Fishery Management Strategies

Our Roseland reading on community economic development this week really struck a chord with me, especially one of the last lines of the chapter:  “In a commodity-intensive economy, people are compelled to seek full-time employment and an increasing income, but some people are making a shift.  By re-evaluating their needs and wants and realizing that their true demands are for comfort, security, health, and happiness, some people are finding alternative ways to satisfy these demands” (Roseland, pg. 183).  Not to be overly simplistic or maudlin, but for me, this little paragraph is really what life boils down to: the desire and the need, as human beings, to feel secure, happy, and healthy in their lives.  Everything else is just window dressing, as they say. 

Onto my blog topic… as I was reading, I was very impressed with the number of different ways people have found to utilize resources, time, and money to secure better, stable, and sustainable communities.  More specifically, the section on community forestry, fisheries and agriculture exemplifies the impact that a group of committed individuals can have on the direct operation of their economies, environments, and resources.  The short blurb about fishing quotas is something that I have had occasion to research for another class, and also read a book about over the summer.  Not sure if anybody’s read this one: 

It’s a great mix of fishery science, management, and local anecdotes (having to do specifically with Maine lobsters, but the same concepts apply).  The importance of establishing fishing quotas for local fisherman is just one of the themes explored in the book, as the over-fishing of lobsters and other fish can rapidly reduce population, and lead to extinction of species, as well as economic crisis.  Not to mention other problems related to bad fishing practices, like lots of by-catch (other fish and sea animals that die when they get caught in fishing nets),  pollution and dumping from fishing gear and boats, economic waste, and population dynamics shifts in different species of fish. 

More pertinent to this week’s discussion, however, are the different strategies that can be used to ensure proper fishing rights and cooperative fishing initiatives amongst stakeholders in areas that rely heavily on the ocean’s resources.  Roseland mentions the need to “establish community quotas whereby fishing rights are allocated to communities, and distributed in turn to local fishers” (pg. 180).  Related to this, I came across another article that focuses more specifically on management strategies that can be implemented to protect against overharvesting and control the amounts of fish caught in different markets (termed incentive blocking and incentive adjusting measures, respectively).  Some of the strategies mentioned are limited entry and buyback programs, gear and vessel restrictions, total allowable catches, vessel catch limits, and individual effort quotas.  The article goes into detail about each of these, for those who are interested. 

The end goal of programs that initiate these types of strategies is to change the current management systems in place in fisheries from those of economically and environmentally wasteful practices, to those of self-sustaining fish populations and cooperative fishing programs.  Just as in forestry policies, agricultural cooperatives, and countless other efforts and examples of communities working together towards more sustainable natural systems that provide for their needs, the fishing industry illustrates the absolute necessity of having a management system in place to ensure that resources are being allocated appropriately.