At the 7th World Fisheries Congress, hosted in Busan, South Korea, Ray Hilborn, a professor at the University of Washington focused on fisheries management was awarded the International Fisheries Science prize.
In his keynote acceptance speech, Hilborn stressed the importance of building up governance and scientific capacity as key to effective management. He was also more sceptical toward the value of market based solutions and marine protected areas.
Moreover, he identified key current management challenges as being managing high seas fisheries and large industrial fisheries in less wealthy countries.
Hilborn has written extensively throughout a long career, arguing that fisheries and ecosystems thrive and produce huge economic benefits when managed effectively. He is notable for co-authoring the textbook: quantitative fisheries stock assessment: choice, dynamics and uncertainty.
However, Hilborn has recently been dogged by controversy due to failure to disclose funding and conflicts of interest with regard to published research. While defending his funding sources, he has failed to fully address the allegations relating to transparency and disclosure.