WICI Seminar - Revitalizing the Georgian Bay Fisheries: Complicated, Complex, Contested, and Confused

David Robinson, Ivan Filion, and Kirsten Robinson

A major restoration project for Georgian Bay calls for re-imagining the ecosystems management strategy and its relationship to the local economy. The problem is complicated, and the solutions are contested. It is an opportunity to apply complexity theory?

Slightly smaller than Lake Ontario, and entirely within Canada's boundaries, Georgian Bay is often called the Sixth Great Lake. The human-ecosystem interaction of the region faces challenges from a growing megacity on the south, increasing recreational demand, invasive species, declining water levels, climate changes and watershed degradation. The commercial fishery has collapsed, the sport fishery is in decline, watershed and wildlife management is contested by a variety of interests including several first nations, the forestry industry and the tourism industry. In this seminar, we will discuss, the early stages of development and conceptual design for the project.