title: More than Anecdotes: Fishers' Ecological Knowledge Can Fill Gaps for Ecosystem Modeling.
abstract: Ecosystem modeling applied to fisheries remains hampered by a lack of local information. Fishers' knowledge could fill this gap, improving participation in and the management of fisheries.
  
  
  
  The same fishing area was modeled using two approaches: based on fishers' knowledge and based on scientific information. For the former, the data was collected by interviews through the Delphi methodology, and for the latter, the data was gathered from the literature. Agreement between the attributes generated by the fishers' knowledge model and scientific model is discussed and explored, aiming to improve data availability, the ecosystem model, and fisheries management.
  
  
  
  The ecosystem attributes produced from the fishers' knowledge model were consistent with the ecosystem attributes produced by the scientific model, and elaborated using only the scientific data from literature.
  
  
  
  This study provides evidence that fishers' knowledge may suitably complement scientific data, and may improve the modeling tools for the research and management of fisheries.
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.|Ecology Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ana Helena V
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Bevilacqua
authors.affiliation: Ecology Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.
authors.forename: Adriana R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.affiliation: Civil Engineering Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ronaldo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Angelini
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Villy
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Christensen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D018533:Biomass; D001938:Brazil; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D005260:Female; D005398:Fisheries; D005399:Fishes; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012984:Software