Browsing Retired Biology Faculty Research, Publications and Presentations by Issue Date
Now showing items 21-40 of 43
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Karl Popper’s organon and the world’s fisheries: fish stock assessment as a pseudoscience, an inductivism that can bear no fruit
(2006)Recent long term historical studies of commercial fisheries have pointed to a well established pattern of overfishing. Under the principle of transference – what is true in logic is true in psychology and scientific method ... -
Why an ecosystem approach is the wrong paradigm for the next stage of fisheries management
(2006-09-13)Scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) manage groundfish stocks by collecting biomass measurements that are used to provide scientific advice on catch limits. Clearly, if the data is uncertain or ... -
Scientific parameterization and its validation: comparing the universal models of fisheries economics with the invalid modeling of stock assessment
(2008-09-22)Here I compare the valid parameterization of fisheries economics with the data-fitted parameters of a stock assessment’s modeling, invalid models whose predictions cannot be falsified (which is another way of saying ... -
Fisheries Stock Assessment: an inductive science with the Logical form of Primitive Magic
(2010-01-20)Abstract. A logical analysis of the common fisheries models used in stock assessment has shown that they produce specific predictions with the logical form of existential statements, fail Karl Popper’s falsifiability ... -
Landscapes of the Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area: A Natural History
(Woodens River Watershed Environmental Organization, 2010-02-17)The Five Bridge Lakes Wilderness Area (FBLWA) lies about 20 kilometers west of downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. It encompasses 8,626 hectares hectares of Crown land located in the centre of the Chebucto Peninsula on Nova ... -
Regeneration of Forest and Barrens after the Spryfield Fire
(2010-09-02)This set of annotated photos illustrates the regeneration of vegetation over 16 months after an intense fire that swept through forest and barrens in the vicinity of Spryfield, Nova Scotia on April 30/May 1 of 2009. The ... -
Observations on a mixed farm during the transition to biological husbandry
(2011-01-19)Tunwath is a mixed farm (laying hens-grains) located in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, in a cool humid temperate zone. It includes about 2100 laying hens, 35 hectares of field crops and additional garden, pasture, hay ... -
The Poverty of mathematical and existential truth: examples from fisheries science
(2011-06-27)Several years ago I suggested that the harvesting of our commercial fisheries could be improved if the non-falsifiable models of a fisheries science were to be replaced with the falsiable models of a fisheries economics. ... -
A note on the Aristotelian origin of Popper's demarcation criterion together with its application to Atlantic Canada's fisheries
(2012-03-26)It has not always been realised that Karl Popper's demarcation criterion, the criterion he uses to distinguish an empirical science from its 'metaphysical' complement involves an interpretation of the classical theory of ... -
Some notes on the Aristotelian origin of the distinction between a falsificationist's and verificationist's view of science: together with corrections to my earlier account
(2012-10-31)It has not always been realised that Karl Popper's analytic distinction between the logically stronger falsificationist's view of science and the logically weaker verificationist's and inductivist's view of science is a ... -
Distinguishing input controls from ouput controls in Atlantic Canada's fisheries: explaining the decline and collapse of Newfoundland's Atlantic cod stocks
(2013-03-14)The lobster and groundfish fisheries of Atlantic Canada have been managed in very different ways. The Atlantic lobster fishery has been managed by input controls in which regulations have been developed by a posteriori ... -
Ecological Assessment of the Plant Communities of the Williams Lake Backlands
(The Williams Lake Conservation Company, 2014-02-12)The Williams Lake Backlands (WLB), covering approximately 200 ha, are the larger, undeveloped part of the Williams Lake Watershed which includes Colpitt Lake and Williams Lake. The WLB are part of "Purcell's Cove Backlands" ... -
Critical thinking through the eyes of Richard Paul and Karl Popper
(2014-10-08)This 1993 workshop marks the beginning of my new logical or metaphysical research program on the application of Karl Popper’s non-inductive theory of method to the management of the World’s commercial fisheries. The view, ... -
The sound management of a fishery as a social engineering: applying Karl Popper's demarcation criterion to an Area 2 stock of Pacific halibut
(2014-10-23)The Newfoundland fishery for Atlantic cod was once the largest cod fishery in the World. In the early 1990s this fishery formed part of an Atlantic Canadian groundfish fishery collapse that has become one of the World's ... -
The Chebucto Peninsula: A Significant Conservation Area
(www.ourhrmalliance.ca, 2015-08-09)The Parks and Protected Areas on the Chebucto Peninsula on Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast and some of the features that make the whole peninsula a significant conservation area are described and illustrated with maps and photos. -
What is a fish stock assessment? Is it a sound method? Can it be used to manage a commercial fishery?
(2015-09)Under Karl Popper's non-inductive theory of method arguments are never carried from data to advice as in a fish stock assessment. That is: a distinction or 'demarcation' has to be made between (i) a Lamarckian-like inductive ... -
Water quality measurements on Williams Lake and Colpitt Lake (Halifax, N.S.) Dec 7-13, 2015 with reference to possible impacts of road salt
(Williams Lake Conservation Company, 2016-01-06)Concerns have been expressed by the Williams Lake Conservation Company (WLCC) about possible effects of renewed salting of roads close to Williams Lake on water quality of the lake. Such salting was replaced by sand and ... -
Reflections on the failure of traditional fisheries management
(2016-06-03)A traditional fisheries management or fish stock assessment takes a Lamarckian-like instructive view of fisheries science. Its invalid inductive arguments have no problem solving capacity and are responsible for the collapse ...