The IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group
Shark News 7: June 1996
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Obituary: Mike Holden, OBE
Well-known fisheries scientist and Shark Specialist Group
member Mike Holden died unexpectedly at the end of last year.
Mike's career had ranged from the West African Fisheries
Research Institute, Nigeria, to the UK Fisheries Laboratory in
Lowestoft, culminating in the positions of principal administrator
and then Head of the Conservation Unit of the European
Union's Directorate General of Fisheries (DGXIV), retiring in
1990. He is possibly best known in the international fisheries
management and research community for dogfish research and
as author (in the early 1970s) of the first paper to draw attention
to the potentially unsustainable nature of long-term
elasmobranch fisheries. However, he more recently achieved
notice in Europe for his post-retirement criticism of the TAC/
quota system underpinning the Common Fisheries Policy. He
argued in The Common Fisheries Policy: Origin, Evaluation and
Future (1994) for their replacement by a Brussels-run licensing
scheme which would provide the basis for a regime which
would conserve stocks and provide a profitable European
industry.
Mike was always willing to provide valuable advice to the
Shark Specialist Group; we will miss his contributions greatly.
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