The incentives of a resource owner: Evidence from a private oyster fishery

European flat oyster Ostrea edulis fisheries were once abundant around the UK coastline. The sole remaining productive O. edulis fishery in Scotland is in Loch Ryan. This fishery has been privately owned and managed by a single family since 1701. Economic theory predicts that ownership, whether public or private, is a necessary condition for rational fishery management. In this paper, a series of four leases and a licence are examined, covering an 85-year period over the 20th and 21st century, to examine whether the management of the Loch Ryan fishery conforms to the expected norms of rational management. The leases show that, over this period, the owners appear more willing to expend resources on regulating tenant behaviour, supporting the conclusion that successive generations of owners developed an evolving sense of what “rational management” might require. The results of this study could inform the management of other fisheries – both public and private – by emphasising the importance of learning from experience.     

Use of local knowledge in marine protected area management

For decades, fishermen in most parts of the world have been experiencing a reduction in fish abundances. Overexploitation and increasing demands are the glaring visible causes, but weakness or absence of fishery management is the core problem. Faced with repeated failure of fishery management and the resulting overexploitation in fish stocks, new management plans are needed in order to preserve both fishermen's jobs and food security. A growing number of published sources have proposed marine protected areas (MPA) as a fishery management tool. The decision of MPA design requires close collaboration with local fishermen communities for it to be accepted and respected. This paper focus on the case of a Uruguayan lagoon, the Rocha lagoon, which is exploited by two fishermen communities. The lagoon is located inside a national park. Park authorities are in the process of designing a management plan that defines a MPA inside the lagoon. The plan also sets out the rules to be upheld for the artificial opening of the sandbar that separates the lagoon from the ocean. It is shown that it is relevant to study the local ecological knowledge (LEK) in order (1) to understand the fishery related ecological issues within the lagoon and (2) to highlight an existing conflict between two fishermen communities. Studying the LEK allowed a clear representation of the factors that must be taken into account when defining the management plan. Furthermore, the LEK study in itself creates an appropriate place for inter-community debate and it enhances the acceptance of the future management plan.     

Resolving environmental issues in the southern Brazilian artisanal penaeid-trawl fishery through adaptive co-management

Many conventional management strategies have been demonstrated to be ineffective in achieving sustainable fisheries, and new approaches are required to overcome existing environmental, social and economic problems. Adaptive co-management represents the combination of a learning-by-doing approach (adaptive management) involving all related and legitimate stakeholders in the decision-making process (collaborative management). In this study, the relevant experiences from a fishery in southern Brazil are reported. The first section of the paper summarizes the broad history of national fisheries and their management. Then the southern Brazilian artisanal penaeid-trawl fishery is briefly described and the three main problems associated with the common gears used are discussed, including their (1) poor size and species selectivities, (2) poor efficiencies, and (3) their mechanical impacts on benthic habitats. Finally, a framework is proposed to address the environmental and socio-economic issues in the fishery and its implementation discussed via an adaptive co-management approach.     

Co-management in Japanese coastal fisheries: institutional features and transaction costs

This paper presents the institutional history and features of Japanese coastal fishery management, including the past decade's major legislative developments. In Japan, local resource users have been the principal decision makers in fishery resource management. Under the current Fishery Law, resource conservation is an integral part of resource use. Coordination of fisheries’ issues, such as rights/license distribution and local regulations, is achieved by multilevel coordinating organizations. Government and/or research institutes provide support with planning, scientific advice, etc. A brief analysis of Kanagawa Prefecture suggests that the fisheries transaction costs, especially the monitoring, enforcement and compliance costs, are remarkably low.     

Managing Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean Sea

Atlantic Bluefin Tuna is an important but not well managed fishery in the Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, management system is evaluated with information on stock status, resource rent, and total employment. The non-restrictive implementation of International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) policies is found to be the institutional reason for its management failure, while the common-property and shared stock nature of this fishery is the fundamental reason. To address these major issues, policy schemes are proposed to help sustainably manage this valuable resource in the Mediterranean Sea.     

Tropical shrimp trawl fisheries: Fishers’ knowledge of and attitudes about a doomed fishery

Tropical shrimp trawl fisheries are unsustainable, and similar sets of management measures are used globally to address the direct and indirect costs of their practices. Yet little is known about shrimp fishers’ perceptions, despite the clear importance of human behaviour in determining the success of fisheries management. This article presents the results of interviews with industrial shrimp trawl fishers from the southern Gulf of California, Mexico, and reveals fishers’ knowledge and attitudes that should be considered when developing management plans for industrial shrimp trawl fisheries. Fishers were asked to comment on problems facing the fishery, management options to address the issues, and the future of the fishery in general. The interviews also elicited new knowledge on effort and valuable components of bycatch, useful to the management process. Among the problems facing the Gulf of California fishery, fishers tended to identify those generated externally—fluctuations in shrimp populations, increases in fishing effort, decreases in shrimp prices and increasing overheads—and thus distance themselves from responsibility for management options. The successes of any mitigation measures for the fishery are likely to depend on proper enforcement and reliable governance, as our study indicates. Should strong enforcement be put in place, then trawl free areas seem to be the most pragmatic way to alleviate problems associated with the fishery; our effort data point to areas that might have greatest acceptance among fishers. A reduction in capacity would clearly complement marine zoning for trawl free areas. In the long run, however, it may be economic extinction of the fishery that reduces pressure on the marine ecosystem.     

Transboundary fisheries management in the Amazon: Assessing current policies for the management of the ornamental silver arawana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum)

The management and governance of shared stocks have long been identified as a challenge to achieve long-term sustainability in fisheries. This is the situation of fisheries in the Amazon basin, a region shared by nine countries. This paper provides an overview of the social-ecological outcomes and management implications of sharing fish stocks among countries with different public policies, taking the valuable Amazonian ornamental silver arawana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) trade as a case study. Specifically, it (i) presents and discusses the policies of Colombia, Peru and Brazil for the silver arawana fishery, and how these are conducive for the successful management of this shared transboundary fishery; and (ii) analyzes the market for the ornamental silver arawana and how it affects the ability to sustainably manage the fishery. The interplay between the multiple environmental, economic and social dimensions involved in the ornamental silver arawana fishery affects the sustainability of this species even in Brazil, where this fishing is forbidden but still illegally caught by Colombians and Peruvians. Among the factors that make fisheries policies inefficient in this region are: (i) incongruent policies between the countries and institutions with low organizational capacity to accomplish the established policies; (ii) environmental heterogeneity of Amazonian aquatic systems, which requires local and adaptive measures; and (iii) complex socio-economic relationships in the live-fish trade business. Legally binding efforts to reduce problems derived from shared fish stocks are an urgent need and should be addressed by the multilateral organizations created for the Amazonian sustainable development.     

区域渔业管理组织中的鲨鱼养护管理问题研究

目前鲨鱼养护管理问题已引起国际社会的广泛关注,《鲨鱼养护管理国际行动计划》和《濒危野生动植物种国际贸易公约》等国际文件从生态系统保护和贸易管控角度对鲨鱼问题做出规定。为了顺应国际社会加强鲨鱼养护管理的趋势,RFMOs出台了一系列决议和措施。对此,作为远洋渔业大国的我国应针对目前履行RFMOs管理规定中存在的问题,尽早做好各项准备,以彰显我国渔业大国的负责任态度,更好地维护我国远洋渔业合法权益。第一,对外加大宣传,树立我国远洋渔业的正面形象;第二,加强远洋渔业从业人员培训,强化远洋渔船监管;第三,加强国际渔业法律科学人才队伍建设,提升在国际渔业管理中的话语权和主导权;第四,转变我国渔业法规指导理念,确立以养护为主的渔业管理基本方针。     

Swedish coastal herring fisheries in the wake of an ITQ system

The European common fisheries policy (CFP) advocates measures to sustain small-scale fisheries; hence, in the European Commission's proposal for a reformed CFP, these are exempted from a mandatory system with tradable fishing concessions. This opens up for management actions designed for small-scale fisheries, but also implies new management issues. This article provides insights into the topic based on a Swedish small-scale herring fishery in the western Baltic Sea that was exempted from an ITQ-system. The fishery has been profitable since the system was introduced, and the increasing effort of both incumbent fishermen and new entrants implies a situation where fishermen compete for a limited quota. The migratory pattern of the herring implies high densities in the southern parts of the fishing areas during spring and in the northern parts during autumn. This forms the basis for two different fisheries in the area, as well as for the current management proposal to divide the quota into a spring and an autumn part. This and other management proposals are discussed in the paper. The main conclusion from the case study is that, when exempting a fishery from tradable fishing concessions, it is important to build other institutions dealing with the fundamental problem of access to the quota. Failure to do so might result in an over-capacity issue and threaten the long-run development of an otherwise successful small-scale fishery.     

A knowledge base for management of the capital-intensive fishery for small pelagic fish off South Africa

As a contribution to South Africa's move towards an ecosystem approach to fisheries management, this study explores the existence of common perceptions about South Africa's pelagic fishery between resource users and scientists. It represents a collaborative research effort of social and natural scientists. A brief overview is given of the southern Benguela upwelling ecosystem and small pelagic fish resources, the fishery, and management of the fishery. Stakeholder knowledge and views were determined by conducting open-ended qualitative local knowledge interviews. Candidate indicators to address five major issues raised in the interviews were selected: length-at-50% maturity, total mortality, exploitation rate, proportion of bycatch, mean length of catch, and centre of gravity of catches. The indicator approach is shown to be a useful tool to manage the South African small pelagic fishery, and can be made compatible with existing management approaches. The foundation of a good adaptive fisheries management system is a data collection system that enables multi-disciplinary analysis and provides a basis on which decisions can be made.     

Measuring management success: Experience with United States fisheries

Many articles have been published in recent years criticizing the management of living marine resources based solely on biological stock conservation criteria. In the United States and in many parts of the rest of the world, multiple management objectives and goals in addition to stock conservation must be met by fishery managers responsible for the marine resources under their control. An alternative management metric, conservation efficiency, is recommended based instead on a multi-disciplinary scientific framework that captures these different goals and the behavior of participants in the fishery. On the basis of the constraints facing managers, resources can be conserved and the quality of life of consumptive and nonconsumptive fishery participants improved.     

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.     

Precious coral fisheries management in Taiwan—Past,present & future

Taiwan used to have the biggest precious coral fisheries industry in the world. However, due to changes in the fishery, including increased fishing restrictions and the replacement of obsolete vessels, the scale of the industry had been gradually reduced since 1979. Unfortunately, the initiative proved to be poorly managed and resulted in an increase in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) coral fishing. This forced the government to review and amend the precious coral fisheries management regulations, which had been in place for decades. The Taiwanese government introduced stringent monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) management methods, already used in deep water fisheries, as a precautionary approach. At the same time, an investigation and evaluation of existing resources was carried out. Together, these initiatives were introduced in order to encourage the domestic industry to adopt the concept of ecosystem-based fishery management.     

From user-groups to stakeholders? The public interest in fisheries management

Fisheries management has long been characterised by strong user-group involvement, created to enhance the legitimacy and proficiency of decisions. Due to perennial problems of overfishing and resource depletion, the privileged position of users are increasingly being challenged, and there have been calls for more inclusive and democratic institutions. Fish, it is argued, is a public resource and should be managed through institutional arrangements that take the public interest into account. Taking the demands for more inclusive and transparent management institutions as our starting point, the article addresses some of the issues emanating from a stakeholder approach to fisheries management. Against the backdrop of stakeholder theory, as it has been developed in the literature on business management, we attempt to identify—and classify—those with a legitimate stake in the fisheries. We also address some of the problems and complexities of stakeholder management, and conclude with a discussion of some of the central issues and challenges pertaining to the creation of more inclusive and transparent institutions in fisheries management.     

Fishery cooperatives in Cuba: Potential benefits,legal feasibility,and governance pre-conditions

Currently there is a strong interest in Cuba in improving the performance of the fisheries sector with respect to social, biological, and economic outcomes. Many important fishery resources appear to be overexploited, and previous fishery regulations have had mixed success in restoring fishery stocks. The current fishing pressure could also have adverse impacts on other valuable ecosystem services that support economic activities such as dive tourism and recreational fishing. A new State policy to expand cooperative enterprises to non-agricultural sectors provides an opportunity for fishery cooperatives to be created for the first time since the early years of the Cuban Revolution. This paper explores the potential ecological, social, and economic benefits of adopting fishery cooperatives as a co-management scheme for Cuba's marine fisheries. It concludes that well-designed fishery cooperatives can offer substantial benefits to the management of the fishery sector. Based on an analysis of the relative success of fishing cooperatives worldwide, guidelines are provided for the design of fishery cooperatives in Cuba.     

Social,economic and environmental effects of closing commercial fisheries to enhance recreational fishing

Recreational fishing mortality can have a major impact on coastal fish populations, bringing recreational fishers into conflict with commercial fisheries. This article reviews exclusion zones for commercial fishing, or ‘recreational fishing areas’ as a solution to the conflict between commercial and recreational fisheries. Recently designated recreational fishing areas in the state of Queensland, Australia are examined as a case-study. The goal of recreational fishing areas is to enhance recreational fishing and provide economic opportunities through charter fishing. However, recently designated recreational fishing areas in Queensland have not been thoroughly assessed for their social, economic and environmental impacts and they are not integrated within existing management frameworks for fisheries. The designation of recreational fishing areas is thus a shift away from evidence-based management in Queensland's fisheries and has likely occurred solely for political reasons – there are more voters in the recreational fishery than commercial fishery. In Queensland, excluding commercial fishing on its own is unlikely to result in long-term benefits to recreational fisheries because recreational harvest is a major component of fish harvest for some key species and there is no legislated limit to recreational harvest. Current political attention on recreational fishing areas provides an opportunity for fisheries managers, politicians, conservation groups and the public to discuss what is needed to manage sustainable coastal fisheries. In particular, recreational fishing areas need to be combined with efforts to enhance stewardship among recreational fishers if they are to be successful in the long-term.     

Swedish coastal fisheries—From conflict mitigation to participatory management

Several research projects have studied Swedish coastal fishery to investigate the conflict between seals and fishery. In recent years, a strategy of participation by means of co-management has been unfolding. Realising that maintaining the coastal fishery requires societal support and knowledge integration, attempts have been made to introduce the principle of participatory management into the centralised Swedish fisheries management system. However, this co-management approach, presently implemented in six pilot projects, will take a long time to develop through a sustained process of experimentation and improvement.     

Reforming resource rent policy: an information economics perspective

Efficient management of natural resources requires that the least cost fishers operate in a fishery. Information economics tells us that firms have information about their costs that governments cannot readily acquire, and that we need to ensure this information is revealed in order to allocate access efficiently. Auctions can achieve this, and simultaneously collect resource rent to give industry ongoing efficiency motivation. This paper highlights the relevance of information economics in fishery management, and identifies some specific auction design issues relevant to allocating new aquaculture sites.     

Fish harvest tags: An alternative management approach for recreational fisheries in the US Gulf of Mexico

This paper explores the potential adaptation of harvest tags to the Gulf of Mexico recreational reef fish fishery. The discussion addresses conceptual, theoretical, and practical issues surrounding the application of harvest tags, as well as challenges and opportunities related to the design of tag programs. A review of hunting and fishing tag programs around the world and analysis of Gulf recreational fisheries suggests that tags have the potential to improve control over total catches, increase economic benefits and provide better information for fishery management. Results also provide insight into potential use of fish tags in large-scale recreational fisheries nationwide.     

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.