Abstract This article tells the story of an ongoing career journey that would have been difficult to predict from the start. It was shaped by unexpected opportunities, the support of mentors and colleagues, and Canada’s cod collapse. It built on important early days of bioeconomic modeling, government science, and international development research, leading to the pivotal time of the 1990s cod collapse. The aftermath of the collapse solidified an understanding of the depth of knowledge and wisdom held by fishers and fishing communities. I saw that I should be working with fishers and communities, and gradually, I was shown how to do that. Through transdisciplinary research, I gained a passion for community-based conservation and fisher-led management and stewardship, as well as the role of Indigenous communities. At the same time, at a global scale, big-picture policy work with FAO looked at small-scale fisheries, climate, food security, ecosystem-based management, marine protected areas and other themes. There have been major excursions into ocean management and policy, and a pervasive thread, across multiple scales, of linking fisheries and sustainable use with biodiversity and conservation. Along the way, new methodological approaches developed, notably on fishery systems, human dimensions and community-based management. Above all, this article highlights the biggest contributors to this career: strong collaborations, partnerships and relationships.
Anthony Charles (2026) studied this question.