Current Problems in the Management of Marine Fisheries

Abstract

The public perception of fisheries is that they are in crisis and have been for some time. Numerous scientific and popular articles have pointed to the failures of fisheries management that have caused this crisis. These are widely accepted to be overcapacity in fishing fleets, a failure to take the ecosystem effects of fishing into account, and a failure to enforce unpalatable but necessary reductions in fishing effort on fishing fleets and communities. However, the claims of some analysts that there is an inevitable decline in the status of fisheries is, we believe, incorrect. There have been successes in fisheries management, and we argue that the tools for appropriate management exist. Unfortunately, they have not been implemented widely. Our analysis suggests that management authorities need to develop legally enforceable and tested harvest strategies, coupled with appropriate rights-based incentives to the fishing community, for the future of fisheries to be better than their past.

Satisfaction with fishing and the desire to leave

“…Overcapacity in fisheries is widely accepted as a major issue globally, affecting both resource sustainability as well as economic and social outcomes from fishing (Beddington et al 2007). Issues such as non-malleability of capital (Clark et al 1979) make it easier for capacity to increase in a fishery in response to short-term improvement in economic performance than to exit.…”

Transitional states in marine fisheries: adapting to predicted global change

“…Just as evidence for reductions in exploitation rates is emerging in some wealthier regions (Beddington et al 2007;Worm et al 2009), concerns are growing about the fisheries implications of global climate warming. Although climate-driven change is expected in every marine ecosystem, the science needed for regional-scale ecological understanding is immature and thus the magnitude and extent of effects remain largely unknown.…”

Critical thresholds and tangible targets for ecosystem-based management of coral reef fisheries

“…In the absence of reference points that signal when further exploitation may have serious consequences for reef ecosystems, managers are often unlikely to make the socially and politically difficult decisions to restrict fishing activities. A question of critical relevance to scientists, managers, and resource users alike is whether meaningful limits or reference points can provide effective warning of conditions beyond which coral reef social-ecological systems incur a risk of serious degradation and lost value (4,5).…”

“…Here we examine where major changes in coral reef systems occur along a gradient of fishable biomass, a readily measured and managed variable, and explore how this can be used to define key reference points that can help inform management decisions (4,6). We compiled information from more than 300 surveys of shallow coral reefs from nine countries across the Indian Ocean (Table S1 ).…”