“WE’RE GOING FISHING!”
At the start of class on Friday, the mint jar was empty–we all knew someone would be responsible for refilling it. Mr. Willard told us the day before that we’d be playing a game, so all hope for a fun Friday wasn’t lost. Mr Willard told us about the game: we were fishermen fishing for goldfish in blue birthday plates to keep our families from starving. There were ground rules we had to follow: there was a carrying capacity of 16 fish; we had to get two fish per round/minute/year to stay on the lake and keep our families from starving; we could not communicate during the first round (there were two round in all); our fishing poles were straws; the fish population would double every year, so keeping track of the carrying capacity was critical; for every fish caught after the first two, we could exchange for profits (Profits = Mints = Mr. Willard *hopefully* refilling the jar again with his big bag of mints.)
We started the game, and these were the results and the lessons learned:
1. ALL PROFIT! In round one, some tables (like Table One) had completely exploited the pond in round one by having each person catch four fish; although they got their profits of two mints per person, they could not survive in round two because there were no fish left to reproduce, so they had to “move away.” If this was simulated in real life, the table would be ignoring the “creel limit” which advises a person on how many, what size, and type of fish a given person can kill to sustain the population in a body of water. The lesson learned here is never to use up a natural resource faster than it can be reproduced again; the Lorax “spoke for the trees” because he knew the Once-ler was cutting down Truffula trees faster than they could grow back, causing all the animals to move away.
2. SAVE UP! Some tables didn’t take more than two fish per person, so they got to move onto round two, but they made no profit. This is probably the most environmentally friendly option, but in the case of our modern society, without any profit, moving ahead will be near impossible.
3. TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM! Some tables, after being able to communicate in round two, came up with a strategy that represented a monopoly in our modern society. One person got to stay on the pond by catching the required two fish (if not more), and the others didn’t catch any at all, which meant that they had to move away. The remaining person had to maintain the carrying capacity of 16, so he took 8 fish every round, and came out with 6 mints and shared his profits with his friends. The pond was not exploited in this situation, everyone got profits, and everyone was happy–the fish and the people.
4. BREAKING RULES! In round two, some tables ignored the rule of carrying capacity. At my table, we thought we could have everyone move away, and have one person getting all the fish and sharing profits, like in example #3. Instead of maintaining the carrying capacity of 16 fish, we decided that if one person got two fish at every round and waited until the end to reap in profits, we would end up getting around 72 mints (Round One: we start with 16, one person gets 2, we end up with 14, wait for the next round, let the population double, and end up with 28, and continue the process). Well, we couldn’t exactly get past round two, because our carrying capacity surpassed 16, and we were kicked out of the game for our rule breaking. Generally when the carrying capacity is exceeded in a community, there are less natural resources for the population to share, which could result in deaths, so maintaining carrying capacity is crucial to the survival of a community of organisms.
NC Creel Limits: Rules on Fishing Recreationally
Garrett Hardin: Ecologist who wrote “Tragedy of the Commons”
Tragedy of the Commons: Book written by Garrett Hardin that talks about how individuals acting independently in their own self-interest can ultimately destroy a shared limited resource.
