WEBVTT

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GUEST SPEAKER: I'm
going to present to you

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some important criteria
by which to evaluate

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the legislative proposals
in the legislative hearings.

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And I'm going to present
them in my suggested order

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of importance of the criteria.

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So number one, I would suggest
the most important criterion

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is science.

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So ask yourself,
does the question

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used to evaluate
the proposals, ask

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yourself does the proposal
accord with valid research

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on maintaining fish populations?

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Number two, I would suggest the
second most important criterion

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is policy design and economics.

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Ask yourself does the proposal
include a well-designed policy?

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And number three,
I would suggest

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that the third most important
criterion is politics.

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Ask yourself does the
proposal have support and is

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it likely to pass, or can
you make it likely to pass?

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Values and management
are two other criteria

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that I have not ranked in
the top three for this issue.

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If you take a look at
the handout on the board,

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you'll see why I haven't
ranked management

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as the most important
criterion for this issue.

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We already have the
Magnuson-Stevens Act,

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which is the federal legislation
used to manage fisheries.

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And since it was revised in 1996
you can see the top map shows--

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with the red circles,
all the red circles

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are fish populations
that have recovered

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in the New England states, your
home constituency since 2000.

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And the graph on the bottom
shows an overall decline

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in fish stocks that are
having measured as overfished.

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So this isn't primarily a
management problem because we--

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there will doubtless be
proposals with management

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problems, but for this
issue, we at least

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know that management
is possible and we

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know that we have some
success in managing this issue

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federally.

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So we have some
organizational capacity

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that we're already aware of.

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So now I'm going to go
over the three top criteria

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and why I've ranked
them that way

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with some important questions
to use to gather information

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during the hearings for
each of the criteria.

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So number one is science.

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Science I've ranked as the
most important criterion

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for this issue because
science is our best

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tool for understanding
the natural world, which

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includes fisheries.

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Also, it's very
important for this issue

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because as you may
know, there seems

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to be legitimate disagreement
about the science

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on this issue.

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So it's very important for you
to use the hearings to assess--

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you're going to
have to take a stand

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on which of the science
that's presented to you

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you think is valid.

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And that's going
to underpin how do

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you assess the other criteria.

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You're going to have to
take a stand on science

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in order to decide which
legislation to support.

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You can't really assess the
policy design for example,

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without knowing what science
you think is legitimate.

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Some really important
questions to ask yourself

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about the science
during the hearings,

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some important
information to gather,

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it's important to
find out who funded

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the research, each research
that's presented to you.

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Also whether the
research was published

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in a peer-reviewed journal.

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Peer-reviewed research has
been vetted by other scientists

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and has had criticism
from other scientists who

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weren't involved in it.

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Non-peer reviewed research
there's no guarantee of that.

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Ask yourself, is
there broad agreement

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among other scientists
with this research

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or is this research presented
by one or two scientists

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and the rest of the scientific
community disagrees with them?

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And in general,
just ask yourself

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when a proposal presents
a method of management,

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what ways of management,
of fisheries management,

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have data to show that
they're actually effective.

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So going on to number two,
policy design and economics.

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That's also a very
important criterion

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because any policies
effectiveness

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is going to be dependent
on it being well-designed.

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And the economic
costs of each proposal

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are real both to
your constituents

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and to the federal government.

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And so far, we have
very little information

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about the different
proposals policy designs.

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So it is important
to gather information

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during the hearings
about the policy design.

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So some important
questions to ask yourself

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are what are the economic costs
associated with each proposal

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both to your constituents,
both short-term cost

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and long-term costs
both to our state

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and to the federal government?

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What are the economic benefits
of each proposal again,

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both short-term and long-term?

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It's important to ask yourself
of the proposals which

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proposal is the least coercive
while still being effective?

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So if we can incorporate some
aspects of self-organization

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of the fisheries
industry that will often

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make it a less coercive policy.

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Also from the policy
design standpoint,

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an important question to try to
suss out from the hearings is,

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are the fisheries likely
to comply with the policy?

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Who's going to make them
comply if they don't?

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Who will implement the policy?

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LAWRENCE SUSSKIND: 20 seconds.

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GUEST SPEAKER: And
moving on to politics,

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politics is important because
your re-election is important

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and because the hearings
are an important time

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to gather political information.

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LAWRENCE SUSSKIND:
Thank you, very much.

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Good.

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Good job.