The definition of marine recreational fishing in Europe

To describe marine recreational fisheries, their socio-economic importance and interactions with other fisheries and the environment, it is necessary to define what is meant by recreational fishing. A review of European Member States’ national legislation revealed considerable variation in ownership and access to coastal waters/fisheries, and in the legal distinction between sport fishing and other recreational uses of marine fisheries and their commercial (catching for sale and profit) counterparts. Together with a re-examination of existing definitions, this has enabled us to suggest definitions that may be used to develop a common approach to evaluate participation and socio-economic value of marine recreational fishing, and guide attempts to legislate for the benefit and development of marine recreational fishing across Europe.     

Unreported fishing, hungry people and political turmoil: the recipe for a food security crisis in Madagascar?

Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, is one of the world's poorest developing countries, and its people depend heavily on marine resources for subsistence and income. Exports of these resources and foreign fishing access agreements are also important, at least from a large-scale economic perspective. In recent years, concerns have been voiced amongst local fishers and industry groups regarding the growth of the country's fishing effort. Despite these concerns, existing knowledge of the scale, composition and trends of Malagasy fisheries remains poor, and there is negligible information regarding unreported catches and illegal fishing in Madagascar's waters. Small-scale fisheries, which are often substantial in developing countries such as Madagascar, are often unreported or underestimated. Unfortunately, fisheries legislations, management plans and foreign fishing access agreements are often influenced by these incomplete data, leading to serious over-estimations of resource availability. This also appears to be the situation in Madagascar, where the reconstruction of total catches by all Malagasy fisheries sectors conducted here showed that total catches between 1950 and 2008 were twice the volume reported by national fisheries agencies. Most importantly, much of the subsistence sector is missing from official statistics, and signs of decline have already been observed in several stocks, suggesting that current levels of catches are likely to be exceeding sustainable yields. This has profound implications for the economic and ecological sustainability of fisheries, as well as food security in a country where people rely heavily on the ocean for their daily protein needs and livelihoods.     

Constraints on community participation in salmon fisheries management in Northwest Russia

Salmon fishing used to be the primary source of income in many rural areas of Arkhangelsk oblast in northwest Russia. People who settled in the area received a name Pomory, from Russian po moriu, meaning by sea, because their subsistence activities became marine fishing and hunting and seafaring. Local fisheries have undergone significant changes as post-Soviet Russia embraced the market economy and the state introduced fishing concessions. The current Russian law only allows fishing for salmon through officially registered recreational or commercial fisheries. Both these options are often either unavailable or unaffordable to rural dwellers, which leaves them with limited or no legal access to their traditional salmon fisheries. There has been a growing concern for protecting communities’ fishing rights among wider society in Arkhangelsk oblast. City activists promoted Pomory identity and appealed to the Russian government to grant Pomory an indigenous status to secure their access to fisheries. Although Pomor activism did not reach most of its proclaimed goals, it has contributed to promoting the image of Arkhangelsk oblast as a homeland to Pomor fishing. This image has played an important part in what Arkhangelsk authorities have called socially-oriented fisheries management. Officials have made good attempts to better accommodate rural communities’ access to fishing resources. Yet, these attempts have failed to include fishermen as active participants in the process. This paper looks at constraints on community participation in fisheries management in Russia. It considers both historical and contemporary reasons for the low participation of local community in fisheries management.     

Spatial conflicts in New Zealand fisheries: The rights of fishers and protection of the marine environment

New Zealand fisheries legislation provides commercial fishing rights to holders of individual transferable quota (ITQ). The settlement of fisheries claims against the Crown by Mäori, New Zealand's indigenous people, brought about the transfer of ITQ holdings to Mäori, and an obligation on the Crown to recognise and provide for indigenous (customary) fishing rights over fishing grounds and other areas that have been of special significance to Mäori. Some types of customary fishing areas exclude commercial fishing and could affect recreational fishing. Fisheries legislation requires that regulatory measures be put in place to avoid, remedy or mitigate the adverse effects of fishing. The Government also aims to protect marine biodiversity by having 10% of New Zealand waters in some form of protection by 2010. The legislative processes for protecting the marine environment and establishing customary fishing areas include assessment of effects on fishing rights. This paper explores the conflicts that arise from legislative obligations to uphold the rights of fishers, to sustain fishstocks and to protect the marine environment. The paper concludes that inconsistent legislative obligations and their disparate processes have led to spatial conflicts and a race for the allocation of space. Legislative obligations need to be integrated to maintain a balance between use of fisheries resources and protection of the marine environment.     

Regulating the access to fisheries: learning from European experiences

The pressure on aquatic renewable resources has rapidly increased over past decades as a result of both sustained high demand and technological innovation. The relative scarcity of fishing resources is not new, but it seems today to have become a generalised phenomena for most aquatic ecosystems from local to oceanic scales. Either motivated by the desire to regulate conflicts between groups of fishermen (gears, communities, etc.) or to improve efficiency by internalising part of free access externalities, fisheries management appears fundamentally to represent a process of access rule definition and implementation. Whatever is the instrument (output or input based, regulatory or economic, market oriented or not) it is the structure of access rights that is initially affected. There is nothing original in the fact that increasing relative scarcity calls for property right structure changes. It is also not surprising that in many cases, creating an access right structure provides an opportunity for a market expression of resource value. But in the case of fisheries resource appropriation is not as simple or easy as on land. Mobility and variability of the resource, diversity of fishing techniques interacting over stocks or areas, makes the case more difficult. Furthermore, management instruments are not as similar as the economic theory of management implies. Therefore, there is no straightforward answer. This is the reason why many different routes have been chosen to regulate world fisheries. In practice, efficiency and equity objectives are rarely successfully met. The European Union, with the Common Fisheries Policy and the various local or national management schemes, offers a fair range of such examples. Referring to European examples, the key issues in the debate over fisheries management are considered.     

The effectiveness of community-based governance of small-scale fisheries,Ngazidja island,Comoros

Conventional top-down, exogenous approaches to fisheries management have been ineffective in more traditional and small-scale fisheries. Yet, there remains little understanding of the effectiveness of alternative approaches. This case-study of small-scale fisheries in the Comoros examines how effective local fishing associations are at managing common fisheries resources, and provides some understanding of the underlying characteristics of effectiveness. Emphasis is placed on assessing governance effectiveness according to characteristics appropriate within the local context, and on suggesting ways to enhance local institutional strength and capacity to manage resources. Qualitative methods were used to collect data on local governance structures and management tools, fishers’ knowledge and beliefs, and perceptions of the status of fisheries resources in four major fishing villages on the island of Ngazidja. Results show that fisheries management in the Comoros is informally shared between the State fisheries department, a national fishing syndicate, and village fishing associations. Village fishing associations play an active role in fisheries management by collectively designing, monitoring, and enforcing local regulations. Compliance with local regulations is high, primarily due to participatory decision-making, community-monitoring, and strong feelings of solidarity among fishers. Perceptions of the benefits of these regulations are also high. This suggests that by working within these pre-established informal management systems, collective governance of common pool resources can be achieved within communities, and feelings of empowerment and shared responsibility among resource users can lead to effective management practices.     

Time preference of small-scale fishers in open access and traditionally managed reef fisheries

Individuals with high discount rates are likely not partial to conservation because they are unwilling to sacrifice short term benefits for potentially higher gains in the future. Many reef fisheries worldwide are open access, and fishers under open access systems are theorized to discount the future at an infinite rate. In contrast, fishers in a customary managed fishery can be expected to be more long term oriented, and thus possibly have lower discount rates. The present study tests this hypothesis by eliciting the discount rates of fishers in an open access small-scale reef fishery, and compares these rates to those of fishers in a customary managed reef fishery. Results indicate that fishers in both open access and traditionally managed reef fisheries have high annual discount rates that are on average over 200%. Contrary to expectations, fishers under an open access system are not associated with higher discount rates compared to customary management. It also appears that a larger proportion of open access fishers are more long-term oriented than those in the customary managed fishery, which is encouraging for the future conservation and sustainability of open access fisheries resources.     

The bottom line: An investigation of the economic, cultural and social costs of industrial longline fishing in the Pacific and the benefits of sustainable use marine protected areas

Industrial longline fishing can be understood as a case study of the cultural, economic, environmental and social impacts of unsustainable fishing technology. While much attention has been attributed to the impact of industrial longlines on the marine ecosystem, little is known about the impact of longline fishing on local food security, employment, cultural belief systems and traditions, revenue generation from marine tourism and climate change. New data demonstrate that the contributions of Marine Protected Areas, marine tourism and recreational fishing to local coastal economies dwarf the contributions of longline fishing. When combined with the impact of overfishing on coastal fishing communities and fish consumers, policies promoting sustainable fisheries must be expanded to take these other factors into account along with issues of biodiversity.     

The bottom line: An investigation of the economic,cultural and social costs of high seas industrial longline fishing in the Pacific and the benefits of conservation

High sea industrial longline fishing can be understood as a case study of the cultural, economic, environmental and social impacts of unsustainable fishing technology. While much attention has been attributed to the impact of industrial longlines on the marine ecosystem, little is known about the impact of longline fishing on local food security, employment, cultural belief systems and traditions, revenue generation from marine tourism and climate change. New data demonstrate that the contributions of Marine Protected Areas, marine tourism and recreational fishing to local coastal economies dwarf the contributions of longline fishing. When combined with the impact of overfishing on coastal fishing communities and fish consumers, policies promoting sustainable fisheries must be expanded to take these other factors into account along with issues of biodiversity.     

Cooperation and unregulated fishing: interactions between customary international law,and the European Union IUU fishing regulation

The extent to which flag States are bound by the conservation rules of regional fishery management organisations is an important question in the quest to reduce unregulated fishing. The European Union implemented a trade suspension against Cambodia under Council Regulation 1005/2008, in response to unregulated fishing by Cambodian vessels in high seas areas managed by regional fishery management organisations. Limitations in the arguments underpinning the decision evidence the flaws of unregulated fishing as a legal concept, underlining the need for it to be appropriately interpreted and contextualised in the international legal framework. Clarity on the differences between conventional and customary sources of international legal obligation, and their implications for State consent, should guide the implementation of the Regulation to maximise the normative potential of resulting practices.     

Incentivising selective fishing under a policy to ban discards; lessons from European and global fisheries

The reduction of discards in European fisheries has been identified as a specific objective of the reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy. To reduce the uncertainty in catch data and the socially unacceptable waste of resources that results from the disposal of catch at sea, a policy to ban discards has been proposed. Discard bans are currently implemented in Alaska, British Columbia, New Zealand, the Faroe Islands, Norway and Iceland. Experience from these countries highlights that a policy of mandatory landings can result in a reduction in discards, but relies upon a high level of surveillance or economic incentives to encourage fishers to land more of their catch. Discard bans will also not result in long term benefits to stocks unless total removals are reduced, through the avoidance of undersized, non-commercial or over quota catch. Experience shows that additional management measures are required to incentivise such a move towards more selective fishing. Success has resulted from the use of area closures and bycatch limits, with potential applications in EU fisheries. However, selective fishing will not be a panacea for the current state of European fisheries; discard bans and accompanying measures must be embedded in a wider management system that constrains fishing mortality to reasonable levels before sustainable exploitation can occur.     

Performance of community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM) programs in the Philippines: A meta-analysis

Community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM) is a major conservation and fisheries management strategy in the tropics. In this study, the performance of 16 CBCRM programs in the Philippines was assessed using a meta-analysis of eight indicators that represented the perceptions of local resource users. Overall, the CBCRM programs in the Philippines were perceived to have a significant positive impact. However, the performance of each of the indicators was mixed. Although the CBCRM programs were perceived to be effective in empowering the local fishing communities, their perceived impact on improving the state of the local fisheries resources remained limited. This highlights the importance of incorporating ecological and socio-economic considerations in setting fisheries management regimes.     

Managing sino-ghanaian fishery relations: A political ecology approach

A global recurring challenge for marine managers and policy makers is the effective management of fisheries conflicts. This study demonstrates the usefulness of a political ecology approach in understanding the complexity of conflict in increasingly internationalized national fisheries. By doing so it aims to provide an alternative approach to the environmental security perspectives, predicated on scarcity narratives, that often underpin policy on fishery conflicts. Using a localised example of industrial Chinese and local artisanal fishermen conflict in Ghana, this paper reveals a complex account of contesting ‘access’ to resources, in material and nonmaterial terms, that moves beyond an ‘absolute scarcity’ driven narrative. The conflict is shown to be one, in part, focussed around spatially fixed areas as well as moral claims of correct ways of fishing that reflect social tensions within the local fishing community. Both aspects show long term motivations to keep resource access, rather than being concerned with in the moment struggles over scarce resources. This work also highlights the existence of cooperation between groups of artisanal fishermen involved in transhipment with Chinese fishermen, revealing the complex nexus of winners and losers produced by environmental, social and political factors. In sum, policy must acknowledge that conflict is rarely produced purely by scarcity, and that broader social and political factors often combine in a variety of forms to produce localised conflict. If these complexities are ignored, fisheries policy runs the risk of unintentionally exacerbating conflicts and disadvantaging those who it aims to help.     

Fishing access agreements and harvesting decisions of host and distant water fishing nations

The declaration of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) granted coastal states sovereign rights over the marine resources in their EEZs and enabled developing coastal states to legally charge access fees to distant water fishing (DWF) nations for access to the resources in these waters. Despite the potential for economic gains, however, the ability of coastal states to benefit from the granting of sovereign rights and to ensure the sustainable use of their fisheries resources depends on how domestic fishing effort responds to the harvesting decisions of the DWF nations. We develop a stylized bioeconomic model to explore the change in fishing behavior of host and DWF nations when the two nations enter into an access agreement with varying levels of access fee. We further conduct an econometric analysis of changes in Pacific island nations’ harvesting behavior in response to the harvest decisions of DWF nations using data from the Western and Central Pacific tuna fishery. Our model results show that there is a range of variable access payment levels over which the host nation substitutes benefits from its domestic fishing activity with access payments from the DWF nation and that setting fees in this range can create a trap whereby host nations are forced to trade-off receiving a fair return to their fishery resources through access fees and retaining their own active fleet capacity. Our empirical analysis further shows a gradual shift in the way in which Pacific island host nations responded to the harvest decision of DWF nations as a result of the creation of the 200-nautical-mile EEZ.     

Taiwan's response to international fisheries management after 2005 as influenced by ICCAT and fishers' perception

It is widely recognized that fishing states are obliged to exercise flag state responsibility over their vessels. In an attempt to become a responsible fishing actor, Taiwan has endeavored to manage its distant water fishing fleet in accordance with international fisheries management. However, the long-standing problems of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, fish laundering, and fishing overcapacity, which remained unsolved during the 1990s and early 2000s, brought its management capability into doubt. Failure to address these problems undermined the credibility of all management measures and ultimately resulted in a recommendation adopted by International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in 2005. This recommendation significantly affected Taiwan's distant water fishing policy. This paper examines how Taiwan assimilated this outside force into its fishing policy as a new response to international fisheries management and how fishers perceived this response. It shows that Taiwan's efforts in controlling distant water fisheries marked a big change, specifically manifest in three noticeable actions - reducing excessive bigeye-targeted efforts, deterring IUU fishing, and strengthening fisheries management. The study advises that management of small tuna vessels be effectively exercised and recommends future actions on providing subsidies for fishers to partially offset costs incurred by rule compliance, streamlining their administrative work, enhancing communication with them, putting more enforcement and meaningful penalties in place. Finally, the study indicates the existence of an interaction in the international fisheries management scheme, potentially favoring Taiwan to bargain for fishing rights and a favorable status in the participation of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) in the future if it continues to exercise effective control of distant water fisheries.     

Managing excess capacity in small-scale fisheries: Perspectives from stakeholders in three Southeast Asian countries

The management of fishing capacity—in both inland and marine fisheries—is a major policy concern in most countries in Southeast Asia. Excess capacity leads to a number of negative impacts, such as resource use conflicts, overfishing, environmental degradation, economic wastage, and security threats. This paper presents the results of a regional study that examined various approaches to managing excess fishing capacity in small-scale fisheries in Southeast Asia. More specifically, the paper presents an analysis of perceptions of stakeholders in Cambodia, Philippines and Thailand regarding preferred solutions to addressing excess capacity. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy guidance for addressing excess fishing capacity based on the stakeholder-preferred solutions.     

Fisheries privatization,social transitions,and well-being in Kodiak,Alaska

Scholars and fishermen alike view the privatization of fishing rights as a fundamental driver of social change in fishing communities. This article presents the results of a mixed-methods ethnographic study in Kodiak, Alaska, exploring how fisheries privatization processes remake fishery systems. Findings from this study suggest that a diverse range of fishery participants share core values about the social dimensions of fishery systems. Support or opposition to past privatization processes tended to be articulated in reference to how these core values (e.g., hard work, opportunity, and fairness) were perceived to have been strengthened or eroded by such processes. Data from this study suggest that while still widespread in the Kodiak fishing community, core social values in fishing may be changing as a result of privatization processes. Although ethnographic and survey data showed a range of perspectives on the effects of privatization on fishing and the Kodiak community, study participants tended to talk about privatization as a significant change that had divisive, negative impacts in the community. Crew members and the next generation of fishermen were identified as disproportionately affected by privatization processes. Ethnographic data detail important shifts in the power, status, and livelihoods of crew members. Nearly all Kodiak fishery participants interviewed expressed concern about the future of fisheries access in the community for the next generation, in large part because of the substantial financial barriers to entry generated by privatization of fisheries access. Many discussed the need for more entry-level opportunities necessary for access in all fisheries.     

Connections or conflict? A social and economic analysis of the interconnections between the professional fishing industry,recreational fishing and marine tourism in coastal communities in NSW,Australia

Resource conflict is a common feature of coastal management. This conflict is often managed by using spatial planning tools to segregate uses, with access decisions made through a comparison of the economic costs and benefits of the competing sectors. These comparisons rarely include an in-depth analysis of the extent or nature of the conflict. One commonly experienced form of resource conflict in coastal communities involves professional fishing, recreational fishing and broader coastal tourism. In New South Wales, Australia the professional fishing industry is often seen as being in conflict with recreational fishing and tourism, and there are frequent calls to close areas to professional fishing, arguing that this will provide improved economic benefits to local communities. This research examined the relationships between the three sectors using economic valuations, qualitative interviews and a large-scale representative questionnaire of the general public. The results revealed highly interconnected and mutually supportive relationships, with professional fishing providing a range of services that benefit both tourism and recreational fishing. These results suggest that spatial management exercises that seek to segregate or remove one sector from an area, may be counterproductive to the interests of all these groups. Relying on economic valuations of each sector as if they stand alone is insufficient to adequately understand their roles in local communities. Resource allocation decisions should be based on evaluations that consider the interconnections between sectors, and consider whether negotiated sharing of resources may provide greater community benefits than excluding certain groups of users.     

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.     

Factors influencing participation of ‘top-down but voluntary’ fishery management—Empirical evidence from Taiwan

Taiwan has recently implemented a system of voluntary suspension of fishing activities as a means to reduce fishing efforts in offshore fisheries. This system is a top-down management approach but fishers voluntarily participate. Given the economic incentive offered, this system has not convinced a great number of fishers to participate. An understanding of what constitutes the underlying causes leading to fishers’ participation and non-participation provides fisheries managers with the opportunity to refine policy design and delivery. This paper aims to identify factors that may have potential to either promote or hinder fishers’ participation, and investigate the association between factors and fishers’ intention to participate using a logit regression model. The factors were classified into three categories: motive, constraint and fishers’ attitude toward resource use and management. A structured questionnaire including factors to collect empirical data from fishers was applied. The incentives in the form of reward did not seem sufficiently strong to draw fishers’ participation. However, fisher's positive view toward resource use and management enhanced intention to participate. This knowledge points out the importance of internalized resource stewardship among fishers in fishery management and can assist in developing fisheries management strategies aimed at enhancing fishers’ voluntary participation.