dilemma. The task force will by 2010 develop scientific approaches to sustainably manage forage fisheries using EBFM rather than traditional species-by-species management.
My research also focuses on advancing knowledge about vulnerable and ecologically important marine animals that are understudied. We conduct research into sharks, whose populations are declining due to destructive commercial fishing practices, and sturgeon in both the United States and overseas, many species of which are endangered due to relentless pursuit of their prized caviar eggs.
The Institute’s research has influenced significant policy improvements, including international trade restrictions on great white sharks and their parts, the listing of beluga sturgeon under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and a U.S. ban on the sale of wild beluga caviar. Sophisticated DNA-based forensics techniques and monitoring systems that I helped to pioneer enable shark species to be identified from a small piece of tissue, often from a dried fin, and are being used by enforcement agents to detect and prosecute illegal sales. These tools were essential in enabling my colleagues and I to compile the first global estimate of the number of sharks killed for the shark fin trade.
Publications
Books and Edited Volumes (refereed)
Camhi, M. D., E. K. Pikitch and E. A. Babcock, editors. 2008. Sharks of the Open Ocean: Biology, Fisheries and Conservation. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK. 536 p.
Pikitch, E. K., Huppert, D. D. and M. P. Sissenwine. 1997. Global Trends: Fisheries Management. American Fisheries Society Symposium 20. Bethesda, Maryland. 328 p.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters (refereed)
Camhi, M. D., Lauck, E., E.K. Pikitch and E.A. Babcock. 2008. A global overview of commercial fisheries for open ocean sharks. Pages 166-192 in M. D. Camhi, E.K. Pikitch and E.A. Babcock, editors. Sharks of the Open Ocean: Biology, Fisheries and Conservation. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.
McAllister, M. K., E. K. Pikitch and E.A. Babcock. 2008. Why are Bayesian methods useful for the stock assessment of sharks? Pages 351-368 in M. D. Camhi, E.K. Pikitch and E.A. Babcock, editors. Sharks of the Open Ocean: Biology, Fisheries and Conservation. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.
Pikitch, E. K., M. D. Camhi and E. A. Babcock. 2008. Introduction to Sharks of the Open Ocean. Pages 3-13 in M. D. Camhi, E. K. Pikitch and E. A. Babcock, editors. Sharks of the Open Ocean: Biology, Fisheries and Conservation. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.
Pikitch, E. K. and C. Santora. 2008. Decision frameworks and reconciling fisheries with conservation. Pages 1135-1138 in J. L. Nielsen, J.J. Dodson, K. Friedland, T. R. Hamon, J. Musick, and E. Verspoor, editors. Reconciling Fisheries and Conservation: Proceedings of the Fourth World Fisheries Congress. American Fisheries Society, Symposium 49, Bethesda, Maryland.
Skomal, G., E. A. Babcock and E. K. Pikitch. 2008. Blue and mako shark catch rates in U.S. Atlantic recreational fisheries as potential indices of abundance. Pages 205-212 in M. D. Camhi, E. K. Pikitch and E. A. Babcock, editors. Sharks of the Open Ocean: Biology, Fisheries and Conservation. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.
Pikitch, E.K., Santora, C. and E. A. Babcock. 2008. New frameworks for reconciling conservation with fisheries: incorporating uncertainty and ecosystem processes into fisheries management. Pages 1177-1187 in J. L. Nielsen, J.J. Dodson, K. Friedland, T. R. Hamon, J. Musick, and E. Verspoor, editors. Reconciling Fisheries and Conservation: Proceedings of the Fourth World Fisheries Congress. American Fisheries Society, Symposium 49, Bethesda, Maryland.
Babcock, E. A., M. K. McAllister, and E. K. Pikitch. 2007. Comparison of harvest control policies for rebuilding overfished populations within a fixed rebuilding time frame. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 27:1326-1342
Chapman, D. D., E. K. Pikitch, E. A. Babcock and M. S. Shivji. 2007. Deep-diving and diel changes in vertical habitat use by Caribbean reef sharks, Carcharhinus perezi. Marine Ecology Progress Series 344: 271–275.
Erickson, D., K. Kappenman, M. Webb, N. Ryabinin, A. Shmigirilov, B. Belyaev, G. Novomodny, A. Mednikova, E. Pikitch and P. Doukakis. 2007. Sturgeon conservation in the Russian Far East and China. Endangered Species Bulletin XXXII: 28-32.
Magnussen, J. E, Pikitch, E. K, Clarke, S. C., Nicholson, C., Hoelzel, A. R. and M. S. Shivji. 2007. Genetic tracking of basking shark products in international trade. Animal Conservation 10 (2):199–207.
Boersma, D., Ogden, J., Branch, G., Bustamante, R., Campagna, C., Harris, G. and E. K. Pikitch. 2006. LÍMITES EN EL OCÉANO: Planificación de su uso en el marco de los grandes ecosistemas marinos, Caso de estudio del Mar Patagónico. Conservation International and Fundación Ecocentro. 14 pp.
Clarke, S., McAllister, M. K., Milner-Gulland, E. J., Kirkwood, G. P., Michielsens, C. G. J., Agnew, D. J., Pikitch, E. K., Nakano, H. and M. S. Shivji. 2006. Global estimates of shark catches using trade records from commercial markets. Ecology Letters 9:1115–1126
Chapman, D. D., Pikitch, E. K., and E. A. Babcock. 2006. Marine parks need sharks? Letter to the Editor. Science 312: 527.
Babcock, E.A., Pikitch, E.K., McAllister, M.K., Apostolaki P. and C. Santora. 2005. A perspective on the use of spatialized indicators for ecosystem-based fishery management through spatial zoning. ICES Journal of Marine Science 62:469-476.
Chapman, D. D., Pikitch, E. K., Babcock, E. A. and M.S. Shivji. 2005. Marine reserve design and evaluation using automated acoustic telemetry: a case study involving coral reef-associated sharks in the Mesoamerican Caribbean. Marine Technology Society Journal 39 (1):42-55.
Pikitch, E.K. 2006. The gathering wave of ocean extinctions. Pages 195- 201 in State of the Wild, Volume 1. Island Press.
Pikitch E. K., Chapman, D. D., Babcock, E. A. and M. S. Shivji. 2005. Habitat use and demographic population structure of elasmobranchs at a Caribbean oceanic atoll (Glover’s Reef, Belize). Marine Ecology Progress Series. 302:187-197.
Pikitch E.K., Doukakis P., Lauck L., Chakrabarty P. and D.L. Erickson. 2005. Status, trends and management of sturgeon and paddlefish fisheries. Fish and Fisheries. 6:233–265
Shivji, M. S., Chapman, D. D., Pikitch, E. K. and P. W. Raymond. 2005. Genetic profiling reveals illegal international trade in fins of the great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias. Conservation Genetics 6:1035-1039.
Babcock, E.A. and E.K. Pikitch. 2004. Can we reach agreement on a standardized approach to ecosystem-based fishery management? Bulletin of Marine Science 74:685-692.
Boersma, D., Ogden, J., Branch, G., Bustamante, R., Campagna, C., Harris, G. and E.K. Pikitch. 2004. Chapter 6: Lines on the Water: Ocean-Use Planning in Large Marine Ecosystems. Pages 125-138 in Glover, L.K. and S.A. Earle, editors. Defying Ocean’s End: An Agenda for Action. Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Doukakis, P., Pikitch, E. K., Alpeisov, S. A., Baimukhanov, M., Sissengaliyeva, G., Melnikov, V., Yerbulekov, S. and S. Crownover. 2004. Caspian caviar and conservation: Kazakhstan’s Ural River beluga. Caucasus Environment 6(1):21-23.
Pikitch, E. K., Doukakis, P. and C. Santora. 2004. Caspian sturgeons and captive caviar production: understanding conservation benefits. Fish Farmer 27(3):31-33.
Pikitch, E. K., Santora, C., Babcock, E. A., Bakun, A., Bonfil, R., Conover, D. O., Dayton, P., Doukakis, P., Fluharty, D., Heneman, B., Houde, E. D., Link, J., Livingston, P., Mangel, M., McAllister, M. K., Pope, J. and K. J. Sainsbury. 2004. Ecosystem-based fishery management. Science 305:346-347.
Pikitch, E. K., Santora, C., Babcock, E. A., Bakun, A., Bonfil, R., Conover, D. O., Dayton, P., Doukakis, P., Fluharty, D., Heneman, B., Houde, E. D., Link, J., Livingston, P., Mangel, M., McAllister, M. K., Pope, J., and K. J. Sainsbury. 2004. Letter to the Editor: Response to Fishery Management and Culling. Science 396:1892.
Chapman, D. D., Abercrombie, D.L., Douady, C.J., Pikitch, E.K., Stanhope, M.J. and M.S. Shivji. 2003. A streamlined, bi-organelle, multiplex PCR approach to species identification: application to global conservation and trade monitoring of the great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias. Conservation Genetics 4:415-425.
Pikitch, E. K. 2002. The scientific case for precautionary management: current fishery problems traced to improper use of science. Pages 59-63 in Managing Marine Fisheries in the United States: Proceedings of the Pew Oceans Commission Workshop on Marine Fishery Management. Pew Oceans Commission, Arlington, Virginia.
McAllister, M.K., Pikitch, E.K. and E.A. Babcock. 2001. Using demographic methods to construct Bayesian priors for the intrinsic rate of increase in the Schaefer model and implications for stock rebuilding. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 58:1871–1890.
Babcock, E.A. and E.K. Pikitch. 2000. A dynamic programming model of fishing strategy choice in a multispecies trawl fishery with trip limits. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 57:357-370.
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