Results based management in fisheries: Delegating responsibility to resource users

While the notion of results based management has been devoted recent attention in the context of reforming European fisheries management, it remains unclear what it entails. A conceptual model of results based management in fisheries is proposed as a way for public authorities to delegate specific management and documentation responsibilities to resource users. The model comprises three defining features: (1) That authorities define measurable objectives for the utilization of fisheries resources; (2) that resource users are made responsible for achieving these objectives and for (3) providing documentation that allows for an audit of the extent to which they are met. Selected cases are used to illustrate these features. Rationales and prospects of introducing results based management as an alternative in a European fisheries management context are discussed, giving consideration to how it may be pursued under the reformed common fisheries policy.     

Natura 2000 and the European Common Fisheries Policy

The implementation of the Natura 2000 network of marine protected areas under the European Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) has far-reaching implications for fisheries. To date, no consistent approaches have been established to develop fisheries management measures in Natura 2000 areas, and no European member state has proposed any fisheries measures to the European Commission for consideration under the Common Fisheries Policy. Four key issues are identified in the relationship between fisheries and Natura 2000, and the possible role that the future Common Fisheries Policy could have in this context is discussed. There is a need (1) for a consistent framework to integrate scientific advice, stakeholder participation and management in the management process; (2) for a common methodology to prioritize conservation objectives, in particular for transboundary protected areas; (3) for a consistent framework to assess and evaluate fisheries impacts to define management measures; and (4) to define spatial properties for fisheries. The results from the projects EMPAS (Germany), FIMPAS (the Netherlands), and INDEMARES (Spain) and the Dogger Bank case are discussed.     

Diversifying fisheries into tourism in Taiwan: Experiences and prospects

Tourism is accepted as natural part of the socioeconomic fabric and is juxtaposed with fisheries in some coastal areas in Taiwan. This is the result of governmental policy on diversifying fisheries into tourism. This paper examines how this policy plays out in the context of a declining offshore fisheries industry and a rising demand for marine leisure opportunities. The paper utilizes documentary analysis and personal interviews with relevant stakeholders. It shows diversifying fisheries into tourism is the right direction for progress on the government agenda. However, conflicts between resource users, lack of community capacity, fisher’s business skills, and human resources in local governments, and low market penetration combined together to militate against the success of the policy. It argues for the need to establish negotiation mechanisms, build community capacity, encourage education and training programs, and introduce new coastal economic activities for future improvement. The paper finally suggests a holistic approach with integrated coastal management practices for the fisheries diversification development.     

Assessing the social wellbeing of Northern Ireland's fishing society using a three-dimensional approach

The concept of ‘wellbeing’ has received growing interest in policy domains in the UK, and internationally, as a multi-dimensional approach to understanding and measuring social progress and development. Policy makers and scientists alike are debating the potential of wellbeing to deliver a people-centred, and holistic, analysis of what matters to people in terms of the quality of life people pursue and are able to achieve. There is also growing interest in how the concept of wellbeing might be applied to fisheries, especially in terms of deepening assessment of the ways in which decline in the fisheries sector is affecting fishing-dependent families, and the wider community. This paper applies a three-dimensional wellbeing framework and methodology to gain insight into the wellbeing of fishing society in Northern Ireland, a region that has faced substantial decline in its fisheries over the past 100 years. A three-dimensional approach considers material, relational and cognitive dimensions; putting resources, relationships and subjective reflections on life satisfaction together as a whole assessment. All three dimensions are important for a full assessment of wellbeing. Following an overview of the methodology used and data collected, the paper then assesses the extent to which a three-dimensional well-being approach can provide useful insights for sustainable fisheries policy in Northern Ireland.     

“Us” and “them”. Fishermen from Gandía and the loss of institutional legitimacy

This paper analyses, using a qualitative methodology, some of the possible causes of the recognised failure of fisheries policy concerning traditional fisheries. Through a case study in a Spanish Mediterranean port (Gandia), it concludes that the basic problem is the lack of legitimacy of political institutions for fishermen. Any attempt to implement an effective fisheries management must recover this legitimacy, by harnessing existing social capital of these communities through the adoption of new models of fisheries co-management and the revaluation of local knowledge.     

Law and fisheries reform: Legislative and policy developments in South African fisheries over the decade 1994–2004

Following the enactment of the Constitution in 1996, the South African government undertook a process of legal reform in the fishing sector. This led to the publication of a new fisheries policy endorsing equity and sustainability, as reflected in the Marine Living Resources Act. This paper examines efforts to implement the policy, particularly the objective of “transformation”, against the background of law reform in fisheries over the last decade. The discussion is located within the context of related domestic legal developments and current trends in international fisheries law. Methods for enhancing effective implementation of the new fisheries policy are highlighted.     

An overview of Fiji's fisheries development

Development and societal changes in the twentieth century have transformed the nature of fishing in Fiji. This paper attempts to consolidate a large amount of decentralized work on the development of Fijian fisheries to address the long-term sustainability and economic viability of Fiji's marine resources. Taking a broad perspective, this paper provides an overview that connects the historic context of Fiji's fisheries development with economic policy to address overfishing. The analysis highlights the need for an overarching management approach that encompasses the integration of Fiji's offshore and inshore fisheries to ensure the achievement of long-term economic benefits.     

An overview of socio-economic and ecological perspectives of Fiji's inshore reef fisheries

This paper reviews the socio-economic and ecological context of Fijian reef fisheries. This review is deemed necessary because improved understanding of the state and trends of Fiji's coral reef fisheries on a national level is required for designing an effective management plan for Fiji's inshore reef fisheries. The most important point that emerges from our review is that despite numerous studies of Fiji's reef fisheries, the current status of reef-associated fisheries at the national level is still uncertain due, mainly, to the lack of dependable data on the subsistence fisheries. This in turn leads to uncertainty about how the continuation of fishing, in particular, fishing focused on target species for the coral reef resources trade, will affect fishing communities and the ecosystem.     

New perspectives in small-scale fisheries management: challenges and prospects for implementation in South Africa

Worldwide, the past 15–20 years has seen a significant shift in thinking and approaches to the management of small-scale fisheries. This is in response to the recognition that conventional fisheries management is not equipped to deal with the complexities, uncertainties and challenges prevalent in small-scale fishery systems. Consequently, a new fisheries paradigm is emerging based on the principles and ideas underpinning systems thinking, complexity theory, participatory democracy and adaptive management. Although fishery science is required to inform management decisions, it must be seen as one of the inputs needed for effective governance. Incorporation of other disciplinary perspectives, knowledge sources and local information is considered necessary for understanding the fishery system and identifying appropriate management responses. Although South Africa has incorporated many of these ideas and principles into broad policies and legislation governing resource management, implementation of this new paradigm in the context of small-scale fisheries is proving difficult. However, recent developments such as the recognition of the socio-economic rights of this group of fishers, the formulation of a new draft small-scale fisheries policy, efforts to identify and address human dimensions in fisheries through research and stakeholder workshops, as well as opportunities for greater participation in policy formulation and management, are all indicative of a shift in institutional culture and approach to this sector. This paper aims to provide an overview of the main ideas underpinning the new small-scale fisheries paradigm and explores the application of these ideas in the context of small-scale fisheries in South Africa. Challenges and prospects for implementing this new management paradigm are discussed, as well as some practical ideas for progressing this new approach.     

A history of breaking laws—Social dynamics of non-compliance in Vietnamese marine fisheries

Whether or not fishers comply with regulation depends on the economic and social context in which they operate their vessels. This is how conventional theory explains the phenomenon of non-compliance. It treats state–community interaction processes not as direct causes for non-compliance but rather as background conditions shaping individual fishers’ perception and decisions for action. This paper argues that conventional theory fails to include the dynamics of tempo-relational processes between state and communities, which explains collective patterns of non-compliance in fisheries. The paper addresses this hiatus in the literature, using a process-sociological approach to analyse non-compliance in Vietnamese marine fisheries. The analysis highlights that Vietnamese marine fisheries are mainly regulated through informal networks of trust and mistrust, which function through their interplay with the highly centralised and formalised Vietnamese state. Based on this assessment, the paper concludes that outcomes of processes of the dynamic social interplay between state and communities are semi-dependent on individual perception and action, and as such have a causal effect of their own on patterns of non-compliance in fisheries.     

Oil spill fishery impact assessment modeling: The fisheries recruitment problem

A model to assess the impact of oil spill on fisheries, consisting of an oil spill fates model, a continental shelf hydrodynamics model, an ichthyoplankton transport and fates model, and a fish population model, has been applied to the Georges Bank-Gulf of Maine region to estimate the impact of oil spills on several important commercial fisheries. The model addresses direct impacts of oil on a fishery through hydrocarbon-induced egg and larval mortality. This early life stage mortality is estimated by dynamically mapping the spatial intersection of the surface and subsurface oil concentrations resulting from the spill with the developing eggs and larvae. Ichthyoplankton entering an area with hydrocarbon concentrations in excess of a specified threshold are assumed lost. Model output is given in terms of differential catch, comparing the non-impacted and the hydrocarbon impacted fisheries. Difficulties in establishing stock-recruit relationships, and the inability to predict first year survival even one year ahead make the quantification of absolute catch losses impossible. Output of the model system discussed here is therefore limited to relative rather than absolute catch losses.The paper is organized to demonstrate first the importance of the recruitment question to impact estimation, second that a modeling methodology is necessary to evaluate impacts given the magnitude of unexplained observed recruitment variability, and third a stochastic solution to the problem which places impact estimates in the context of a probability distribution. Lastly, the model system is applied to the problem of attaining better early life history mortality estimates, to ultimately improve impact estimation capabilities.     

Assessment of eco-labelling schemes for Pacific tuna fisheries

Developments in fisheries governance in recent decades—notably the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and its implementing agreements—have established a framework of principles, standards, institutions and regulations that is broader and more complex than traditional fisheries management, which has generally focused on individual target species. As this framework has evolved, a number of seafood eco-labelling schemes have also developed. These schemes aim to identify well-managed fisheries and give competitive advantage to their products, thus translating the environmental awareness of consumers into direct support for sustainable fishing practices. This paper evaluates a number of these schemes in the context of international fisheries governance principles and considers the conservation benefits that may result from sustainability certification of Pacific tuna fisheries. The paper briefly summarises developments in eco-labeling of Pacific tuna fisheries in relation to the evolution of fisheries management, where focus has shifted from the maximum sustainable yield of individual tuna species to ecosystem-based approaches that directly consider the broader environmental impacts of fishing. The paper discusses two different ‘Dolphin Safe’ eco-labels, the third-party scheme of the Earth Island Institute and the intergovernmental scheme of the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program, and two broader eco-labels offering sustainability certification of fisheries, ‘Friend of the Sea’ and the ‘Marine Stewardship Council’. The role played by seafood-industry associations with sustainability claims, such as the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, is also considered.     

CCAMLR process of risk assessment to minimise the effects of longline fishing mortality on seabirds

We describe the process used in the fisheries management system of the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to minimise seabird bycatch, and the risk-assessment methodology developed to assist this. We examine the progress of several Regional Fishery Management Organisations in taking steps to address seabird bycatch. CCAMLR has the most advanced system of management among the RFMOS covered in this review, and has made the most demonstrable progress in reducing seabird bycatch levels in its longline fisheries. A combination of proven mitigation measures, extensive monitoring by independent observers, annual expert review of seabird bycatch rates and evolving fishery and mitigation practices have been instrumental in reducing seabird bycatch in CCAMLR fisheries.     

Determining the degree of 'small-scaleness' using fisheries in British Columbia as an example

Small-scale fisheries have been estimated to contribute up to 30% of the global landed value, which is caught by approximately 22 million fishers, some of which can be attributed to developed countries. Socio-economic analysis of small-scale fisheries often focuses on developing countries and fails to recognize the presence and contribution of small-scale fisheries in the developed world. Fisheries in British Columbia are diverse and often regarded as being industrialized and large-scale when analyzed in a global context. This study aims to demonstrate that features of small-scale fisheries are present within British Columbia's fleets. A list of re-occurring features of small-scale fisheries is curated from the literature to capture physical, economic and social features of small-scale fisheries. These commonly identified features of small-scale fisheries are applied to Aboriginal Food, Social and Ceremonial fisheries and all commercial fisheries in British Columbia are analyzed to determine the presence or absence of each small-scale fishery feature. The results of this research create a gradient of fisheries from smallest to largest scale. This approach determines that Aboriginal Food, Social and Ceremonial fisheries are the most small-scale, while the sablefish fishery is the largest scale. The qualitative nature of this framework creates an opportunity for any group of fisheries in the world to be compared.     

Systems engineering principles in fisheries management

Fisheries management receives valuable, but often fragmented information from academic disciplines such as biology, economics, and social sciences. A multi-disciplinary perspective seems to be necessary if the fisheries are to become sustainable. Globally, overcapacity is considered as the most serious threat to sustainable fisheries, which indicates the need for a stronger integration of technological aspects into fisheries management. This paper discusses application of systems engineering principles and integration of technology into fisheries management. The systems engineering process facilitates implementation of multi-disciplinary information from researchers to fisheries managers in the decision-making towards sustainable fisheries, but may also be used to overcome multi-disciplinary obstacles among scientists. The article concludes that use of systems engineering principles may become a valuable contribution to fisheries management because of increased transparency and reduced risk associated with the decision-making process.     

Comparative analysis of factors influencing spatial distributions of marine protected areas and territorial use rights for fisheries in Japan

As increasingly large extents of the global oceans are being managed through spatial measures, it is important to identify area characteristics underlying network distributions. Studies discerning spatial patterns in marine management have disproportionately focused on global networks. This paper instead considers the single country context of Japan to illuminate within-country drivers of area-based conservation and fishery management. A dataset containing potentially relevant socioeconomic, environmental, and fisheries factors was assembled and used to model prefecture-level counts of marine protected areas (MPAs) and territorial use rights for fisheries (TURFs) throughout Japan's waters. Several factors were found to significantly influence the number of TURFs in a particular area, whereas MPA patterns of use remain largely unexplained. TURFs are frequently noted as more suitable for managing fisheries of low mobility species and our analysis finds greater use of TURFs in areas that rely heavily on benthic catch. The number of trading ports was also found to be positively related to TURF distributions, suggesting economic infrastructure may influence the use of this fisheries management tool. In-line with global analyses, MPA patterns of use were not found to be significantly related to any of the potential explanatory variables after correcting for the number of statistical comparisons that were carried out. Differences in our ability to model the use of TURFs and MPAs may arise due to the narrower objectives associated with the former (e.g., income, employment) in comparison to the often broad and varied goals that motivate use of the latter.     

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.     

Strengthening post-hoc analysis of community-based fisheries management through the social-ecological systems framework

Community-based fisheries management (CBFM) is held up as one of the most promising approaches for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries. Yet, the complex features that shape CBFM outcomes remain inadequately understood. In part, this stems from the fact that few community-based projects meet the data requirements for formal impact evaluations. Given this context, diagnostic approaches are increasingly seen as a frontier for strengthening CBFM analysis and securing small-scale fisheries sustainability. This study explores the capacity of Elinor Ostrom's social-ecological systems (SES) framework to strengthen post-hoc diagnosis of CBFM. It draws on data from published and grey literature (including field notes, meeting minutes, and project reports) generated throughout an eight-year CBFM project in five Solomon Island villages. Results suggest that successful CBFM outcomes were facilitated by effective information sharing, harvesting rules that merge traditional and contemporary practices, strong leadership, and resource monitoring, while uneven power differentials undermined positive outcomes. The paper argues that the SES framework can add analytical rigour to post-hoc analysis when it used to: 1) engage with temporal dynamics that shape CBFM processes; 2) integrate insights from plural theories, and 3) explore interactions between multiple CBFM outcomes. Ultimately, the paper argues that diagnostic applications of the SES framework can contribute towards conducting more systematic analysis of diverse CBFM data, improving CBRM practices, and realizing more sustainable small-scale fisheries     

Contextual factors influencing sustainable fisheries in Mexico

Sustainable fisheries take into consideration that managed fisheries ecosystems shift over time in response to evolving environmental as well as market and political factors. These contextual forces are especially valuable in understanding developing countries such as Mexico, where the unconsolidated fisheries administration faces productive marine ecosystems but unsustainable fisheries. To recognize the issues that have inhibited the consolidation of a regulatory system for sustainable fisheries, a contextual factor analysis was applied to the co-development of two current policies in the Mexican fishery regime: fisheries and environmental policies. Six historical phases have been identified in which there are few long periods of stability and frequent short periods of radical change that alternate between stable and adverse contextual situations. These short and contrasting contextual situations cause a kind of tug-of-war in Mexican fisheries policy-making. On the one hand, domestic economic, scientific, and technological forces seem to slowly lead toward the consolidation of sustainable fisheries; on the other hand, domestic policies drift from one position to another at other timing than the international fisheries and environmental policies. Although recent crises seem to highlight new periods of radical change in Mexico, they also provide an opportunity to adopt new structural plans to consolidate domestic forces as a basis for long-term strategies.