Gone Fishin’ – Student Handout
by Irene Salter
Archway School
1940 Virginia St.
Berkeley, CA 94709
[email protected]
510-637-8433 (cell)
www.mysciencebox.org
Summary
The management of the world’s fisheries is a controversial current issue that involves
individuals from many different viewpoints – fishermen and women, environmentalists,
park rangers, politicians, and shoppers at the seafood counter. The issue is that many
of the world’s fisheries are overfished and have collapsed or are on the verge of
collapse. This is but one example of the tragedy of the commons – where a limited
common resource is overused because each individual person thinks, “If I don’t use this
resource first, then somebody else will.” Students in this activity act as fishermen and
women who need to share an ocean of fish and take in a catch. Groups soon realize
that if they don’t set fishing limits and monitor the fish population, soon there are no
fish left in the ocean.
Objectives
Can define population.
Can graph changes in a population over time.
Can see how available resources determine the number and type of organisms that an
environment can support.
Can see how humans impact natural resources.
Can identify common natural resources that humans impact.
Can devise strategies to manage natural resources.
Vocabulary
Fishery
Overfishing
Collapse
Tragedy of the commons
Sustainability
Resource management
A MyScienceBox Lesson Plan by Irene Salter (http://www.mysciencebox.org). This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way,
Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Gone Fishin’
Number of Fish Remaining
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
#
Value
#
Value
#
Value
#
Value
Income Year 2
Income Year 3
Income Year 4
Goldfish
M&Ms
Peanuts
Peanut M&Ms
My Catch
Goldfish ($3)
M&Ms ($5)
Peanuts ($5)
Peanut M&Ms
($10)
Other Fisher-people’s Income
Names
My Total
Income
Income Year 1
Ocean Total
Income
A MyScienceBox Lesson Plan by Irene Salter (http://www.mysciencebox.org). This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way,
Stanford, California 94305, USA.
1) Below, graph the number of fish of each species over the 4 fishing seasons.
Fish: _______________
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Number of Fish Left
Number of Fish Left
Fish: _______________
0
1
2
3
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
4
0
1
Year
Number of Fish Left
Number of Fish Left
2
Year
4
Fish: _______________
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1
3
Year
Fish: _______________
0
2
3
4
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0
1
2
3
4
Year
2) Describe how the fish population changes over the 4 fishing seasons.
A MyScienceBox Lesson Plan by Irene Salter (http://www.mysciencebox.org). This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way,
Stanford, California 94305, USA.
3) Did your fishing group talk about the strategy that would be taken during each
harvest? What strategies did you discuss? What strategies did you choose?
4) Compared to other groups, was your group successful in preventing the collapse of
your fishery? Why or why not?
5) From a mathematical standpoint, which strategy for harvesting fish (or other
common resource) is the best?
6) Why do you think there are rules about hunting and fishing? From your point of
view, what should be the goal of these regulations?
A MyScienceBox Lesson Plan by Irene Salter (http://www.mysciencebox.org). This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way,
Stanford, California 94305, USA.