Richard Pollnac

Biography

Dr. Richard Pollnac is Professor Emeritus of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island and Affiliate Professor in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle. He obtained his PhD at the University of Missouri, specializing in cognitive and applied anthropology, culminating in a dissertation focusing on intracultural variation in cognition among the Baganda of Uganda, a people living on or close to the shoreline of Lake Victoria, where he developed his interest in coastal adaptations to large bodies of water. At the present time, he specializes in human coastal ecology (human adaptation to the marine environment) as an element in understanding and facilitating development and change among fishing people, while maintaining and/or improving their overall well-being. Professor Pollnac has conducted field research among mostly small-scale fishermen in coastal communities in East and West Africa, South East Asia, Pacific Islands, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, as well as the USA, including larger scale commercial fishers in the North East Region, Puget Sound and Alaska. He has published 159 scientific research articles and book chapters over the past several decades focusing on human technological, social, psychological, biological and ideational adaptations to the marine environment.

Selected Publications

RECENT RESEARCH AND CONSULTING EXPERIENCE SINCE 2013:

Prior to 2013 research and consulting concerning fishery and coastal development projects was carried out in East and West Africa, South and Central America, the Azores, the Middle East, India, New England, USA, SE & NW Alaska, and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand  & Vietnam).

2011-2013 Fieldwork for the establishment of a baseline and monitoring system for a new Population, Health and Environment project in Bohol, Batangas, and Mindoro Occidental & Oriental the Philippines (Co-PI with Brian Crawford, Funded by BALANCED Project, funded by USAID).

2011-2013  Social Indicators Study: Improving the Conduct of Social Impact Assessments (SIAs) in the Northeast Region with a Focus on Community Resilience and Vulnerability (Funded by NOAA Fisheries).

2012-2013  A Multi-Scale Network Analysis of the Cumulative Effects of Fishery Management Regulations on Fishing Communities in the Northeastern U.S. (Funded by NOAA Fisheries).

2012-2013  Analysis of networks between inshore scientists in Puget Sound, WA (Funded by Puget Sound Partnership, Patrick Christie Co-PI).

2013 Fieldwork in Philippines related to the Coral Triangle Initiative Learning Project (Co-PI with Patrick Christie (funded by USAID, WWF).

2014 Field work ground-truthing numerical taxonomy of Alaskan coastal fishing villages (funded by NOAA fisheries. PI Amber Himes-Cornell.

2014-2017 Evaluating Puget Sound Marine Protected Areas to Increase Social Ecological Resilience (Field work 2014) PI Patrick Christie, funded by Washington Sea Grant).

2015-2019 Evaluating Aspects of the human and natural environment influencing marine conservation attitudes, beliefs and behavior among Small Scale Fishermen in Rayong and Trat Provinces, Thailand (field work 2015 & 2017).

2016-2019 Assessing socioeconomic impacts of climate change on Puerto Rico’s coral reef fisheries through a participatory approach. (PI Tarsila Seara, U New Haven.  Funded by NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program).

2018-2021  Survey of small-scale fishing communities along the coast of Ecuador. “Análisis socio-económico y socio-ambiental de las capacidades y percepciones, individuales y colectivas de los pescadores artesanales de la costa Ecuatoriana.” for evaluation of receptiveness to innovation, as well as resilience & vulnerability (Field work 2017, 2018 & 2019, (PI Nikita Gaibor Funded by Public Inst for Aquaculture & Fisheries Research-Ecuador)

2019-2021 Assessing Impacts of Climate Change on USVI Fisheries from a Stakeholder Perspective.  (PI Tarsila Seara, U New Haven.  Funded by The Caribbean Fisheries Management Council).

COASTAL DEVELOPMENT RELATED PUBLICATIONS SINCE 2014:

Prior to 2014, 133 publications.

  1. Pollnac, Richard, Christine M. Beitl, Michael A. Vina, and NikitaGaibor. 2024. Perceptions of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and La Nina Shape Fishers’ Adaptive Capacity and Resilience. Social Sciences 13: 356.
    https://doi.org/ 10.3390/socsci13070356.
  2. Seara, Tarsila, and Richard Pollnac. 2024. Understanding Factors Affecting Fishers’ Wellbeing in the U.S. Virgin Islands through the Lens of Heuristic Modelling. Social Sciences 13: 329. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/ ocsci13070329.
  3. Marc L. Miller, Pollnac, R. and Christie, P. 2023. MPAs as protected destinations: Relationships between outdoor recreational activities, including fishing, and perceptions of marine reserves in Puget Sound, Washington, United States. Human Organization, Vol. 82, No. 4, 354-368.
  4. J. Cinner, I. Caldwell, L.Thiault……R. Pollnac 2022 Potential impacts of climate change on agriculture and fisheries production in 72 tropical coastal communities NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2022) 13:3530 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30991-4 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications
  1. Suvaluck Satumanatpan , R. Pollnac , Ratana Chuenpagdee 2022 Incorporating fishers’ evaluation of adaptive capacity in policy making in Thailand. Fisheries Research Vol.254 (October 2022) 106407
  1. Kotowicz, D.M., Torell, E., Castro, J., Oracion, E.G., Pollnac, R., Ricci, G. 2022 Exploring Influences on Environmental Stewardship of Fishing Communities in Fisheries Management in the Philippines. Environmental Management  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-022-01645-4
  1. Tarsila Seara , A. Owens , R. Pollnac  , R. Pomeroy  , C. Dyer  (2022)  Lessons learned from a natural resource disaster: The long-term impacts of the Long Island Sound lobster die-off on individuals and communities.  Marine Policy 136, (104943)
  2. Jessica Vandenberg, Humphries, A., Garcia-Quijanoa, C , Moore A. , Pollnac, R. , and Suparman Abdullah (2021).  Assessing Indicators and Limitations of Food Security Objectives in Coral Reef Restoration.  Conservation and Society AOP: 1-13, DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_20_33.
  3. Seara,T, R. Pollnac, and K. Jakubowski (2020) Impacts of Natural Disasters on Subjective Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Study of Puerto Rican Fishers’ Perceptions after Hurricanes Irma & Maria.  Coastal Management  48(5) 418-435.
  4. Partelow, S., T. Seara, R. Pollnac, V. Ruiz (2020) Job satisfaction in small-scale fisheries: Comparing differences between Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Marine Policy 117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2020.103949
  5. Suvaluck Satumanatpan & Richard Pollnac (2020) Resilience of Small-Scale Fishers to Declining Fisheries in the Gulf of Thailand, Coastal Management, 48(1): 1-22
  6. Tarsila Seara, Richard Pollnac, Karin Jakubowski (2020) Fishers’ perceptions of environmental and climate change in Puerto Rico: Implications for adaptation and sustainability. In Meredith Welch-Devine, Anne Sourdril & Brian J. Burke, Editors,   Changing Climate, Changing Worlds: Local Knowledge and the Challenges of Social and Ecological Change. Pp15-34.   Switzerland: Springer, Springer Nature
  7. 10. Pollnac, Richard, Courtney Carothers, Tarsila Seara & John J. Poggie 2019 Evaluating impacts of marine governance on human communities: testing aspects of a human impact assessment model.  Environmental Impact Assessment Review 77:174-181.
  8. Christie, P., D. Fluharty, H. Kennard, R. Pollnac, B. Warren, T. Williams 2018 Policy pivot in Puget Sound: Lessons learned from marine protected areas and tribally-led estuarine restoration. Ocean and Coastal Management 163: 72–81.
  9. Leon, S., D. Bidwell, & R. Pollnac 2018 Factors Influencing Environmentally Responsible Behavior among Coastal Recreationists. Coastal Management 46(5): 488-509.
  10. Aswani, S., Basurto, X., Ferse, S., Glaser, M., Campbell, L., Cinner, J.E., Dalton, T., Jenkins, L.D., Miller, M.L., Pollnac, R. and Vaccaro, I., 2018. Marine resource management and conservation in the Anthropocene. Environmental Conservation 45:192-202
  11. Twichell, J., R. Pollnac & P. Christie 2018 Lessons from Philippines MPA Management: Social Ecological Interactions, Participation, and MPA Performance.   Environmental Management https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-018-1020-y.
  1. Graziano, K., R. Pollnac, P. Christie 2018 Wading past assumptions: Gender dimensions of climate change adaptation in coastal communities of the Philippines. Ocean & Coastal Management 162:24-32.
  2. Pollnac, R., K.W. Hagos, B. Crawford, Et al. 2018  Chaos, conflict and change: The reemergence and evolution of fishery governance in the small scale fisheries of Somalia.  Ocean and Coastal Management  162:193-201
  3. T. Seara, R. Pollnac, J. Poggie, C. Garcia-Quijano, I. Monnereau and V. Ruiz.  2017 Fishing as therapy: Impacts on job satisfaction and implications for fishery management.  Ocean & Coastal Management 141: 1-9.
  4. Tarsila Seara, Richard B. Pollnac and John J. Poggie 2017 Changes in job satisfaction through time in two major New England ports. Journal of Happiness Studies 18:1625–1640.
  5. A. Diedrich, N. Stoeckl, G. Gurney, M. Esparon, and R. Pollnac. 2017 Social capital as a key determinant of perceived benefits of community-based marine protected areas.  Conservation Biology 31, (No. 2): 311–321.
  6. S. Satumanatpan and R. Pollnac. 2017 Factors influencing the well-being of small-scale fishers in the Gulf of Thailand. Ocean & Coastal Management 142: 37-48.
  7. McNally, C. G., A. J. Gold, R. B. Pollnac and H. R. Kiwango. 2016. Stakeholder perceptions of ecosystem services of the Wami River and Estuary. Ecology and Society 21 (3):34. URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol21/iss3/art34/
  8. Amber Himes-Cornell, Conor Maguire, Stephen Kasperski , Kristin Hoelting, Richard Pollnac 2016 Understanding vulnerability in Alaska fishing communities: A validation methodology for rapid assessment of indices related to well-being. Ocean & Coastal Management 124: 53-65
  9. Patrick Christie, Diana M Pietri, Todd C Stevenson, Richard Pollnac, Maurice Knight and Alan T White 2016  Improving human and environmental conditions through the Coral Triangle Initiative: progress and challenges.  Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 19:169–18.
  10. Gurney, G., R. Pressey, J. Cinner, R. Pollnac, C. Stuart 2015 Integrated conservation and development: evaluating a community-based marine protected area project for equity of socioeconomic impacts. Philosophical Transactions Royal Society 370: 20140277. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0277
  11. Pollnac, R., T. Seara, L. Colburn, M. Jepson 2015 Taxonomy of USA East Coast Fishing Communities in Terms of Social Vulnerability and Resilience. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 55: 136-143.
  12. Dalton, T., R. Pollnac & G. Forrester 2015 Investigating Causal Pathways Linking Site-Level Characteristics, Compliance, and Ecological   Performance in Caribbean MPAs. Coastal Management 43:3, 329-341.
  13. Richard Pollnac, T. Seara & L Colburn 2015 Aspects of Fishery Management, Job Satisfaction, and Well-Being among Commercial Fishermen in the Northeast Region of the United States, Society & Natural Resources 28:75-92
  14. Dalton, T., G. Forrester, R. Pollnac. 2015. Are Caribbean MPAs making progress toward their goals and objectives? Marine Policy. 54: 69-76.
  1. Hoelting, Kristin, Beth Moore, Richard Pollnac & Patrick Christie 2014 Collaboration within the Puget Sound Marine and Nearshore Science Network, Coastal Management, 42:4, 332-354.
  2. Gurney, J Georgina G., Joshua Cinner, Natalie C. Ban, Robert L. Pressey, Richard Pollnac, Stuart J. Campbell, Sonny Tasidjawa, Fakhrizal Setiawan 2014 Poverty and protected areas: An evaluation of a marine integrated conservation and development project in Indonesia. Global Environmental Change 26: 98–107.
  3. Leslie, H.M.. E. Goldman, K. L. Mcleod, L. Sievanan, H. Balasubramanien, R. Cudney-Bueno, A. Feuerstein, N Knowlton, K. Lee, R. Pollnac, and J. F. Samhouri 2013  How Good Science and Stories Can Go Hand-In-Hand.  Conservation Biology, Volume 27, No. 5, 1126–1129.

PAPERS DELIVERED AT PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS SINCE 2014

Selected from papers delivered from 2014-2022. Prior to 2014, 116 papers were presented.

2022 Hurricanes, Pandemics, and Factors Influencing Recovery in the US Virgin Islands.  SEARA, Tarsila (U New Haven), POLLNAC, Richard (URI), and JAKUBOWSKI, Karin (U New Haven) Paper presented at (online) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah,  March

2022 Adaptation to Environmental Extremes of El Niño and La Niña in Coastal Ecuador. POLLNAC, Richard (URI), GAIBOR, Nikita (Public Inst for Aquaculture & Fisheries Rsch-Ecuador), and VINA, Michael (ASU) Paper presented at (online) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah,  March

2021 Evaluating Responses to Natural Disasters in the Caribbean: Methods and Results CHAIRS: Tarsila (U New Haven) and Pollnac, Richard (URI).  Session organized for the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, (Norfolk, Virginia, live/simulcast)

2021 Impacts of Natural Disasters on Subjective Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Study of Puerto Rican Fishers’ Perceptions after Hurricanes Irma & Maria.  SEARA, Tarsila (U New Haven), Pollnac, Richard (URI), and JAKUBOWSKI, Karin (U New Haven) Presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, (Norfolk, Virginia, live/simulcast)

2021 Anthropic Impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria on Puerto Rican Fishing Communities.  Pollnac, Richard (URI) and SEARA, Tarsila (U New Haven) Presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, (Norfolk, Virginia, live/simulcast)

2019 Coastal Community Resilience to Extreme Environmental Events (CHAIRS: SEARA, Tarsila (U New Haven) and POLLNAC, Richard (URI).  Session organized for the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon March 2019.

2019 POLLNAC, Richard (URI) and SEARA, Tarsila (U New Haven) Fishers’ Resilience to Coastal Disasters.  Paper presented at Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon March 2019.

2018 Aspects of the coastal small-scale fishery and well-being in Puerto Rico.  Paper presented at Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, April 2018.

2018 Caribbean fisheries in a changing natural, socioeconomic and cultural environment.  Session co-chairs & organizers Tarsila Seara & Richard B Pollnac. Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, April 2018.

2017 Relationships between subjective wellbeing and environmental concern in coastal fishing communities of Rayong Province, Thailand. Richard Pollnac (U Rhode Island) and Suvaluck Sathumanusphan (Mahidol U, Bangkok, Thailand)  Paper presented at Coastal Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) 24th Biennial Conference, 5-9 November 2017.

2017 Systemic approaches toward understanding estuarine and coastal resilience and sustainability.  Session organizers: Tarsila Seara, Richard Pollnac & Dawn Kotowicz.  Coastal Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) 24th Biennial Conference, 5-9 November 2017.

2017  Exploring Paths to Resilient and Sustainable Coastal Social-Ecological Systems Under Uncertain Future Scenarios Session co-chairs & organizers Tarsila Seara & Richard B Pollnac) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Santa Fe, New Mexico March-April 2017.

2017 Subjective Well-Being and Environmental Concern in Coastal Fishing Communities of Rayong Province, Thailand (Pollnac, Richard & Sathumanusphan, Suvaluck). Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Santa Fe, New Mexico March-April 2017.

 2016  Attitudes, Beliefs and Values Related to Perceptions of Marine Resources and Their Management and Use in Puget Sound (Session chair & organizer Richard B Pollnac) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, March 2016.

2016 Factors Influencing Perceptions of Impacts of Marine Reserves in Puget Sound and Their Implications for Marine Policy (Richard Pollnac & Patrick Christie) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, March 2016.

2016 Recreation-Tourism-Fishing Interactions in Marine Protected Areas in Puget Sound, Washington State (MILLER, Marc L., POLLNAC, Richard & CHRISTIE, Patrick) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, March 2016.

2016 Exploring the Gender Dimensions of Climate Change Perceptions in Puget Sound (GRAZIANO, Kathryn and LUNA, Melissa & POLLNAC, Richard) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, March 2016.

2016 Maintaining Livelihoods and Well-Being in the Fishery during Social-Ecological Transformations  (Parts I and 2 Session Chairs and Organizers  Tarsila Seara & Richard Pollnac) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, March 2016.

2016 Post-Tsunami Fishing and Non-Fishing Household Views of Well-Being and Participation in Livelihood Projects (KOTOWICZ, Dawn and POLLNAC, Richard) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, March 2016.

2016 Relationships between Perceptions of Resilience and Well-being in Rayong Province, Gulf of Thailand (POLLNAC, Richard and SATHUMANUSPHAN, Suvaluck) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, March 2016.

2015  The Impacts of Changes in Coastal Use on Fishing Communities  (Part I and II, Session Chairs and Organizers Carlos Garcia-Quijano & Richard Pollnac) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2015.

2015  Social Unrest and the Coastal Fisheries of Somalia.  Paper presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, March 2015.

2014 Social Science and Fishery Management: Applying Social Research (Part I and II, Session Chair and Organizer) Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, March 2014.

2014  Fishing as Therapy: Implications for Fishery Management (with Carlos Garcia-Quijano & J.J. Poggie) paper presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, MD. March 2014.