Fishing institutions: Addressing regulative,normative and cultural-cognitive elements to enhance fisheries management

Institutional approaches in natural resource management in general and in fisheries in particular seldom address cultural aspects or social institutions like kinship. In this study, a broad institutional approach is used to investigate the institutionalization of small-scale fisheries and seaweed farming in a seagrass dominated bay in Zanzibar. Regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions and their rapid/slow moving properties are analyzed. The results show that dynamics of cooperation and conflict between different institutional elements and the balance of forces among actors are crucial to understand fisheries management dynamics. Regulations are, despite their importance, insufficient to promote sound management if they are not backed up by norms and cultural-cognitive institutions. Fisheries management would benefit by broadening the institutional perspective to increase the efficiency of management and to avoid blueprint solutions. The study shows that gaining knowledge about the wide institutional setting takes time but the investment is worth it in the long run.     

Insights from the users to improve fisheries performance: Fishers’ knowledge and attitudes on fisheries policies in Bahía de Kino,Gulf of California,Mexico

This study investigated the interpretation and level of support of government regulations in Bahía de Kino, Sonora, one of the most important fishing communities in terms of diving extraction of benthic resources in the Northern Gulf of California. Research was conducted from April to August 2007, focusing on the small-scale fisheries sector of commercial divers. Information on fishers’ awareness of current policies, fishers’ attitudes concerning different aspects of fisheries regulation, and fishers' suggestions on how their fisheries should be managed, was gathered through structured interviews (including open and closed-ended questions), informal talks and participant observation. Results provide further evidence supporting the need for formally recognizing the fishers as key stakeholders in local fisheries, and for working cooperatively towards the design of management strategies and regulations that provide better stimulus for resource stewardship and discourage overfishing. Very importantly, this study suggests that there is strong support from resource users for implementing regulatory measures for local fisheries. Results could be used as a preliminary baseline to initiate the discussion among fishery stakeholders towards the development of species-specific management plans for the area, as required by the recently enacted fisheries act in Mexico, the “Ley General de Pesca y Acuacultura Sustentables”.     

Participation and fisheries management in Costa Rica: From theory to practice

Participatory fisheries management has been increasingly proposed as a useful management approach to address fisheries problems. However, the criteria regarding its applicability and measures of success still seem unclear. This study reviews the main concepts and theory behind two participatory resource-management approaches and compares them to the reality of fisheries management in Costa Rica. The analysis shows that while the implementation of a participatory approach in fisheries management should be encouraged, it is essential to keep in mind the possible limitations these approaches have. Furthermore, it seems important to improve institutional coordination and develop social, legal and economic policies that will allow the state, together with coastal communities, to contribute in an effective way to fisheries management.     

Applicability of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) in Japanese fisheries: A comparison of rights-based fisheries management in Iceland, Japan, and United States

ITQs have not yet been introduced by the Government of Japan. In coastal areas, fishery cooperative associations have traditionally played an important role in managing fisheries through self-imposed rules and peer-monitoring systems. Recently, however, the economic competitiveness of Japanese fisheries in the international market is being questioned. In this paper, a detailed examination of the pros and cons of the current system in Japan is compared to the current fishery management measures of Iceland and the United States, where attaining economically or biologically efficient outcomes may be prioritized in making fisheries management decisions. For many coastal fisheries in Japan, maintaining a management scheme in which stakeholders play an active role in determining fisheries measures seems more relevant if their priority is to maintain the stability of coastal communities and equity of stakeholders. Intensive dialog among stakeholders would be necessary to identify shared objectives of their fishery operations and to make decisions to establish specific steps toward the goal of increasing economic efficiency, environmental sustainability, or stability of communities and equity of stakeholders.     

Formalizing expert knowledge to compare alternative management plans: Sociological perspective to the future management of Baltic salmon stocks

Designing and implementing long-term management plans is difficult both because of the complexity of the fisheries system, and the behaviour of humans. We compared four alternative management plans for the Baltic salmon stocks through approaching experts who interpreted and expressed the views of different stakeholder groups on the options. The focus of the study was on stakeholders’ commitment to the alternative management plans. Committing enhances the probability of achieving the ultimate objective of a plan, while if stakeholders do not commit, the effects of the plan may be less predictable. Thus commitment is an important part of implementation uncertainty in fisheries management. We present how we coupled qualitative analysis with probabilistic Bayesian networks in analysing expert knowledge related to alternative long term management plans in terms of group commitment. Using a Bayesian net provides potential for creating a holistic picture of a fishery by combining the data describing fishers’ commitment with biological data regarding fish stock dynamics and with economic data analyzing economically sound fisheries management.     

渔业社区管理在中国的实施探讨

传统的渔业管理强调了政府的直接控制管理,忽视了渔区在其中的作用。渔业社区管理是随着市场经济和政府管理的发展而被作为一种解决传统渔业管理困境的途径提出。为此,首先总结了渔业社区管理的概念,并对目前有关各国的实践进行分类。在此基础上,利用制度经济学的理论分析该管理制度的作用机制及实施条件。然后,分析该管理制度在我国实施的必要性和可行性,渔业社区管理是解决目前我国渔业管理中存在诸多问题的一种合适方案,且当前国家政策和渔区实际也为其提供良好的实施环境。最后,提出从政府管理者和渔民或与渔业相关的利害人两个方面创造实施渔业社区管理的条件。     

Fisher's behaviour with individual vessel quotas—Over-capacity and potential rent: Five case studies

Internationally, individual vessel quotas (IVQ) have become an increasingly popular management tool. The main attraction of IVQs is the incentives they create for cost savings, autonomous capacity adjustment and, subsequently, rent generation. In this paper, the extent to which different IVQ systems have facilitated resource rent generation and capacity adjustment in five European countries—Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the UK—is examined. The potential economic rents and the capacity reduction necessary to achieve these rents in each of the fisheries are also estimated. Reasons why IVQs have not achieved their potential economic benefits in these fisheries are also examined.     

Managing the offshore and coastal fisheries in Taiwan to achieve sustainable development using policy indicators

This study establishes an offshore and coastal fisheries policy indicator system to evaluate the performance of policies to achieve sustainable development in offshore and coastal fisheries. A modified Delphi method is used to establish this system, and the weights of indicators are calculated using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to aggregate indicators. Results show that ecological policies have not achieved their goals because production and catch per unit effort are decreasing. Indicators with respect to management efficiency have increased after the implementation of the buyback and off-fishing programs. However, net returns indicator, which is affected by increasing cost and production value, is stable. Due to inefficient management resulting from insufficient resources, indicators for the number of illegal fishing cases per year and the number of smuggled aquatic production incidents have increased. This shows that requirement for enhanced compliance is necessary. The objective for cultivating talents in fisheries has not been achieved because average wage for fishers is lower than the average civil wage, resulting in an increase in the hiring of foreign fishers.     

Fact or fiction? Assessing governance and co-management of Marine Reserves of Fishing Interest in Cedeira and Lira (NW Spain)

A large number of the marine protected areas (MPAs) designated in Spain have been proposed by public authorities or conservation NGOs in conjunction with their own administrations and other social and economic stakeholders. The only examples to date of MPAs proposed by fishing interests – the fishermen and their organizations – are located at Cedeira and Lira, two small communities in North West Spain. These fishing interests have been involved in these two proposals from the start, including design and development, as well as internal awareness-raising. However, 5 years from the outset, both marine reserves have failed to meet the conditions and essential requirements of a successful fisheries management system. This paper evaluates how the artisanal fishing sector has been identified with the idea of sustainability; and how the role and power relations of the Galician regional administration acquired both the key institutions of co-management and their associated functions which have conditioned the consolidation process of these marine reserves.     

Limitations of the Korean conventional fisheries management regime and expanding Korean TAC system toward output control systems

In this paper, we focus on the status and trends of the current Korean fisheries management regime. Specifically, this paper briefly introduces the Korean conventional fisheries management regime (KCFMR) and discusses its problems and limitations. In describing policy evolution, this paper finds reasons why the Korean government has chosen a TAC system, an output control approach, besides input control approaches in force for almost a century. This paper also describes the evolution of the Korean TAC system, which is carrying out a pivotal role in Korean fisheries development, and analyzes problems of the Korean TAC system. Finally, this paper gives a perspective on expanding the Korean TAC system toward Output Control Systems (OCSs) such as Individual Quotas (IQs), Individual Vessel Quotas (IVQs), Individual Transferable Traps (ITTs), Community Quotas (CQs), and Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs).     

Characterization of fisheries dependence in Galicia (Spain)

The management of marine ecosystems requires adequate knowledge of both environmental and human dimensions, as well as their interrelationships. In this study, the aquaculture and fisheries activities are analyzed in one of most important fishing regions in Europe, Galicia (NW Spain). In particular, the intensity and characteristics of the fishing dependency are evaluated in terms of income and employment. Thus, nine marine economic activities for nine Maritime Zones have been defined, considering the social and economic relevance of the provided ecosystem services to these communities. This paper highlights the entire Galician coast as fishing-dependent, independently of the urbanization level. Furthermore, the contribution of different fishery segments to the income and employment of these coastal communities is reviewed, including fluctuations on whether the activity is small or large-scale. Finally, this study establishes a strong relationship among the marine activities, which generate most employment, and the regulatory framework of the Regional Government. Therefore, the conclusions are relevant to design and implement policies that affect Galicia׳s Region and all its related marine ecosystems.     

Standards for the effective management of fisheries bycatch

Mitigating the environmental impact of commercial fishing, by avoiding, minimizing and compensating for adverse effects, is core business for fisheries management authorities globally. The complex interplay of ecological, economic, and social considerations has often resulted in bycatch management being reactive, confrontational and costly. In many cases it has been difficult to demonstrate success and to establish whether bycatch management has been efficient or effective. This article proposes standards for bycatch management following reviews of literature, international agreements and Australian domestic fishery management policies, and consideration by many technical experts and several stakeholder representatives. The standards have been developed using Australian Commonwealth fisheries – and the international fisheries agreements to which Australia is party – as a baseline, but should be applicable to both domestic and regional/international governance systems. The proposed standards involve quantifying fisheries bycatch, agreeing on operational objectives, assessing the effects of fishing on bycatch populations, establishing the cost-effectiveness of mitigation measures, and evaluating performance. The standards encourage domestic management measures that are consistent with the guidance and requirements of international agreements and regional fisheries management organisations. The importance of engaging stakeholders throughout the process is recognised. The standards provide a framework for measuring performance and a checklist of actions for managing bycatch at a fishery level. They have the potential to facilitate the development of more strategic and effective approaches to bycatch management, with defined goals, monitoring systems, and adaptive decision-making. This review of past bycatch management, including the application of the proposed standards to the mitigation of shark bycatch in an Australian longline fishery, demonstrates that the proposed standards are operationally feasible but that they have not always been applied. Specifically, monitoring the performance of bycatch management measures has not always followed their implementation.     

Accounting for heterogeneity in small-scale fisheries management: The Amazon case

Tropical small-scale fisheries are highly heterogeneous with respect to a wide range of fisheries characteristics, but that heterogeneity has generally not been adequately studied or considered in management. This study investigated fisheries heterogeneity and the extent to which it is accounted for in management regulations in eight small-scale fishing communities located in floodplain ecosystems of the Amazon basin. Analyses of 29,844 fishery landing interview data revealed that fisheries heterogeneity with respect to gear, habitat, species composition, and total catch and fishing effort was high across all communities, but low over the years in the same communities, indicating that each community must be considered as a distinct management unit. Data analyses also revealed that many important community fisheries characteristics were not accounted for by government- and community-based management regulations. Total catch and fishing effort were largely unregulated; there were no size or closed season limits for one-third of the most important fishery species; and the nursery habitats used by most fishery species were not protected in any fashion. Clearly, increased attention to cross-community fisheries heterogeneity can improve the design and implementation of management regulations. The management problems created by the heterogeneity of small-scale fisheries are discussed, and the potential of the “barefoot ecologist” concept to address them is considered.     

Moral discourse in fisheries co-management: A case study of the Senja fishery,northern Norway

Communication is essential to co-management. This paper examines how the outcome of management processes in a fisheries co-management system in northern Norway depends on communicative interaction between the fishermen. Legitimacy is held as an essential condition for well functioning user-based regulation in the fishery, and is often seen as a result when user-groups are involved in the management process. This paper argues that involving user-groups is not enough for legitimating regulations. Legitimacy also depends on the nature of communication in the decision-making process. In the terminology of Habermas, management institutions having a communicative design that encourages moral discourse would have a higher degree of legitimacy than institutions having an instrumental design. Not only because the decision-making process is emphasized, but also because it has potential to give room for other communities of interests beyond the use of fishing gears. The paper also discusses how fishermen may act communicatively in ways that include normative and moral issues of fisheries management.     

Is Europe ready for a results-based approach to fisheries management? The voice of stakeholders

The reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), adopted by the European Union in 2013, aims to achieve sustainable exploitation of marine resources. Beyond the mainstream of stakeholders׳ engagement, the literature increasingly calls for shared accountability in fisheries management. In such scenarios, identifying stakeholders׳ insights becomes critical for a successful design of innovative management approaches. This paper analyses how the stakeholders perceive a results-based management system for four fisheries in different European sea-basins as well as at a pan-European level. The results indicate a need for adaptive and participatory management approaches, building on regional adaptations within transparent and plural frameworks for fisheries. To succeed, the system should explicitly address its associated public and private costs; neither participation nor accountability comes for free.     

Does the relationship between fishermen and enforcers impact regulatory compliance?

The focus of US fisheries regulations has changed from expanding fishing effort to protecting resources for current and future use. Regulations, enforcement, and compliance have changed and grown over the last forty years. Members of both the enforcement and commercial trawl fishing communities speculate and complain about regulatory compliance, often from opposite perspectives. A small research project in Oregon studied the relationship between these communities and regulation compliance. Although a difference was noted in the relationships between the varied levels of enforcement and trawl fishermen, this did not constitute a shift in compliance; compliance remained high with participants from both communities reporting that the fishermen have “little choice but to follow the rules.” What varied was communication within and between these communities, and the amount of control participants’ felt they had in regulation development. A small glimpse into the relationships within and between these communities offers insights into the factors that may impact fisheries, regulation development and enforcement, and communication within and between these interdependent, occupational communities.     

Review of indicators in fisheries management – a development perspective

A review of indicators for an ecosystem approach to fisheries management is presented, focusing on multispecies fisheries and limited resources for assessments and implementation, as often is the case in developing countries. Emphasizing the need to link indicators to management objectives, indicators from the literature are grouped into four categories, relating to the immediate fisheries resource base (single-species and multispecies indicators) and the wider ecosystem (habitat structure and ecosystem functioning). The usefulness of these indicators is assessed along three dimensions of acceptability among stakeholders, observability, and relation to fisheries management using a traffic light approach. The top ranking indicators are highlighted as a generally good start for any particular fishery management case. It is, however, argued that, even with similar management objectives, indicators need to be specific to both ecosystems and the institutional set-up if they are to be effective for management, and that indicators may consequently differ considerably between individual management applications.     

Common property institutions in the Alaskan groundfish fisheries

This paper describes the process by which the groundfish resources off Alaska are being transformed from essentially open access to more manageable common property resources. Selected common property institutions that were created or developed in these fisheries are described in terms of the problems they were designed to solve, their success or lack of success in doing so, and the factors that influenced both emergence and success of these institutions. The institutions discussed include the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the Community Development Quota system, the Pollock Conservation Cooperative, and the cooperative bycatch control system known as Sea State used by the factory trawler fleets. Conclusions applicable to other fisheries and other common property resources are then drawn from the analysis of these common property institutions in the Alaskan groundfish fisheries.     

Recent developments in Korean fisheries management

Korean fisheries face stock depletion and enforcement problems even after various fisheries management tools have been used for 50 years to manage the fisheries. Because of these problems, self-control management has been introduced into Korean fisheries led by the central government since 2001.This paper analyzes the characteristics of 79 model communities (2002) which have introduced Self-control Management Project (SMP) as their fisheries management system. Based on the characteristics of 79 model communities, we categorize Korean SMPs into 3 types: fishing village community model (I), fishing gear community (aquaculture (II-1) and coastal and offshore fishery (II-2)) and large-scale community (III). This paper also provides alternative policies to alleviate problems in different types of communities and to expand and more firmly establish the SMP in Korean fisheries.