Carl Walters (born 1944) is an American-born Canadian biologist known for his work involving fisheries stock assessments, the adaptive management concept, and ecosystem modeling.
After Walters graduated, he went to Colorado State University to study the "Distribution and production of midges in an alpine lake" under the advisement of Dr. Robert E. Vincent.
Prior to his professional appointment at UBC, Walters worked for the California Department of Fish and Game and was also a graduate fellow, a consultant, and an aide on numerous occasions.
His work in modeling population dynamics and active adaptive management has made Walters a valuable member of the scientific community.
[10][9] Walters wanted to give scientists a better understanding of the processes that drive density dependent fluctuations in ecosystem statistics (birth and death rates).
[10] The foraging arena theory is also used, in conjunction with the ecosystem simulation program Ecopath with Ecosim, to account for the indirect effects and trophic cascades seen in populations.
[10] His concept of active adaptive management involves large-scale experimentation, or "learning-by-doing", in order to understand the population dynamics in fish communities and to aide in the decision-making process done by policy makers.