Governing global fish provisioning: Ownership and management of marine resources

Contemporary fish provisioning, in the era of globalization, is linking distant locations through the catchments and consumption of fish, and as more and more fish stocks are coming under threat there are unprecedented challenges emerging for environmental governance. The conventional nation-state-based regulatory arrangements of the past are becoming inadequate and in response alternative arrangements emerge. This article will compare two of these innovative fish governance arrangements addressing problems of sustainability, notably the Marine Stewardship Council and the WTO. This comparison provides support for the claim that environmental governance of global fish provision puts the traditional notions of ownership and sovereignty under pressure, while simple alternative governance arrangements are not (yet) available.