Mote Marine Laboratory

Dr. Michael K. Orbach is Professor of Marine Affairs and Policy and Director of the Coastal Environmental Management Program in the School of the Environment at Duke University.  His BA is in Economics from the University of California at Irvine and he holds masters and doctorate degrees in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at San Diego. From 1976-79 he was Social Anthropologist and Social Science Advisor with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C.  From 1979-82 he was Associate Director of the Center for Coastal Marine Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz.  From 1983-93 he was Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Senior Scientist with the Institute for Coastal and Marine Resources at East Carolina University.  He joined Duke, with offices at the Duke Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, in 1993, and served as Director of the Marine Lab from 1998 to 2006.

Dr. Orbach has performed research on, and has been involved in development and implementation of, coastal and marine policy on all coasts of the U.S. and in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Alaska and the Pacific, Europe and Asia and has published widely on social science and policy in coastal and marine environments.

Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
M.A. Cultural Anthropology, University of California, San Diego
B.A. Economics, University of California, Irvine

Selected honors, awards and appointments:

• Scientific and Statistical Committee, Pacific Fisheries Management Council (1979-82)
• North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission (Governor's appointments, one republican, one democrat, 1985-95; Vice-chair, 1994-95)
• Chair, North Carolina Ocean Affairs Council (Governor's appointments, one republican, one democrat, 1985-93)
• Technical/Management Committee, Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine Study (EPA National Estuary Program, 1985-1995)
• National Advisory Committee, National Coastal Resources Institute (1985-1995)
• Praxis Award (with J. Johnson), Washington Association of Practicing Anthropologists (1991)
• Environmental Science Review Panel, MMS, 1990-92 (Congressionally-mandated panel to review Mobil Oil Consotium proposal to explore for oil and gas offshore North Carolina)
• Founding Board Member, Partnership for the Sounds (1992-present)
• Founding Board Member, Marine Affairs and Policy Association, 1993-present
• Visiting Regents Scholar, University of California, Santa Cruz, Spring, 1995

National Research Council Committees on:

• Reducing Porpoise Mortality from Tuna Fishing (1989-92)
• The National Sea Grant College Program (1994)
• Science and Policy in the Coastal Ocean (1995)
• Individual Fishing Quotas (1997-1999)
• President, The Coastal Society (1995-98)

Advisory/Selection Committee

• Pew Charitable Trusts Scholars in Marine Conservation Program (1996-99)
• Ocean Studies Board, National Research Council (1997-1999)
• Founding Board Member, North Carolina Beaches, Inlets and Waterways Association (1997-present)
• National Board of Directors, Surfrider Foundation (2001-2006; Chair 2002-2005)
• Advisor, Pew Oceans Commission, 2000-03
• Science Advisory Committee, U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, 2001-04
• Bevin Lecturer, School of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, University of Washington, 2003-04
• President, Southern Association of Marine Laboratories, 2006-07
• Board of Directors, National Association of Marine Laboratories, 2006-07
• Science Advisory Committee for Marine Managed Areas, Conservation International and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, 2005-present
• Board of Directors, The Ocean Conservancy, 2005-present

Orbach, M., 1977. Hunters, Seamen and Entrepreneurs: The Tuna Seinermen of San Diego. Berkeley: University of California Press, 304 pp

Orbach, M., 1980. Social and Cultural Aspects of Limited  Entry. In B. Rettig and J. Ginter, eds., Limited Entry  as a Tool for Fisheries Management. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp 148-56

Orbach, M., 1980. Fishery Cooperatives on the Chesapeake Bay: Advantage or Anachronism? Anthropological Quarterly 53:1:48-55

Orbach, M., 1980. The Human Dimension. In R. Lackey and R. Nielsen, eds., Fisheries Management. London: Blackwell's Scientific Publishers, Ltd., pp 58-67

Orbach, M., 1980. Fishing in Troubled Waters. Environment 22:1:27-52

Maiolo, J. and M. Orbach, eds., 1982. Modernization and Marine Fisheries Policy. Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Science Publishers, 329 pp

Orbach, M. and J. Beckwith, 1982. Indochinese Adaptation and Local Government Policy. Anthropological Quarterly 55:3:78-90

Orbach, M., 1982. U.S. Marine Policy and the Ocean Ethos. Marine Technology Society Journal 16:4:41-49

Orbach, M., 1983. The Success in Failure of the Vietnamese Fishermen of Monterey Bay. Coastal Zone Management Journal 10:4:331-46

Orbach, M., 1984. Anthropologists in the Administrative Process. In W. Millsap, ed., Anthropology and Environmental Planning. Boulder: Westview Press, pp 328-42

Orbach, M., 1985. The Anthropologist and the Fishermen: Common Property, Common Problems and the Peasantry. Reviews in Anthropology 11:4:368-82

Orbach, M. and B. Holmes, 1985. Tentative Players in a Hybrid Economy: The Pribilof Island Aleuts. In S. Langdon, ed., Contemporary Native Alaskan Economies. New York: Academic Press, pp 167-93

Johnson, J. and M. Orbach, 1986. The Culture of Low-Capital Ocean Leisure Uses. Journal of Leisure Sciences 8:3:319-339

Orbach, M. and B. Cicin-Sain, 1986. Mutual Mysteries: Washington/Regional Interaction in the Implementation of Fisheries Management Policy. Policy Studies Review 6:2:348-357

Cicin-Sain, B., M. Orbach et al, 1986. Conflictual Interdependence: U.S.-Mexico Relations on Fishery Resources. Natural Resources Journal 26:4:769-92

Orbach. M., 1987. Independent State Fishery Commissions: The North Carolina Example. In A. Reiser and J. Bubier, eds., East Coast Fisheries Law and Policy. Portland: University of Maine Press, pp 67-78

Blomo, V., J. Maiolo and M. Orbach, 1988. Competition and Conflict in the Menhaden Industry. American Journal of Sociology and Economics 7:41-61

Orbach, M. and J. Maiolo, 1989. United States Tuna Policy: A Critical Assessment. Marine Policy Report 1:1:307-332

Orbach, M., 1989. Of Mackerel and Menhaden: A Public Policy Perspective on Fishery Conflict. Ocean and Shoreline Management 12:1:1-18

Orbach, M. and W. Queen, 1990.  Ocean Policy Initiatives in Coastal States: North Carolina's Experience. Coastal Management 18:267-281

Johnson, J. and M. Orbach, 1990. Migratory Fishermen: A Case Study in Interjurisdictional Fisheries Management. Ocean and Shoreline Management, 13:3:231-252

Johnson, J. and M. Orbach, 1991. A Fishery in Transition: The Impact of Urbanization on Florida's Spiny Lobster Fishery. City and Society 2:1:95-112

Johnson, J. and M. Orbach, 1992. A Study of Coastal Fishermen Using Network Analysis and Other Multivariate Techniques. In M. Boone and J. Woods, eds., Computer Applications for Anthropologists. Belmont: Wadsworth  Publishing Company, pp 178-92

Orbach. M., 1996. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council: Policy and Management Issues Related to the Potential 1996 Amendments to the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act. Tulane Environmental Law Journal 9:2:258-265

Orbach, M., 1997. Ecology and Public Policy. In D. Simpson and N. Christensen, eds., Ecosystem Function and Human Activities: Reconciling Economics and Ecology. New York: Chapman and Hall, pp 255-271

Committee on Individual Fishing Quotas (committee co-author), 1998. Sharing the Fish: Toward a National Policy on Individual Fishing Quotas. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 673pp

Ecosystem Principles Advisory Panel (panel co-author), 1999. Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management. Report to Congress of the Ecosystem Principles Advisory Panel. Washington, D.C.: NOAA. 54 pp

Hanna et al (Senior Project Advisor), 2000. Improving Fisheries Management: A National Report. Washington, D.C.: Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. 255 pp

Committee Co-author, 2002. Human and Environmental Links to Natural Disasters: Strengthening Coastal Communities.  Washington, D.C.: Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment (through Island Press)

Orbach, M. 2002, “Beyond the Freedom of the Seas: Ocean Policy for the Third Millenium”.  Washington, D.C. National Academy Press (Revelle Memorial Lecture, also published in Oceanography)

Co-Author (with K. Gjerde and M. Gorina-Ysern), 2005, “Ocean Governance”, in Conservation International, Defying Ocean’s End.  Washington, D.C.: Island Press

Orbach. M., 2008, Cultural Context of Ocean Fertilization”, Marine Ecology Progress Series 364:235-242

Department: Marine Policy Institute