Beyond sustainability: is government obliged to increase economic benefit from fisheries in the face of industry resistance?

Substantial economic opportunities have been identified in many Australian fisheries but may remain unimplemented due to the perception that the role of government is to ensure harvests are biologically sustainable, while economic decisions should be left to the commercial industry. This paper explores the role of government in driving changes that increase revenue and profit from fisheries (termed economic benefit). Australian fisheries resources are managed by eight different jurisdictions. While each have separate legislation, there is invariably a responsibility to manage on behalf of, and to the benefit of the public, who are the owners of the resource. This paper uses case studies to explore how government can struggle to determine the public interest, separate this from private interests and then implement management changes to ensure the public utility is maximised. Common problems were: (i) overarching economic objectives, which define who should benefit, were often ambiguous and open to interpretation; (ii) the public interest was usually abstract and often under-represented in decision-making processes, (in contrast to industry, who have direct representation); (iii) special interest groups were often able to lobby against changes; and (iv) government was often reluctant to seize opportunities to increase economic benefit when there was significant industry opposition to management changes. In drawing attention to these challenges and how they have been overcome historically, it is argued that government has both a role and requirement under their legislative objectives to take the lead in implementing measures that increase the economic benefit from Australian fisheries.     

Selecting and assessing social objectives for Australian fisheries management

This paper details Australian research that developed tools to assist fisheries managers and government agencies in engaging with the social dimension of industry and community welfare in fisheries management. These tools are in the form of objectives and indicators. These highlight the social dimensions and the effects of management plans and policy implementation on fishing industries and associated communities, while also taking into account the primacy of ecological imperatives. The deployment of these objectives and indicators initially provides a benchmark and, over the life of a management plan, can subsequently be used to identify trends in effects on a variety of social and economic elements that may be objectives in the management of a fishery. It is acknowledged that the degree to which factors can be monitored will be dependent upon resources of management agencies, however these frameworks provide a method for effectively monitoring and measuring change in the social dimension of fisheries management.Essentially, the work discussed in this paper provides fisheries management with the means to both track and begin to understand the effects of government policy and management plans on the social dimension of the fishing industry and its associated communities. Such tools allow the consideration of these elements, within an evidence base, into policy arrangements, and consequently provide an invaluable contribution to the ability to address resilience and sustainability of fishing industries and associated communities.     

Incentive instruments for the sustainable use of marine resources

The Australian Government recently ratified the “Oceans Policy” which provides a policy framework to effectively manage the resources and uses of the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone. The Oceans Policy is to be implemented through Regional Marine Plans that are based on the notion of large marine ecosystems and have the objective to integrate sectoral commercial interests and conservation objectives. This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the development of Regional Marine Plans which will demand the specification of detailed policies for regulating the various marine uses and impacts in the respective marine regions. The paper discusses a wide range of policy instruments and exemplifies their potential role for the management of marine resources and uses. The term incentive instrument includes financial and economic instruments as well as legal and regulatory instruments, education, co-management, voluntary approaches, community-based mechanisms and research. A set of criteria is established for the evaluation of individual incentive instruments. They are further placed in the context of a series of principles for policy design. The paper explores potential management instruments to: improve water quality of streams, estuaries and oceans, create sustainable fisheries, ensure sustainable marine tourism and recreation, manage conflict between user and interest groups, ensure environmentally sound marine transport and petroleum exploration and mining.     

Constraints and solutions for managing Pacific Island sea cucumber fisheries with an ecosystem approach

The ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) is a holistic paradigm that considers stocks of exploitable species, marine ecosystems and stakeholders. Management agencies must strike a balance between their capacity constraints and the requisites of management measures. Most small-scale sea cucumber fisheries of Pacific Islands have been plundered while others are being opened to commercial exploitation. Data from fishery managers and a regional workshop were used to assess the current problems, institutional constraints and solutions to the management of sea cucumber fisheries in 13 Pacific Island countries (PICs). Technical capacity was often strong for some management actions such as developing marine reserves but weak for others, such as enforcement. Using multi-disciplinary indicators, half of the fisheries were diagnosed by their managers as being overfished or depleted, despite evidence of optimistic bias. Fishery governance varied greatly among the PICs, and co-management frameworks were not typical of any cultural region. Management objectives were prioritised differently among managers but most highly ranked was to protect ecological resilience. The fishery managers proposed different sets of regulatory measures and various management actions, such as surveys to collect socio-economic and fishery-dependent data, support for local governance and strong enforcement – all widely under-practised. Pacific sea cucumber fisheries exemplify how the transition to an EAF by management institutions must involve reorganisation of their technical and human-resource capacities among management tasks. Levies on exports need to be internalised to fund improved management. Management agencies should consider a shift in resources from developing marine reserves, conducting underwater surveys and aquaculture-based restocking to strengthening enforcement capacity, stakeholder involvement and communication with fishers. In concert with these actions, short fishing seasons, shortlists of allowable species and tighter enforcement at export points may serve to turn the tide on boom-and-bust exploitation and safeguard biodiversity.     

Stakeholder objective preferences in Australian Commonwealth managed fisheries

Fisheries management is increasingly involving a wide range of stakeholders in the decision making process. However, in most fisheries, the set of management objectives are poorly defined, and the implicit importance placed on these objectives may vary considerably both between and within different stakeholder groups. This may lead to conflicts within management advisory groups where members from different stakeholder groups view potential management outcomes substantially differently, and inconsistencies in decision making when changes in stakeholder representation take place. In this paper, the institutional structure of fisheries management in Australia and the roles the different organisations play in shaping fisheries management plans are detailed. An explicit hierarchy of management objectives is developed in collaboration with key managers and policy makers. A large survey of stakeholders involved in Australian Commonwealth fisheries management was undertaken to determine stakeholder preferences relating to these objectives. The results highlight the differences in perspectives regarding the relative importance of the multiple objectives of fisheries management. While on average stakeholder preferences generally correspond with their expected preference set, the results also indicate that there is generally low coherence within stakeholder groups.     

Corporate-cooperative management of fisheries: A potential alternative governance structure for low value small fisheries?

While the economic and environmental benefits of fisheries management are well accepted, the costs of effective management in low value fisheries, including the research necessary to underpin such management, may be considerable relative to the total economic benefits they may generate. Co-management is often seen as a panacea in low value fisheries. Increasing fisher participation increases legitimacy of management decision in the absence of detailed scientific input. However, where only a small number of operators exist, the potential benefits of co-management are negated by the high transaction cost to the individual fishers engaging in the management process. From an economic perspective, sole ownership has been identified as the management structure which can best achieve biological and economic sustainability. Moving low value fisheries with a small number of participants to a corporate-cooperative management model may come close to achieving these sole ownership benefits, with lower transaction costs. In this paper we look at the applicability of different management models with industry involvement to low value fisheries with a small number of participants. We provide an illustration as to how a fishery could be transitioned to a corporate-cooperative management model that captures the key benefits of sole management at a low cost and is consistent with societal objectives.     

Enhancing the agency of fishers: A conceptual model of self-management in Australian abalone fisheries

Encouraging sustainable behaviour among fishers is an increasingly popular, but poorly understood approach to fisheries management. While examples of self-management and co-management offer some insights, there is a need to develop a better account of how diverse factors interact to affect behaviour. This paper explores factors contributing to variation in levels of self-management in five Australian abalone fisheries, using data from interviews, management workshops and surveys. A conceptual model of fishery self-management is developed from these data. Of central importance were the groups’ capacity to cooperate and their perceptions of the state of the resource. These factors were, in turn, influenced by a range of other interrelated conditions. In particular, management forums needed to be perceived by industry members as fair and open, helping to build trust. Trust was built and eroded through feedback loops, meaning mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement were essential. As industry groups struggled with self-enforcement, this was a key area where government provided support. Leaders were also central to these interactions, creating relationships, bearing costs and guiding decisions. The study demonstrates the complexity of such systems and highlights the diverse opportunities for policy makers and managers to improve fishery outcomes.     

Estimating MSY and MEY in multi-species and multi-fleet fisheries,consequences and limits: an application to the Bay of Biscay mixed fishery

Most worldwide fish stocks are overexploited, and so exploited beyond the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) and the Maximum Economic Yield (MEY). Not exploiting fisheries resources at MSY or MEY leads to the loss of production and rents from the fisheries. A large part of the EU fisheries are managed based on single species stock assessments; however, in reality, most species are caught together with other species and by different fleets. In multi-species and multi-fleet fisheries, single species assessments, and consequently MSY and MEY reference points, are often not valid, and so the catch recommendations. In this paper it is investigated the MSY and MEY estimation in multi-species and multi-fleet fisheries in comparison to single species assessments. Analyses are applied to the Bay of Biscay demersal fishery using the IAM bio-economic model. The impact of exploiting at MSY and MEY on the optimal effort allocation between fleets with different exploitation patterns and economic structures is analyzed. When accounting for the multi-species nature of the fishery, MSY landings are 0.4% to 2.7% lower than the single species simulations estimates. When accounting for the multi-fleet nature of the fishery, MSY landings are 27.2% to 30.2% higher than the single-fleet estimates. When considering the multi-fleet characteristics, MEY landings are 6.6% higher and profits are 66.5% higher than in the single-fleet simulation. Optimal effort at MEY is lower than at MSY, but when accounting for multi-fleet the optimal effort decreases for some fleets while increases for gillnetters. The results also provide an estimation of the profits at MEY (or costs of not being at MEY). Profits can be then up to 10.7 times larger than the current profits (256 million Euros compared to the current 24 million Euros).     

Transdisciplinary co-operation for an ecosystem approach to fisheries: A case study from the South African sardine fishery

Integrative approaches that involve natural and social scientists are needed to manage fisheries, but these are difficult to achieve. The process of developing a prototype, knowledge-based, electronic decision support tool for the South African sardine Sardinops sagax fishery provided a platform for fostering collaboration and achieving active participation of many stakeholders. The aim of the decision support tool is to assist managers in evaluating how effectively an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) has been implemented for this fishery. The collaborative process involved a series of meetings during which knowledge was elicited from fisheries scientists, social scientists, resource managers and fishing industry representatives. Conceptualisations of the different stakeholder perspectives were developed in terms of objectives and indicators following the hierarchical tree approach recommended by FAO. This paper describes the collaborative process. Hierarchies of objectives, indicators and data sets for the human dimension of an EAF in the South African sardine fishery are introduced. The value of a transdisciplinary approach towards an EAF in South Africa is discussed.     

Defining success in fisheries and conflicts in objectives

The traditional fisheries management objectives of maximizing yield and employment lead to heavily exploited stocks. Many current high-profile disputes arise from conflicting objectives, and the proposed solutions to “the fisheries problem” are primarily particular stakeholders’ efforts to have managers implement their own objectives. I suggest many “failures” are in fact successes for other objectives. Fisheries objectives, as reflected in management actions, are changing. Two current trends are the acceptance of objectives that value less disturbed ecosystems and acceptance of fisheries allocation through dedicated access to improve the fisheries’ economic efficiency. I suggest that increased use of dedicated access will result in more congruent objectives and less conflict.     

Conflicting goals in fisheries management—A study of the Norwegian cod fisheries

A multi-objective programming model has been applied to investigate conflicting goals of the Norwegian cod fisheries. The goals included in this article are economic rent and employment. Fisheries managers are confronted with the problem of how best to allocate the total allowable catch (TAC) of cod among eight vessel groups. Compromise solutions taking into account both objectives by giving them equal weights in the multi-objective programming model are calculated and discussed. This article is an extension of an earlier article in which the trade-off analysis was performed using data only for North Norway and one particular year. The present analysis includes the entire Norwegian cod fisheries and is carried out using time series data for 2003–2007, examining the annual variations of key economic and technological parameters of the cod fisheries. Based on the results from compromise programming, the article discusses management and policy implications of reallocation of the TAC by vessel groups.     

Are input controls required in individual transferable quota fisheries to address ecosystem based fisheries management objectives?

This study examined the use of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) to effectively manage fishing impacts on all ecosystem components, as required under Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) principles. A consequence of changing from input controls to output-based (catch) management is that the control of the regulating authority tends to be reduced, which may affect the outcomes for ecosystem management. This study reviewed the use of input controls across six fishing methods in 18 ITQ fisheries, which have been independently accredited as ecologically sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (12 fisheries) or under Australian environmental legislation for Wildlife Trade Operation (six fisheries). Input controls were retained across a range of ITQ fisheries, with non-selective fisheries such as trawl, gillnet and line employing more input controls than selective fisheries such as purse-seine, pot/trap and dredge. Further case-studies confirmed the widespread and recent use of input controls (spatial and temporal closures) with the aim of managing ecosystem impacts of fishing. The retention of input controls, particularly closures affects the security (quality of title) characteristic of the fishing use right and the theoretical ability of fishers to manage their right for their future benefit. The security characteristic is weakened by closures through loss of access, which undermines industry trust and incentive for long-term decision making. By reducing the security of ITQs, individual fisher incentives and behaviour may separate from societal objectives for sustainability, which was one of the foremost reasons for introducing ITQ management.     

Assessing and reducing vulnerability to climate change: Moving from theory to practical decision-support

As climate change continues to impact socio-ecological systems, tools that assist conservation managers to understand vulnerability and target adaptations are essential. Quantitative assessments of vulnerability are rare because available frameworks are complex and lack guidance for dealing with data limitations and integrating across scales and disciplines. This paper describes a semi-quantitative method for assessing vulnerability to climate change that integrates socio-ecological factors to address management objectives and support decision-making. The method applies a framework first adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and uses a structured 10-step process. The scores for each framework element are normalized and multiplied to produce a vulnerability score and then the assessed components are ranked from high to low vulnerability. Sensitivity analyses determine which indicators most influence the analysis and the resultant decision-making process so data quality for these indicators can be reviewed to increase robustness. Prioritisation of components for conservation considers other economic, social and cultural values with vulnerability rankings to target actions that reduce vulnerability to climate change by decreasing exposure or sensitivity and/or increasing adaptive capacity. This framework provides practical decision-support and has been applied to marine ecosystems and fisheries, with two case applications provided as examples: (1) food security in Pacific Island nations under climate-driven fish declines, and (2) fisheries in the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. The step-wise process outlined here is broadly applicable and can be undertaken with minimal resources using existing data, thereby having great potential to inform adaptive natural resource management in diverse locations.     

Fragmentation in high seas fisheries: Preliminary reflections on a global oceans governance approach

Notwithstanding the wide range of actions taken to strengthen the legal regime of international fisheries, overexploitation and the risk of depletion of stocks have been strong concerns for decades. Indeed, the regime of international fisheries law is currently not rooted in sustainability, and it does not adequately take into consideration the impact of fishing activities on the wider marine environment. One of the main causes lies in fragmentation of international fisheries law: a lack of coordination between instruments and institutions, and gaps in effective coherent structures for fisheries management. Areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), including the high seas, are particularly prone to this lack of coordination and integration.One alternative to reach a durable management of high seas fisheries might be found in a ‘global oceans governance approach’. This paper explores how this approach could impact the fragmented regime of fisheries. It suggests that governance-based perspectives underline concepts rooted in adaptability and interactions, concepts that suggest to approach international fisheries law not as a static set of rules but as an evolutive process. Reflecting on an overarching goal of coordination and possible management challenges in ABNJ provides an interesting starting point to develop a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of oceans governance on the fragmented legal regime of high seas fisheries. We now need to see how to give effect to governance, a task that remains, at this point, a work in progress.     

Choosing a fishery’s governance structure using data poor methods

Multi-species fisheries are complex to manage and the ability to develop an appropriate governance structure is often seriously impeded because trading between sustainability objectives at the species level, economic objectives at the fleet level, and social objectives at the community scale, is complex. Many of these fisheries also tend to have a mix of information, with stock assessments available for some species and almost no information on other species. The fleets themselves comprise fishers from small family enterprises to large vertically integrated businesses. The Queensland trawl fishery in Australia is used as a case study for this kind of fishery. It has the added complexity that a large part of the fishery is within a World Heritage Area, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which is managed by an agency of the Australian Commonwealth Government whereas the fishery itself is managed by the Queensland State Government. A stakeholder elicitation process was used to develop social, governance, economic and ecological objectives, and then weight the relative importance of these. An expert group was used to develop different governance strawmen (or management strategies) and these were assessed by a group of industry stakeholders and experts using multi-criteria decision analysis techniques against the different objectives. One strawman clearly provided the best overall set of outcomes given the multiple objectives, but was not optimal in terms of every objective, demonstrating that even the “best” strawman may be less than perfect.     

The Common Fisheries Policy: An enforcement problem

Marine populations in Europe are in decline due to the unsuccessful results of the Common Fisheries Policy. By combining data of scientific recommendations from ICES, TACs approved and reported landings with an age-structured model, the objectives of this paper are to investigate the level of compliance of the TAC regulation, and the level of enforcement and its economic impact on fishery resources. The results presented here suggest that while there does not exist a regular pattern between TAC proposal and TAC approved, there is a clear pattern between TAC approved and reported landings. As a consequence, there is a regular lack of enforcement at national fisheries authority level. The paper also presents results of the recovery plans for the Southern hake and the Atlantic cod fisheries as case studies to illustrate the level of enforcement based on collusion between national fisheries advisers and industry. The results from both cases studies analyzed here indicate that drastic solutions could generate positive results for the recovery of the stocks, but perhaps they are not always the best measure in fisheries management due to the high economic losses for fishermen and social effects on coastal communities in the short and medium term. Finally, this work demonstrates that if the recovery plans had been implemented, the net present profits for both fisheries would have increased over time.     

Moving beyond the MSY concept to reflect multidimensional fisheries management objectives

Maximising the long term average catch of single stock fisheries as prescribed by the globally-legislated MSY objective is unlikely to ensure ecosystem, economic, social and governance sustainability unless an effort is made to explicitly include these considerations. We investigated how objectives to be maximised can be combined with sustainability constraints aiming specifically at one or more of these four sustainability pillars. The study was conducted as a three-year interactive process involving 290 participating science, industry, NGO and management representatives from six different European regions. Economic considerations and inclusive governance were generally preferred as the key objectives to be maximised in complex fisheries, recognising that ecosystem, social and governance constraints are also key aspects of sustainability in all regions. Relative preferences differed between regions and cases but were similar across a series of workshops, different levels of information provided and the form of elicitation methods used as long as major shifts in context or stakeholder composition did not occur. Maximising inclusiveness in governance, particularly the inclusiveness of affected stakeholders, was highly preferred by participants across the project. This suggests that advice incorporating flexibility in the interpretation of objectives to leave room for meaningful inclusiveness in decision-making processes is likely to be a prerequisite for stakeholder buy-in to management decisions.     

A bio-economic analysis of harvest control rules for the Northeast Arctic cod fishery

Harvest control rules (HCRs) have been implemented for many fisheries worldwide. However, in most instances, those HCRs are not based on the explicit feedbacks between stock properties and economic considerations. This paper develops a bio-economic model that evaluates the HCR adopted in 2004 by the Joint Norwegian–Russian Fishery Commission to manage the world's largest cod stock, Northeast Arctic cod (NEA). The model considered here is biologically and economically detailed, and is the first to compare the performance of the stock's current HCR with that of alternative HCRs derived with optimality criteria. In particular, HCRs are optimized for economic objectives including fleet profits, economic welfare, and total yield and the emerging properties are analyzed. The performance of these optimal HCRs was compared with the currently used HCR. This paper show that the current HCR does in fact comes very close to maximizing profits. Furthermore, the results reveal that the HCR that maximizes profits is the most precautionary one among the considered HCRs. Finally, the HCR that maximizes yield leads to un-precautionary low levels of biomass. In these ways, the implementation of the HCR for NEA cod can be viewed as a success story that may provide valuable lessons for other fisheries.     

Positioning fisheries in a changing world

Marine capture fisheries face major and complex challenges: habitat degradation, poor economic returns, social hardships from depleted stocks, illegal fishing, and climate change, among others. The key factors that prevent the transition to sustainable fisheries are information failures, transition costs, use and non-use conflicts and capacity constraints. Using the experiences of fisheries successes and failures it is argued only through better governance and institutional change that encompasses the public good of the oceans (biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, sustainability) and societal values (existence, aesthetic and amenity) will fisheries be made sustainable.