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.     

Fishing rights and small communities: Alaska halibut IFQ transfer patterns

In the Alaska halibut individual fishing quota (IFQ) fishery, small remote fishing communities (SRFCs) have disproportionately lost fishing rights. Our analysis of quota market participation from 1995 to 1999 confirms that SRFC residents are more likely to sell than buy quota. Alaska Native heritage is another important predictor of quota market behavior. Residents of Alaska Native villages have an increased likelihood of selling quota. Loss of fisheries participation in small indigenous communities can be an unintended consequence of quota systems. Mitigation measures should take into account the social factors that can lead to such a redistribution of fishing rights in privatized access fisheries.     

A survey of US halibut IFQ holders: Market participation,attitudes, and impacts

This paper presents the results of a survey of US halibut IFQ holders exploring market participation, opinions about IFQs, and perceived fishery and community effects of IFQs. A four-step mail survey was sent to a stratified random sample of 14% of the total population of quota holders, producing a response rate of 46%, or 506 returned surveys. Survey results suggest that while there is a wide diversity of opinions and perceptions of IFQs, there are some predictable trends in the ways that different groups of fishery participants experience and respond to these programs. Gender, income, age, employment and ethnicity are linked to IFQ market behavior. Income, residency, and ethnicity are linked to attitudes about IFQs. A discriminate function analysis indicates that older individuals, individuals who make less money, and indigenous fishermen are more likely to sell quota and less likely to buy quota. Women and those who are primarily employed in fishing are more likely to be buyers of quota rather than sellers. Fishermen who identify as Alaska Native, residents of small remote fishing communities in the Gulf of Alaska, and low-income fishermen show the least support for IFQ management. Quota holders who have high incomes, do not consider their communities to be dependent on fishing, and residents of Community Development Quota communities express the most support for IFQs. Overall, 84% of survey respondents believe that IFQs are changing the fishing lifestyle; 75% state that IFQs are changing the values in fishing; and 75% perceive of IFQs as private property. A majority of surveyed IFQs holders perceive both positive and negative impacts of IFQs to fisheries and to communities. Perceived positive impacts include: improved safety; improved price; market stability; improved management; consumer benefits; environmental benefits; longer fishing season; and professionalization and stability of the fishing fleet. Perceived negative impacts include: limitations on access and barriers to entry; consolidation and job loss; inequities experienced by small boats, rural fishermen, and crew; creation of a privileged class of fishermen; negative environmental impacts; and less local participation.     

Considering communities in fisheries management

Fisheries management in the United States, the European Union, and other parts of the globe, increasingly reflects a burgeoning realization that fisheries management policies affect not only fishermen, but also the broader communities in which fishermen work and reside. Understanding fishing communities, however, is not a straightforward task. Researchers draw upon many methodologies across diverse disciplines in the attempt to better understand the needs of fishing communities and the ways in which fisheries management programs affect these communities. This special issue draws together international research on fishing communities, highlighting the diverse relationships between people, places and their fish and fisheries. Rather than attempting to consolidate these complex, multifarious relationships into simple metrics, the papers presented in this issue illuminate community needs and wants from a variety of frameworks highlighting the importance of meaningfully understanding local contexts. These papers represent novel frameworks and case studies, adding depth of scholarly knowledge to a relatively understudied segment of fisheries management. Specifically, the goal of this issue is to advance the inclusion of community considerations in fisheries management processes. While approaching the topic of fishing communities from diverse perspectives, the papers in this special issue work together to provide a broad view of the concerns and conflicts existent in these communities. They highlight the need for management endeavors to be flexible, broad, and inclusive, providing potential tools and frameworks to aid in management projects.     

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.     

Coastal management challenges from a community perspective: The problem of ‘stealth privatization’ in a Canadian fishery

Intertidal clam fisheries seem ideal candidates for the devolution of management authority from government to local stakeholders. In St. Mary's Bay, Nova Scotia, a private firm recently applied for a 10-year renewal of a large (1,627 ha) lease for quahog clam aquaculture. This case study examines the challenges of implementing community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) in rural fisheries within a broad integrated coastal management (ICM) institutional environment that favours corporate stakeholders. The challenges facing clam harvesters in rural Digby Neck, Nova Scotia arise from poor communication and coordination within government and between government and communities, as well as higher-level policy conflicts. The most important challenge arises from ‘stealth privatization’ of clam beaches. A single firm was granted rights of first refusal to depurate all clams harvested from closed (polluted) beaches in the region, resulting in the de facto privatization of all (polluted and unpolluted) clam beaches. Experiences in other parts of Canada suggest there may be community-based governance approaches that avoid the pitfalls associated with corporate management of clam beaches. New thinking is required about how to moderate the ‘privatization paradigm’ so prevalent within senior levels of government in order to ensure environmental and social sustainability in rural fishing communities.     

Property relations and the co-management of small-scale fisheries in Costa Rica: Lessons from Marine Areas for Responsible Fishing in the Gulf of Nicoya

Marine fisheries in Costa Rica have become characterized by overexploitation, ineffective centralized management and increased conflict among fishing sectors. Despite high economic and socio-cultural importance of small-scale fisheries, no formal mechanisms existed until recently to facilitate the participation of fishers in management. Marine Areas for Responsible Fishing (Áreas Marinas para la Pesca Responsable, AMPR) were legally recognized in 2009 as a co-management approach, enabling the designation of spatial management areas to be implemented collaboratively by artisanal fishers and government agencies. In this paper, we examine property and access relations shaping this emerging participatory management model using case studies primarily from the Gulf of Nicoya region. The policy demonstrably improves upon some aspects of management, for instance, by allowing artisanal fishers to determine gear restrictions within designated areas. However, the model lacks other attributes of more successful co-management scenarios, particularly exclusive access. The fugitive nature of resources further complicates property relations over these fisheries. The cases explored also illustrate broader institutional and systemic issues that preclude effective participatory management. Lessons from the region are used to propose significant shifts to the management of small-scale fisheries in Costa Rica.     

A right to fish for a living? The case for coastal fishing people's determination of access and participation

Fisheries management systems everywhere tend to be dominated by the proprietary claims of nation states. These claims are embodied in a number of international agreements such as the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, which accords rights to nation-states on the basis of adjacency and historic use. In this paper, we present results from research in Nova Scotia, Canada, to demonstrate that small boat fishing families in that region have been continuously fishing the grounds adjacent to their communities for many generations, but must now fish those areas on the basis of a state-granted ‘privilege’ rather than a secure right. In this paper we argue that the principles of adjacency and historic use should apply to individuals and fishing families and that states should move towards a more community-determined approach to fisheries management. The lobster fishery of Northeastern Nova Scotia provides a particularly compelling example of how this type of change in management policy could be successfully accomplished.     

Exploring concepts of fisheries ‘dependency’ and ‘community’ in Scotland

There is a growing argument that the biological priorities of Europe's Common Fisheries Policy – to halt the depletion of commercial fish stocks – are not a straightforward solution to the problems currently facing international fisheries management and that social objectives need to be incorporated into policy. However, existing notions of fisheries ‘dependency’ and ‘community’ remain poorly understood and leave decision-makers struggling to address social and cultural issues. By investigating further concepts of ‘dependency’, ‘community’ and some of the social issues facing Fisheries Dependent Areas in Scotland, this research explores the complex shape of coastal fishing communities and the conditions of dependency on fishing that coastal areas face. In this paper preliminary findings from an in-depth case study of Fraserburgh in the north east of Scotland are presented to explore the potential meaning and justification of social objectives in fisheries policy.     

A comparison of zoning analyses to inform the planning of a marine protected area network in Raja Ampat,Indonesia

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are often managed using several management zones, each of which allows different human-uses. Decision support tools can be applied to provide advice on potential zoning configurations. However, few studies used decision support tools to systematically determine good locations for different types of zones that accommodate multiple and often conflicting objectives. Previous studies have mostly used scores to integrate multiple objectives and identify different zoning configurations or explored priority areas for each zone separately. Neither of these approaches ensure that solutions meet both biodiversity and human-use objectives. Nor do they deal with the fact that in zoning plans the whole is not the same as the sum of the parts, the importance of a site depends on how the rest of the sites are managed. The aim of this study was to identify different zoning configurations for the Raja Ampat MPA network in Eastern Indonesia that address biodiversity, sustainable fisheries and community resource access objectives. Identifying zoning configurations is particularly difficult here given the importance of protecting high biodiversity reefs and other conservation values, and the high reliance of local communities on their marine resources. Potential areas for no-take zones were identified that have a small and equitable impact across the fishing grounds of different fishing communities whilst ensuring each community has access to a ‘sustainable fishing zone’. Access to fishing grounds for each community is complicated due to marine tenure restricting where individuals can fish and reliance on traditional types of fishing vessels that restrict long distance travel. This approach for zoning was compared to three others. The first focused on identifying areas only for the no-take zone, a traditional systematic planning approach, and the second on both zones without explicitly accounting for the issue of resource access for each community. The solutions unfairly impacted particular communities. Finally, it is demonstrated how a pre-existing zoning proposal, driven by negotiation can be integrated into systematic planning.     

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.     

Who benefits from fisheries co-management? A case study in Lake Chiuta,Malawi

The fisheries management policy shift towards resource user participation in Malawi in the early 1990s resulted in mixed benefits among small-scale fishers, with many applauding the changes. This paper considers the impacts of these policy changes on government and within the fishing communities around Lake Chiuta whose fisheries co-management experience is considered successful. Benefits to the communities range from gaining government support in excluding non-local fishers using destructive fishing gear to increased household incomes and improved livelihoods, while benefits to government range from taking credit for establishing a sustainable fishery and co-management arrangements to reduced resource management costs. Community costs include financial resources and time spent by resource user representative organisations in enforcing fishing regulations. These findings enable a more balanced assessment of neoliberal claims about the benefits of delegating management responsibilities and downloading costs of management onto fishing communities and organisations.     

Alaskan fishing community revenues and the stabilizing role of fishing portfolios

Fishing communities are subject to economic risk as the commercial fisheries they rely on are intrinsically volatile. The degree to which a community is exposed to economic risk depends on a community׳s ability to confront and/or alter its exposure to volatile fishery conditions through risk-reduction mechanisms. In this article, economic risk – as measured by community-level fishing gross revenues variability – is characterized across Alaskan fishing communities over the past two decades, and exploratory analyses are conducted to identify associations between community attributes and revenues variability. Results show that communities’ fishing portfolio size and diversification are strongly related to fishing revenues variability. Communities with larger and/or more diverse fishing portfolios experience lower fishing revenues variability. Portfolio size and diversification appear to be related to the number of local fisheries, indicating that communities’ portfolios may be constrained to the set of local fisheries. Hotspots of relatively higher fishing revenues variability for communities in north and west Alaska were identified, mirroring the spatial distribution of fishery-specific ex-vessel revenues variability. This overall pattern suggests that a community׳s fishing portfolio – and hence its exposure to risk – may be “predetermined” by its location, thereby limiting the policy options available to promote economic stability through larger and/or more diverse fishing portfolios. For such communities, diversifying income across non-fishing sectors may be an important risk reduction strategy, provided any potential negative cross-sector externalities are addressed.     

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.     

Power and perspective: Fisheries and the ocean commons beset by demands of development

Marine renewable energy (MRE), though a relative newcomer to the ocean and coastal commons, has become a significant driver of marine spatial planning in the US, posing particular challenges to commercial fisheries and fishing communities. State and federal agencies with primary oversight for MRE development have focused on the identification of places where MRE might proceed unhindered by other uses, most notably coastal fisheries. These agencies and MRE developers have focused on potential space-use conflict and standard mitigation measures for loss of access to that space. However, discussions with fishery participants and other community members, as well as observations of processes on the US West and East Coasts, reveal a complex, multi-faceted social–ecological system not easily parsed out among users, nor amenable to classic mitigation formulas. Recent ethnographic research on potential space-use conflicts and mitigation for MRE demonstrates that marine space use is dynamic and multi-dimensional, with important linkages among fisheries, communities and other interests. Although experiences vary within and across regions and fishing communities, this research illustrates the weak position of fishing communities in marine spatial planning in the context of MRE development. This paper considers the implications of MRE for US East and West Coast fisheries and fishing communities situated within the larger context of neoliberalism and commodification of the ocean commons.     

River fisheries management in Bangladesh: Drawing lessons from Community Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) experiences

River fisheries in Bangladesh is characterized as “open-access” and the history of administrative and legislative measures bear “contradiction and dilemmas” in resource extraction. The 1950 Fisheries act, the proclamation of 1973 that restricted lease to the registered fisher cooperatives and the experimental New Fisheries Management Policy (NFMP) of 1986 could not contribute to devolve into any participatory institution to introduce sustainable fisheries management. Because of the persistent dilemma in government policy, continued increase in fishing pressure and other anthropogenic reasons, the River resources degraded substantially. Over the past ten years, the Department of Fisheries (DOF) in collaboration with NGOs implemented community based fisheries management (CBFM) approaches with the technical assistance from the WorldFish Center. The principal goal of the approaches was to provide access rights to the fishers through organizing poor fishers and the community to introduce sustainable fisheries management in beels, floodplains and River sections. The CBFM experiences suggest that management and institution building process in river management is complex, and require participation of all concerned stakeholders including local government institutions and administration. CBFM-2 river fisheries management developed a broad-based institutional framework that include community and local government along with the direct beneficiaries and resource users. A positive feature of such institutions is its ability to facilitate flow of information among agents, which is a key to maintain solidarity within and across groups. This paper draws lessons from the CBFM experiences in Bangladesh to manage river fisheries resources in Bangladesh.     

Review of participatory fisheries management arrangements in the European Union

Promoting and attaining sustainable use of resources through community participation is a central tenet of the European Union's (EU) 2013 Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. A systematic review approach was used to identify participatory fisheries management arrangements within the EU. Following this, the participatory arrangements were categorized based on the nature of the decision-making arrangement, influence and empowerment of the fishing industry. The study identified 40 management arrangements distributed through 8 member states, with a variety of fisheries and institutional settings for participation in fisheries management in the EU. The majority of the partnerships identified are “Functional participation”, i.e., the participatory arrangement is based in pre-determined goals encouraged by higher decision-making levels in order to increase efficiency of management decisions. Interactive partnership was the highest level of participation identified in the systematic review, and is usually more conducive with local arrangements in coastal and small-scale fisheries targeting low mobility species.     

Disentangling seafood value chains: Tourism and the local market driving small-scale fisheries

Identifying socio-economic drivers of small-scale fisheries is a fundamental step to understand impacts and pressures on fishery resources, and the behaviour of seafood trade actors. It is especially relevant for developing countries where such information is usually lacking and fisheries management is greatly needed. To address this gap, this study maps the structure of value chains of fish and marine invertebrates caught by small-scale fisheries from São Vicente, Cape Verde (West Africa), and examines the main socio-economic drivers behind the seafood trade on the island. Specifically, it shows how drivers, such as tourism and the local market, shape the preferences for certain species and how they affect the distribution of income among actors involved in the seafood trade. To collect this information, interviews were done with fishers, small-scale traders, market vendors, and restaurant owners, in all fishing communities of the island of São Vicente, in 2015. Tourism and the local market drive the exploitation of a wide variety of marine species, from small demersal low trophic level fish and marine invertebrates, to large pelagic high trophic level fish species. Moreover, the local seafood market, and especially tourism dynamics, contribute to the unequal distribution of income among actor groups, benefiting mostly restaurant owners due to their direct access to tourist consumers. Such findings have implications for local fishery resources management, food security, and fishing communities’ livelihoods.     

Local permit ownership in Alaska salmon fisheries

Changes in ownership of limited entry permits by “local” residents of the region where a fishery occurs may have significant economic and social implications for fishery-dependent regions. This paper examines changes in local permit ownership in Alaska salmon fisheries, for which a long-term decline in rural local permit ownership is an important policy concern. Theoretically, permit markets allocate permits over time to the individuals who are willing to pay the most for them. Any factors that differentially affect what local and non-local residents are willing to pay for permits may affect the equilibrium share of permits held by local residents. For remote rural fisheries in particular, these may include differences between local and non-local residents with respect to access to and costs of financing permits and boats, costs of travel to the fishery, opportunity costs of participation in the fishery, and many other factors. As a fishery increases in profitability, differences between local and non-local residents in access to financing matter more while differences in costs of travel and opportunity costs matter less in the relative ranking of what local and non-local residents are willing to pay for permits. This tends to increase the share of non-local residents among buyers willing to pay the market price for permits, reducing the equilibrium share of permits held by local residents. This leads to a conflict between two important policy goals: increasing fishery profitability and maintaining rural local permit ownership. Consistent with predictions of this theory, the local share of permit ownership in Alaska salmon fisheries is negatively related to permit prices (an indicator of fishery profitability).     

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.