Who You Speak to Matters: Information Sharing and the Management of a Small-Scale Fishery

Abstract

Sustainable natural resource management requires collaboration, adaptability and coordination between science, policy and stakeholders. Communication of scientific information through social networks is integral to effective governance. This study employed social network analysis to investigate information flow between stakeholders associated with the blue swimmer crab (Portunus armatus) fishery in the Peel-Harvey Estuary, southwestern Australia. Although the fishery received Marine Stewardship Council certification in 2016, a preliminary study conducted between 2017 and 2018 revealed that fishers were concerned about its status and management. Consequently, 85 face-to-face interviews were conducted with commercial and recreational fishers, academics, government bodies, representatives of fishing organizations, non-governmental organizations, and tourism operators to understand the flow of information and the influence on perceptions of sustainability. The results showed that: (i) few individuals were key for sharing information within and between different organizations forming the fishery network and only two of the six groups (government bodies and the commercial fishing sector) were highly connected and appeared as key for information sharing; (ii) after the public awareness and tourism groups, academic groups were the second-least connected, despite having actively researched the Peel-Harvey Estuary and the P. armatus fishery for over 40 years; (iii) recreational fishers exchanged information mainly with other fishers and the state fisheries department; (iv) modes of communication used with the recreational fishing sector differed greatly between the fisheries department (i.e., mainly via phone/email) and the recreational fishing organization (i.e., strong online presence, social media, and phone/email); (v) issues of inclusiveness and representativeness were highlighted for some of the groups and organizations. This is the first study looking at informationsharing patterns through an Australian fishery network. Through this research we have identified logistical and institutional challenges to communicating information regarding the science, management and environmental issues related to a small-scale crab fishery and made suggestions to enhance information flow in the network.

Trade-offs in fishing strategy decisions and conservation implications for small-scale fisheries

“…These trade-offs and considerations of risk preferences in decision-making have the potential to reduce social dilemmas in SSFs, where the cumulative result of individual decisions contributes to collective problems (Kramer & Brewer 1984, Basurto et al 2016. Our results further explore the links between fishers' decision-making and SSF conservation (Ostrom 1990, Obregón et al 2020).…”

Ocean-human relations in the Anthropocene: mapping trends in sustainability-related marine social sciences articles

“…Axelrod et al, 2015;Lockerbie et al, 2020;Sajjad et al, 2020). Literature reviews (Koehn et al, 2013;Sousa and Alves, 2020;Frazão Santos et al, 2021), participatory approaches (Adams et al, 2014;Rakotomahazo et al, 2019) and social network analysis (Obregoń et al, 2020;Salazar-De La Cruz et al, 2020) also form part of the methodological tools in this research stream.…”

Differences in Recreational Fishers’ Motivations for Utilising Two Estuarine Fisheries

“…Several authors note that management focused on motivation types rather than segmentation based on demographics and other characteristics are more likely to result in desirable management outcomes in the recreation context as motivation is of primary importance in terms of response to management actions [78][79][80]. Communication strategies may need to vary depending of the demographic group of fishers [81].…”