Fishing Your Way to a Sustainable Future

1. Fishing Your Way to a Sustainable Future Today’s Objective Develop a sustainable fishing strategy for your fishing community.

2. Fishing for Sustainability! • This activity is a model that will help us demonstrate what happens when people share a resource. • Your table is a community of fisherman. You all share the Blue Lake resources including the fish. • As you fish, think about your community. • What are the consequences of your actions? • What’s going on with your fellow fisherman? • Is each fisherman making enough money to support themselves? • How is your fish population doing?

3. Fishing: The Rules of the Game! • Don’t eat your fish… yuck! • Your Chopsticks are your fishing pole, no fingers! • Once you catch a fish it must be placed in your cup in order to count. • No stabbing or crushing the fish, think about sale-ability of your fish once they are caught! • Regular fish are worth $1, Rainbow fish are worth $2. • You will need to earn at least $2 to survive. Take some time to practice your fishing technique!

4. Game A: Directions • Place 25 regular goldfish and 5 rainbow goldfish in Blue Lake! • On the worksheet cross out ‘orange’ and write Regular; cross out ‘yellow’ and write Rainbow • For Game A you have no fishing limit. • You have 15 seconds for each round, each game has four rounds. • If you don’t make at least $2, you are done fishing for that game! • You earn $1 for each regular goldfish and $2 for each rainbow fish. • Fish that aren’t caught reproduce. It takes two to make 1. So, for every pair of fish that you have at the end of the round, you will get 1 offspring. • During any round, you may receive an incident card.

5. Game A Reflection: • Write a paragraph that explains what happened to the people, their money and the environment. • How did the fisherman in your community act while fishing? • What were the consequences of their actions? • What happened to the fish species in the lake? • What happened to the fishing community?

6. Discussion: Tragedy of the Commons • What is a tragedy? • A great loss • What is a commons? • The shared resource THINK – PAIR - SHARE • Was your game an example of a Tragedy of the Commons? • Can you think of other examples of a Tragedy of the Commons?

7. Vocabulary Word: Sustainable • Sustainability is the capacity to support or maintain long term. • For a system to be sustainable; it should be • Socially ‘fair’ • Economically ‘affordable’ • Environmentally ‘renewable’ long term

8. Was your Fishing Community Sustainable during Game A? Why or why not?

9. GAME D: Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons • Your group’s goal is to create a sustainable plan to avoid the Tragedy of the Commons. • Your goal is to.. • Maintain the Environment (the fish and the lake) • Maintain a Community where all people are treated fairly • Ensure all people have enough money to feed their family. • Write down your plan including fishing limits! • You will play four rounds using your new fishing limits; keep all other rules the same. • Don’t forget to record your data!

10. GAME D - Reflection • Your goal was to create a Sustainable Fishing Community; explain whether or not you were successful. • How can you tell if it is a Sustainable Fishing Community? • Can it support people and the environment long term? • Does it treat all fisherman fairly? • Did each person catch enough fish to survive? • Is it renewable, are there breeding populations left for both species? • Was it difficult to create a sustainable plan? Why or why not?

11. Turn in for a Class Assignment Grade… • Your completed data recording sheet for Game A and B • Written answers … • Game A Reflection: • Your Plan for Sustainability • Game B Reflection: