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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
SUSTAINABLE FISHERY SYSTEMS An up-to-date and interdisciplinary guide to sustainable fisheries Fisheries, whether small-scale or large-scale, are filled with complexity and uncertainty. Making the right decisions to successfully manage fisheries for sustainability and resilience requires a systems approach -- including both natural and human elements, and their many interactions. To understand fisheries, and how they change over time, a diverse range of fishery knowledge must be brought together. Sustainable Fishery Systems, 2nd edition meets these needs. The new edition provides essential information that can be readily applied within government, community, industrial, academic and research settings. Sustainable Fishery Systems, 2nd edition retains the first edition's emphasis on themes such as sustainability, resilience, uncertainty, complexity, and conflict, and expands its treatment of topics that have, since the first edition's publication, become crucial to consider in the field of fisheries. As a result, readers will find: * Updated and expanded coverage of topics including coastal conservation, ecosystem-based management, co-management, community-based management, and more * New chapters covering connections between fisheries and marine protected areas, biodiversity conservation, climate and fisheries, and multi-sectoral management * A more detailed introduction to the "systems" perspective of fisheries, reflecting the substantial growth in that subject's importance, and covering in detail the natural, human and governance aspects of fisheries. Sustainable Fishery Systems, 2nd edition is an indispensable interdisciplinary resource for educators, researchers, government agencies, and fisheries managers.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface and Guide to the Book
Acknowledgements
Part I: Fishery Systems
1 Introducing Fishery Systems
1.1 Sustainability and Resilience
1.2 Rationale for a Systems Approach
1.3 Fishery Systems as Social‐Ecological Systems
1.4 Depicting Fishery Systems
1.5 Characterising Fishery Systems
1.6 Complexity
1.7 Next Steps
2 The Natural System: The Fish
2.1 What Is Caught in Fishery Systems?
2.2 Spatial Distribution of Fished Resources
2.3 Fish Dynamics
3 The Natural System: Fishery Ecosystems
3.1 Ecosystems
3.2 Biodiversity
3.3 The Physical–Chemical Environment
3.4 Dynamics of Fishery Ecosystems and the Biophysical Environment
4 The Human System: Fishers and Fishworkers
4.1 Fishers and Fishworkers
4.2 Fishing Methods
4.3 Fisher and Fleet Dynamics
5 The Human System: Post‐Harvest Aspects and Fishing Communities
5.1 The Post‐Harvest Sector of the Fishery
5.2 Fishing Households and Communities
5.3 The Socioeconomic Environment
5.4 Post‐Harvest and Fishing Community Dynamics
Part II: The Fishery Governance and Management System
6 Fishery Governance
6.1 Rationale for Governance and Management
6.2 Governance and Management
6.3 Fishery Values and Objectives
6.4 Fishery Management Institutions
6.5 Governance of International Fisheries
6.6 Legal Framework
6.7 Dynamics of Fishery Governance
7 Fishery Management
7.1 Time Scales of Management
7.2 Spatial Scales of Management
7.3 Appropriate Fishing Effort and Catch Levels
7.4 Developing a Portfolio of Fishery Management Measures
7.5 Implementation at the Operational Level
7.6 Fishery Enforcement
7.7 A Survey of Fishery Management Measures
7.8 Dynamics of Fishery Management
8 Fishery Development
8.1 Rationale for Fishery Development
8.2 Objectives of Fishery Development
8.3 Strategic Choices in Fishery Development
8.4 Targeting Fishery Development
8.5 Options for Fishery Development
8.6 Participatory Fishery Development
9 Fishery Knowledge
9.1 The Nature of Fishery Knowledge
9.2 The Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples, Fishers, and Communities
9.3 Connecting Fisher/Local/Indigenous Knowledge with Fishery Science/Research
9.4 Knowledge Within Institutions
9.5 Fishery Knowledge: The Natural System
9.6 Fishery Knowledge: The Human System
9.7 The Nature of Knowledge Production
9.8 The Structure of Knowledge Production
9.9 Dynamics of Fishery Knowledge
Part III: Three Major Challenges in Fishery Systems
10 Uncertainty in Fishery Systems
10.1 Sources of Uncertainty in Fishery Systems
10.2 A Typology of Uncertainty
10.3 Linking Uncertainty and Dynamics
11 Conflict in Fishery Systems
11.1 Conflict over Priorities: Fishery Paradigms
11.2 A Typology of Fishery Conflicts
12 Attitudes (The Story of a Fishery Collapse)
12.1 The Cod Collapse Experience
12.2 Attitudes Underlying the Cod Collapse
Part IV: Modern Strategies for Fishery Systems
13 Sustainability and Resilience
13.1 Sustainability
13.2 Resilience
13.3 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
13.4 Components of Sustainability and Resilience
13.5 Sustainability and Resilience of Institutions
13.6 Sustainability and Resilience within the Fishery System
13.7 Assessing Sustainability and Resilience in Fishery Systems
14 Adaptive, Robust, and Precautionary Management
14.1 Uncertainty and Risk
14.2 Risk Assessment
14.3 Risk Management: Analytical Approaches
14.4 Adaptive Management and Robust Management
14.5 Moving to Robust, Adaptive Management
14.6 The Precautionary Approach and the
Burden of Proof
15 The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries
15.1 Rationale for an Ecosystem Approach
15.2 History of an Ecosystem Approach
15.3 Scope of an Ecosystem Approach
15.4 The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF)
15.5 Implementing EAF
15.6 Implementing EAF: Human Dimensions
16 Rights‐Based Approaches to Fisheries Management
16.1 The Rationale for Fishery Rights
16.2 Use Rights
16.3 Management Rights
16.4 Use Rights and Management Rights in Context
16.5 Rights Versus Ownership
16.6 The Commons
16.7 Human Rights
16.8 Practicalities of Use Rights
16.9 Forms of Use Rights
16.10 Use Rights Issues: Initial Allocation
16.11 Use Rights Issues: Transferability
16.12 Choosing a Use Rights System
17 Co‐management and Community‐Based Management
17.1 Fishery Co‐management
17.2 Community‐Based Fishery Management
Part V: Fisheries and the Bigger Picture
18 Fisheries and Marine Protected Areas
18.1 Fishery Closed Areas
18.2 Nongovernmental (Informal) Protected Areas
18.3 Marine Protected Areas and OECMs
18.4 International Agreements
18.5 Types of MPAs and OECMs
18.6 Design of MPAs
18.7 Fishery Benefits and Costs of MPAs and OECMs
18.8 Interactions of MPAs and OECMs with Fisheries
18.9 MPAs as a Fisheries Management Tool
19 Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation
19.1 Introduction
19.2 A Brief History of Biodiversity Conservation in a Fishery Context
19.3 Fisheries and Endangered Species
19.4 Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation
19.5 Opportunities Across Scales for Linking Fisheries and Biodiversity Conservation
19.6 Incentives and Opportunities
19.7 CBD and IPBES
20 Fisheries and Multi‐Sectoral Management
20.1 Fisheries, Competing Uses and the Need for Management of Multiple Sectors
20.2 Integrated Management
20.3 Marine Spatial Planning
20.4 Ocean Zoning
20.5 Blue Economy
20.6 Some Common Features of Multi‐Sectoral Approaches
20.7 Fisheries and Multi‐Sectoral Management
21 Fisheries and Climate Change
21.1 Impacts of Climate Change
21.2 Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity
21.3 Responses to Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation
21.4 Responses to Climate Change: Mitigation
21.5 Responses to Climate Change: Adaptation
Part VI: Conclusions
22 Sustaining Fisheries into the Future
22.1 A Review of Fishery Systems
22.2 A Review of Fishery Sustainability and Resilience
22.3 Making Fishery Governance and Management Effective
22.4 The Bigger Picture Around the Fishery System
22.5 A Closing Note
Appendix A: Atlantic Canada's Groundfish Fishery System
A.1 The Fish
A.2 The Ecosystem and the Biophysical Environment
A.3 The Fishers
A.4 The Post‐Harvest Sector
A.5 Fishing Communities
A.6 The Socioeconomic Environment
A.7 Fishery Policy and Planning
A.8 Management Institutions
A.9 Fishery Management
A.10 Fishery Development
A.11 Fishery Knowledge
Appendix B: Models of Fishery Systems
B.1 Integrated Fishery Models
B.2 Bioeconomic Models
B.3 A Behavioural Model
B.4 An Optimisation Model
B.5 Summary
Appendix C: Developing a Framework of Fishery Indicators
C.1 Process for Indicator Development
C.2 Ecological, Socioeconomic/Community, and Institutional Sustainability Indicators
References
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 1
Table 1.1 Comparing small‐scale and large‐scale fishery systems.
Chapter 2
Table 2.1 Major fishery catches in the United States.
Chapter 4
Table 4.1 European Union Fishing Fleet (2021): total fleet numbers and by g...
Chapter 13
Table 13.1 Some characteristics of fishery sustainability and resilience.
Table 13.2 A sustainability checklist.
Table 13.3 Checklist of sustainability attributes.
Appendix C
Table C.1 Ecological sustainability indicators.
Table C.2 Socioeconomic/community sustainability indicators.
Table C.3 Institutional sustainability indicators.
Table C.4 Sustainability assessment framework.
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 A highly oversimplified view of a fishery system: boats catch fis...
Figure 1.2 A fuller view of a fishery system: the fish stock, the fishing fl...
Figure 1.3 A substantially more complete view of a fishery system, beginning...
Figure 1.4 The fishery system, showing the structure of the three major sub‐...
Figure 1.5 The fishery system is shown as a set of embedded sub‐systems, wit...
Figure 1.6 The various spatial scales relevant to fishery systems are shown,...
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 The structure of the natural sub‐system is shown: fish species in...
Figure 2.2 A rough classification of those aquatic species harvested in fish...
Figure 2.3 A wide range of aquatic species are harvested in the world's fish...
Figure 2.4 An example of the dynamics of a fish stock affected by natural po...
Figure 2.5 An example is shown of predator–prey dynamics based on two specie...
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 The structure of the natural sub‐system is shown (as in Figure 2....
Figure 3.2 Mangroves are found in many bays, estuaries, and other coastal re...
Figure 3.3 Conservation of biodiversity has become a major concern around th...
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 The structure of the human sub‐system is shown. Fishers interact ...
Figure 4.2 A simple classification of the fishers into four main groupings, ...
Figure 4.3 Women play a crucial part in many aspects of small‐scale fisherie...
Figure 4.4 Fisher organisations are a crucial means for fishers to improve t...
Figure 4.5 A schematic of some fishing methods, showing where in the water c...
Figure 4.6 An example of changes over time in fishing fleets – in this case,...
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 The structure of the human sub‐system is shown (as in Figure 4.1)...
Figure 5.2 The flow of fish from the sea to the retail level, for two differ...
Figure 5.3 Processing, as here in Japan, is the first step in the post‐harve...
Figure 5.4 The marketing of seafood takes place at many different scales, su...
Figure 5.5 The fundamental linkages between the fisher, the household, the c...
Figure 5.6 Fishing communities, like this small‐scale fishing community on t...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 The need for management in fishery systems has been recognised fo...
Figure 6.2 The structure of the governance/management sub‐system is shown, h...
Figure 6.3 Core values underlie how people use fishery resources, and their ...
Figure 6.4 A major source of conflict in many fisheries worldwide results fr...
Figure 6.5 The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)...
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 The time scales relevant to fishery governance and management are...
Figure 7.2 As discussed in Chapter 1, fishery systems (and thus fishery gove...
Figure 7.3 Schaefer (1954) showed how a fishery operating with a constant an...
Figure 7.4 A Gordon–Schaefer diagram is produced from a yield‐effort diagram...
Figure 7.5 The
net economic benefits
(e.g. per day of fishing) in a trawling...
Figure 7.6 The community of Sambro in Nova Scotia, Canada, was the first in ...
Figure 7.7 In Belize, regulations for harvesting lobster, conch, and turtles...
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 The right approaches to fishery development are essential for sma...
Figure 8.2 In planning development in any fishery, such as this one in Vietn...
Figure 8.3 Fishery development initiatives need to take into account the maj...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 Indigenous peoples often have a large body of information about f...
Figure 9.2 Fishers, and their organizations, as shown here in the Galapagos ...
Figure 9.3 The most extensive knowledge base in fisheries is typically relat...
Figure 9.4 While natural sciences have dominated in fishery research, there ...
Figure 9.5 Transdisciplinary knowledge‐building looks in an integrated way a...
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 As discussed in Chapter 2, an example is shown of the dynamics o...
Figure 10.2 A single‐species scenario in which the fish stock is harvested a...
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 A
paradigm triangle
is an integrated framework within which fish...
Figure 11.2 A graphical depiction of two major (and interacting) issues lead...
Figure 11.3 Conflict can arise between fisheries and competing industries. F...
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 The history of catches for the Northern Cod fishery is shown, da...
Figure 12.2 Bottom trawler, and trawl net, from the time of the cod collapse...
Figure 12.3 Lobster fishing boats and traps on Canada's Atlantic coast. The ...
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1 Some fisheries are managed in a way that maintains resilience. F...
Figure 13.2 The Sustainability Triangle forms the basis of a framework for s...
Figure 13.3 New initiatives are being built into fishery institutions to hel...
Figure 13.4 What do we mean by ‘overcapacity’ and ‘efficiency’ in fisheries?...
Figure 13.5 Sustainability and resilience are crucial ingredients in all fis...
Figure 13.6 Sustainability and resilience are important not only in fisherie...
Chapter 14
Figure 14.1 The ‘right’ fishing capacity in a fishery system can vary over t...
Figure 14.2 Fishers are accustomed to living with uncertainty in their work,...
Figure 14.3 In many fisheries, and especially small‐scale fisheries, there a...
Figure 14.4 The precautionary approach represents a crucial contribution to ...
Chapter 15
Figure 15.1 The ecosystem approach to Fisheries, and the associated ecosyste...
Figure 15.2 The ecosystem approach to fisheries applies to fishery systems o...
Figure 15.3 Key principles of ecosystem‐based management, as indicated in an...
Figure 15.4 The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries has many ‘human dimensions’ ...
Chapter 16
Figure 16.1 The right to access fishing areas and to harvest resources – the...
Figure 16.2 Property rights can be classified by regime (non‐property, priva...
Figure 16.3 It is crucial that a rights‐based approach to fishery management...
Figure 16.4 A wide variety of use rights arrangements are possible in fisher...
Figure 16.5 One of the most impressive aspects in fisheries is how successfu...
Figure 16.6 It is important to understand the values and the operating modes...
Chapter 17
Figure 17.1 The Soufrière marine management area, in the Caribbean state of ...
Figure 17.2 The triangle of co‐management: any point along the borders of th...
Figure 17.3 This fishery cooperative in Japan takes on a wide range of activ...
Figure 17.4 The
ladder of co‐management
is a framework for discussing ...
Figure 17.5 Fishers and coastal communities are often involved in community‐...
Chapter 18
Figure 18.1 This ‘area of environmental protection’ in Tarituba, Brazil, is ...
Figure 18.2 Spain's Cabo de Palos – Islas Hormigas Marine Reserve (marine pr...
Figure 18.3 Xcalak National Reef Park was initiated by the coastal community...
Figure 18.4 A three‐stage process (flowchart) for considering MPAs in the co...
Figure 18.5 A chart of the various scenarios for linking MPAs (and other spa...
Chapter 19
Figure 19.1 Some species of sea turtles are endangered, in large part as a r...
Figure 19.2 Environmental organisations, among many others, bring concerns a...
Figure 19.3 Indigenous cultures have long showed the way in integrating biod...
Chapter 20
Figure 20.1 Oceans, lakes, rivers, and other aquatic water bodies are used n...
Figure 20.2 Multi‐sectoral integrated management and marine spatial planning...
Figure 20.3 Multi‐sectoral integrated management can potentially assist smal...
Figure 20.4 In marine spatial planning and blue economy initiatives, recogni...
Chapter 21
Figure 21.1 This sailboat is not meant to be here, lying on its side in a pa...
Figure 21.2 This project in Thailand is an example of a response to climate ...
Figure 21.3 Responses to climate change can be classified into five classes:...
Figure 21.4 Lennox Island First Nation lies within Malpeque Bay, a part of t...
Chapter 22
Figure 22.1 Ensuring the sustainability of fishery systems is crucial for pe...
Appendix A
Figure A.1 The quota management system for groundfish fisheries in Atlantic ...
Appendix B
Figure B.1 This figure shows a scenario of fishery system dynamics, for a si...
Figure B.2 An approximate optimization of the fishery leads to the dynamics ...
Guide
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface and Guide to the Book
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Appendix A Atlantic Canada's Groundfish Fishery System
Appendix B Models of Fishery Systems
Appendix C Developing a Framework of Fishery Indicators
References
Index
Wiley End User License Agreement
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Sustainable Fishery Systems
Second Edition
Anthony Charles
Saint Mary’s University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
This edition first published 2023© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Edition HistoryBlackwell Science Ltd (1e, 2001)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data Applied for:Hardback ISBN: 9781119511793
Cover Design: WileyCover Image: Courtesy of Anthony Charles
Preface and Guide to the Book
Decades have passed since the original edition of this book appeared, early in the 2000s. I am pleased to say that the content of that book has stood the test of time – the various themes that were covered in it remain valid today. That said, a great deal has happened over the decades.
There has been widespread analytical focus on social‐ecological systems, and a global policy focus on ocean and biodiversity conservation. Those developments reinforce the crucial nature of the two areas emphasised in the original book – using systems approaches and moving towards sustainable fisheries. Along those lines, the emergence of conservation tools such as marine protected areas, and management tools such as marine spatial planning, has been so extensive that their interaction with fisheries needs to be examined. And without doubt, the dire worldwide threats of climate change have major impacts on fishery systems in many ways.
Further, there has been an unprecedented spotlight in recent decades on small‐scale fisheries around the world, with what is likely the most important fishery document in that time period being the international Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small‐Scale Fisheries developed by FAO. This ties in with an increasing recognition of the impressive role fishers, fishworkers, and fishing communities play in managing their fishery resources and conserving their local aquatic environments.
Related to this has been a major shift in how we consider the knowledge needed for fishery decision‐making – while in the past, the focus might have been on ‘fishery research’ we now see it is at least equally from the traditional, fisher, and community knowledge held by those engaged in the fishery. Shifts in fishery governance to more engagement and participation support these shifts over time.
All the above newly prominent considerations call out for attention in a book such as this, and the second edition of Sustainable Fishery Systems covers them all.
It has been a joy to write this second edition. Not all the time, mind you, but certainly overall. I imagine that writing any book is a labour of love, and this is no exception. What you have before you is in some ways a culmination of interests I have had, throughout my career, in the holistic and systematic analysis of fisheries, and in seeking out approaches to improving the sustainability and resilience of fisheries.
I have sought, in writing this, to produce something accessible to everyone interested in looking at fisheries from an integrated perspective and in exploring the various routes to more sustainable fisheries. I hope that this would include undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines, as well as professionals in the fishery field, whether academics, those in science and management, or those within fisher organisations and the fishery sector itself.
With that in mind, the aim here is to present a fairly comprehensive coverage of the many aspects of fishery systems, what fisheries are all about, and where they are heading (or should be heading). So, the content and organisation reflect the diverse nature of fisheries, the components of fisheries and their changes over time, the fishery governance and management system, the challenges in fishery systems and modern approaches to dealing with them, and the links of fisheries to major elements beyond the fishery. The various chapters of the book can be viewed as pieces of the puzzle, all adding up to give a full sense of the fishery system and how it can be sustained today.
The following gives a short guide to the contents…
Part I
of the book (
Chapters 1
–
5
) focuses on Fishery Systems, their structure, and dynamics. This begins in
Chapter 1
with an overview of fishery systems, emphasising how these systems are depicted, and how they are characterised.
Chapters 2
and
3
provide an overview of the natural system: the fish, the ecosystems, and the biophysical environment.
Chapters 4
and
5
explore the human system, including the fishers and fishworkers, the post‐harvest sector, households and communities, and the broader socioeconomic environment. Each of
Chapters 2
–
5
discusses both the structure of the corresponding component of the fishery system, and its dynamics – how it changes over time.
Part II
of the book (
Chapters 6
–
9
) focuses on the Fishery Governance and Management System, providing a basis on the values, objectives, tools, and approaches that go into this – with
Chapters 6
and
7
covering those two topics of governance and management, followed by
Chapter 8
on ideas of fishery development, and
Chapter 9
on the knowledge‐building (and research) in fisheries.
Part III
of the book (
Chapters 10
–
12
) examines Three Major Challenges in Fishery Systems, namely (
Chapter 10
) the ubiquitous presence of uncertainty in fisheries, the various forms this uncertainty takes, and the connection between uncertainty and risk, (
Chapter 11
) the major role conflict plays in fishery systems, along with a typology of fishery conflicts, and (
Chapter 12
) the problems that can arise when those in the fishery have poor attitudes, and specifically the story of how such attitudes led to the massive collapse of Canada's Atlantic cod fishery.
Part IV
of the book (
Chapters 13
–
17
) moves from challenges to solutions, namely ‘Modern Strategies for Fishery Systems’. The discussion begins in
Chapter 13
with an examination of the nature of sustainability and resilience, and how to do sustainability assessment.
Chapter 14
focuses on approaches to living with uncertainty through the use of adaptive management, robust management and a Precautionary Approach to fishery decision‐making.
Chapter 15
discusses the benefits of an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries, inherently based on a systems approach.
Chapter 16
presents human rights and fishing rights (use rights and management rights, guiding the access to and use of fishery resources) as key ingredients for sustainability and resilience. Then
Chapter 17
examines the widespread move to fishery co‐management and the longstanding and expanding role of community‐based management.
Part V
of the book (
Chapters 18
–
21
) looks at ‘Fisheries and the Bigger Picture’ – the interactions of fisheries (and fishery governance/management) with four of the biggest drivers of change in today's fisheries, ones from beyond the fishery system per se. These four are (
Chapter 18
) marine protected areas and ‘other effective area‐based conservation measures’ (OECMs), with a focus on their fishery interactions; (
Chapter 19
) biodiversity conservation, how its governance interacts with that of fisheries, and specific challenges of dealing with endangered species; (
Chapter 20
) multi‐sectoral management of oceans and other aquatic areas, including integrated management and marine spatial planning; and (
Chapter 21
) the omnipresent threat of climate change, and how responses in the form of mitigation and adaptation interact with fishery systems.
Finally,
Part VI
of the book (
Chapter 22
) provides conclusions and a review of the key messages of the book.
A key goal for the book is to be widely accessible. The style of presentation is generally informal, with the aim of making the text easy to read. Technical aspects are sometimes placed in boxes, and mathematical details are either omitted, or placed in separate boxes or appendices. In order to be as accessible as possible, some topics are presented at a relatively basic rather than ‘expert’ level. For example, most of Chapters 2 and 3 will not be new to those familiar with biological and oceanographic aspects of fisheries, and similarly Chapters 4 and 5 will not be new to those familiar with the human dimensions of fisheries. Those familiar with certain topics are welcome to skip over the chapters (or sections of chapters) that cover those topics.
The book is written in a non‐disciplinary manner. Each chapter, rather than focusing on a single discipline, draws on material from a range of disciplines. There are abundant references provided for those wishing to explore topics in further depth, and considerable use is made of ‘boxes’ throughout the book, often as case studies or more in‐depth illustrations of particular points, or as optional side‐trips from the main text. In many cases, the boxes are not referred to specifically in the text itself, but each box is titled, so the reader can decide whether to read the content or not, depending on the topic.
The reader may wonder about the order in which topics appear in the book, and whether it is crucial to follow that order in reading. The answer is that the chapters can generally be read in any order desired – with four exceptions. Chapter 1 introduces the major ideas of the book and really should be read first. Chapter 6 provides a natural opening to Part II on the Fishery Governance and Management System. Similarly, Chapter 13 properly opens Part IV on ‘Modern Strategies for Fishery Systems’. And Chapter 22, the concluding chapter, can be read either last, as intended, or by itself, if the reader wishes to have a rapid sense of the ‘key messages’ of the book. While otherwise the order is not critical, the reader will see, in places, comments about how the current discussion is linked to what is coming up later in the book, or how it relates to what has come before, in previous chapters.
Welcome to Sustainable Fishery Systems. I hope you find this book not only useful but also stimulating and perhaps even provocative.
May 2023
Anthony Charles
Saint Mary's University
Halifax, Canada
Acknowledgements
I owe a debt of gratitude to many people. I am truly fortunate to have worked with so many wonderful colleagues, students, and collaborators over the years.
Around the time the original edition of Sustainable Fishery Systems was published, I began a multi‐decade part of my career that engaged in a close and transdisciplinary way with many in Indigenous organizations and communities, fisher organizations and communities, and nongovernmental organizations – primarily on themes of community‐based fishery management, fishery governance, and community conservation. I am so grateful to all of those colleagues: Randy Angus, Sadie Beaton, Arthur Bull, Dan Edwards, Dawn Foxcroft, Don Hall, Peter Irniq, Russ Jones, Tawney Lem, Marla MacLeod, Sharmalene Mendis‐Millard, Richard Nuna, Ken Paul, Sherry Pictou, Maria Recchia, Hubert Saulnier, Kevin Squires.
Four special individuals have played crucial roles in guiding and supporting me over the years. Colin Clark inspired me from the very beginning of my career, leading me to focus on fisheries and to do so in an interdisciplinary manner. Elisabeth Mann Borgese was very much a role model for me, in her deep caring for the ocean and ocean users, showing how to balance the local and the global, and protection for the natural world and for human communities. Serge Garcia is a broad‐thinking individual with whom I've had countless discussions and published together extensively, and from whom I continue to learn a great deal. Fikret Berkes has been, and continues to be, a much‐appreciated mentor and guide, a strong supporter, and a colleague I love working with, in many productive projects. I would also like to highlight Sherry Pictou who has taught me so much about Indigenous issues and analyses, and Jake Rice, for the many insights he has shared on national and international fisheries. I am grateful as well to Arthur Bull, John Kearney, Chris Milley, and Melanie Wiber for helping me learn the ropes of community‐based fisheries, and to my many collaborators at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for years of productive connections.
Several colleagues provided particular help with certain chapters, whether in the form of insightful reviews of chapters or giving extensive general guidance on a topic. This book would be far inferior without their contribution, and I would like to gratefully acknowledge them, while taking sole responsibility for any errors. The individuals are as follows, chapter by chapter:
Chapter 1: Serge Garcia, Daniel Lane; 2,3: Bruce Hatcher, Jeff Hutchings, Brad deYoung; 4: Svein Jentoft, John Kearney, Sherry Pictou; 5: Melanie Wiber, 6: Derek Armitage, Fikret Berkes, David VanderZwaag; 8: Minerva Arce‐Ibarra, Brian Davy; 9: Fikret Berkes, Jeff Hutchings, Ken Paul, Michael Sinclair; 11: Fikret Berkes; 12: Jake Rice, Michael Sinclair; 13: Chris Béné, Fikret Berkes, Heather Boyd, Angel Herrera, Jeff Hutchings, Gary Newkirk; 14: Kevern Cochrane, Michael Fogarty; 15: Kevern Cochrane, Cassandra de Young, Michael Fogarty, Serge Garcia, Jon Lien; 16: Maarten Bavinck, Parzival Copes, Serge Garcia, Ralph Townsend, Melanie Wiber, Rolf Willmann; 17: Fikret Berkes, Arthur Bull, Jennifer Graham, Melanie Wiber, John Kearney; 18: Lena Westlund, Silvia Salas, Jessica Sanders; 19: Serge Garcia, Jake Rice; 21: Daniela Kalikoski, Juan Carlos Seijo. Small‐scale fisheries throughout: Nicole Franz, Lena Westlund, Rolf Willmann.
I have worked very closely with a wide range of colleagues in writing books, journal articles, and public reports over the course of my career. Every time that happens, and there have been many such times, I learn a great deal. I am grateful to all these co‐authors for their ideas and insights, many of which undoubtedly found their way into this book. As always, any errors are my own. Here is the extensive list of co‐authors, and I am sorry if I have missed anyone:
Emelita Agbayani
Renato Agbayani
John Abraham
Max Agüero
Steve Alexander
Eddie Allison
Carol Amaratunga
Tissa Amaratunga
Randy Angus
Joe Appiott
Minerva Arce‐Ibarra
Derek Armitage
Robert Arthur
Natalie Ban
Hu Baotong
Manuel Barange
Devin Bartley
Maarten Bavinck
Jennifer Beckensteiner
John Beddington
Evelyn Belleza
Chris Béné
Cheryl Benjamin
Nathan Bennett
Samantha Berdej
Fikret Berkes
Alicia Bermudez
Paul Boudreau
Heather Boyd
Theo Brainerd
Yvan Breton
Arthur Bull
Chris Burbidge
Michael Butler
Mark Butler
Mauricio Castrejón
Joseph Catanzano
Omer Chouinard
Patrick Christie
Ratana Chuenpagdee
Colin Clark
Scott Coffen‐Smout
Parzival Copes
Mel Cross
Iain Davidson‐Hunt
Brad de Young
Cassandra de Young
Libby Dean
Phil Dearden
Paul Degnbol
Ana Carolina Esteves Dias
Cathy Dichmont
Daniela Diz
Rod Dobell
Nancy Doubleday
Bruce Downie
Dan Edwards
Alison Evans
Lucia Fanning
Michael Fogarty
Nicole Franz
Kim Friedman
Serge Garcia
Maria Gasalla
Razieh Ghayoumi
Exequiel González
Hugh Govan
Jennifer Graham
Leslie Grattan
Chen Hailiang
Marcus Haward
Amy Heim
John Helliwell
Michael Henderson
Angel Herrera
Shannon Hicks
Amber Himes‐Cornell
Karla Infante Ramírez
Simon Jennings
Svein Jentoft
Derek Johnson
Michel Kaiser
Daniela Kalikoski
John Kearney
Ahmed Khan
Marloes Kraan
Annie Lalancette
Daniel Lane
Amanda Lavers
Bertrand Le Gallic
Jennifer Leith
Marc Léopold
Philip Levin
Rachel Long
Laura Loucks
Pamela Mace
Alison Macnaughton
Mitsutaku Makino
Marc Mangel
Michael Margolick
Melissa Marschke
Jack Mathias
Leigh Mazany
Ian McAllister
Patrick McConney
Kathleen Miller
Chris Milley
EJ Milner‐Gulland
Dan Mombourquette
Hermie Montalvo
Gordon Munro
Cintia Nascimento
Nopparat Nasuchon
Prateep Nayak
Alfredo Ortega
Jose Padilla
Sean Pascoe
Barbara Paterson
Daniel Pauly
Carolyn Peach Brown
Ian Perry
Randall Peterman
Sherry Pictou
Evelyn Pinkerton
Ryan Plummer
Robert Pomeroy
Tavis Potts
Melina Puley
Maria Recchia
Bill Reed
Jake Rice
Murray Rudd
Silvia Salas
Jessica Sanders
Arif Satria
Hubert Saulnier
Juan Seijo Carlos
Cristiana Seixas
Merle Sowman
Dale Squires
Kevin Squires
Paul Starr
Robert Stephenson
Bozena Stomal
Rashid Sumaila
Larissa Sweeney
Chris Taggart
Olivier Thébaud
Ralph Townsend
Peter Tyedmers
Raul Villanueva‐Poot
Nireka Weeratunge
Jean‐Yves Weigel
Peter Wells
Dirk Werle
Lena Westlund
Alan White
George White
Melanie Wiber
Rolf Willmann
Kate Wilner
Xiongzhi Xue
Chiwen Yang
Becca Zimmerman
I am grateful as well for the wonderful collaborations and interactions with the following:
Megan Bailey
Kevern Cochrane
Cathy Conrad
Brian Davy
Luciana de Araujo Gomes
Alice R. de Moraes
Roger Doyle
Dachanee Emphandu
Maren Headley
Karla Infante Ramírez
Camila Islas Alvez
Dominique Levieil
Elisabeth Mann Borgese
Philile Mbatha
Rodrigo Menafra
Ransom Myers
Brenda Parlee
Cristina Pita
Jeremy Pittman
Ameyali Ramos
Kaitlyn Rathwell
Wayne Rice
Trudy Sable
Ann Shriver
Kristen Walker‐Painemilla
I want to express my great thanks to all my research assistants, over the years, who provided invaluable support in the preparation of this book. A special note of thanks to Shannon Hicks for a wide range of support and to Larissa Sweeney for great assistance with the book's figures.
Cheryl Benjamin
Kristina Benoit
Chris Burbidge
Erica Escobar
Shannon Hicks
Patrick Larter
Trymore Maganga
Robynique Maynard
Nicole McLearn
Erin Rankin
Ashley Shelton
Larissa Sweeney
Meagan Symington
Rebecca Zimmerman
I appreciate the support of Wiley, (Rebecca Ralf, Antony Sami, Kerry Powell, Rosie Hayden, Joss Everett, Karthick Elango, Manju Pasupathy) and for the original edition, Blackwell Science (notably Richard Miles and Nigel Balmforth, as well as that of series editor Tony Pitcher).
Finally, my greatest appreciation goes to my wife, Beth Abbott, for her longstanding and patient support of my work, and my now‐adult children – Ivy and Gavin – for being generally wonderful.
Part IFishery Systems
1Introducing Fishery Systems
The title of this book – Sustainable Fishery Systems – reflects a combination of two inter‐related terms: ‘sustainable fisheries’ and ‘fishery systems’. An underlying premise of the book is that success in the pursuit of sustainability (and the related goal of resilience) is closely linked to adoption of a sufficiently broad conception of the fishery as a ‘system’ of interacting ecological, biophysical, economic, social, cultural, legal, and management components.
This statement of purpose raises several obvious questions. What exactly is a ‘fishery system’ and how is a systems perspective connected with sustainability and resilience? Further, what are sustainability and resilience, and why are they important in fisheries? What might a sustainable, resilient fishery look like? These questions are explored in detail within the book, but the discussion is introduced here in this chapter.
1.1 Sustainability and Resilience
First, consider the idea of sustainability. In recent years, it has become standard practice, in all sectors of economic activity, to emphasise the pursuit of sustainable development – through which the economy operates in such a way as to meet human needs now while safeguarding the future (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987; Kates et al. 2005; FAO 2019; United Nations 2020). This concept is by no means new to fishery, or to forestry and other renewable resource sectors, where the idea of achieving a sustainable yield from the resource – a level of output that can be maintained indefinitely into the future – has been central to discussion (if not action) for many decades. The sustainable development approach has, however, brought about an important evolution from a focus merely on ‘sustaining the output’ to a more integrated view in which sustainability is multifaceted, and emphasises the process as much as the output (Griggs et al. 2013).
All this discussion of sustainability is timely, given the unfortunate reality that – despite the above‐noted history within fisheries of discussing sustainability, and despite the current worldwide focus on sustainable development – many fisheries are in a state of crisis, requiring urgent attention. Many international agencies and congresses (e.g. Charles et al. 2016; Asche et al. 2018; OECD 2019) are focusing on this and the consequent need for strategies to promote sustainable fisheries.
This book explores that idea of sustainable fisheries. Certainly, sustainability concerns arise in terms of the abundance of fishery resources (whether there is plenty of fish in the sea) but there are other areas of concern as well: from the health of the fishery ecosystem to the state of the fishery's social and economic structure to the well‐being of fishing communities and of management institutions. Given these diverse concerns, pursuing sustainable fisheries is best seen not only in terms of how much fish is in the sea (and keeping the catch of fish to a level ‘not too large’) but much more comprehensively (Charles 1994; Garcia et al. 2014a; Stephenson et al. 2019). As noted by Ravagnan et al. (2017, p. 2):
…the increasing and diverse use of the marine resources calls for a holistic approach to seafood management that combines environmental, social and economic aspects for achieving sustainable development … The traditional sectorial approach has not been successful in marine management…
Accordingly, sustainability can be usefully viewed as requiring the maintaining or enhancing all four key components: ecological sustainability (including maintaining and/or enhancing the sustainability, resilience, and overall health of the ecosystem), socioeconomic sustainability (maintaining/enhancing long‐term socioeconomic welfare, including net benefits and reasonable distribution of benefits), community sustainability (sustaining communities as valuable human systems), and institutional sustainability (sustaining financing, administrative, and organisational capability). Aspects of these four components of sustainability will be discussed at various points throughout this book.
A Quick Introduction to Institutions
Throughout the book, there will be mention of institutions, as in ‘institutional sustainability’ above. At times, this refers to an organisation of some sort such as a Department of Fisheries, a fishery co‐operative, a United Nations agency, a fish market, or a scientific research body. It can also refer to a set of rules or guidelines that regulate behaviour in a fishery. North (1990) takes that second view: ‘Institutions are the rules of the game in a society’. From a practical perspective, these two senses of ‘institution’ are related: a fishery management agency is an organisation that itself reflects society's rules for managing fisheries. Similarly, an association of fishing people or a community organisation is an institution that can create local mechanisms for sharing fishery resources, or for responsible behaviour in fishing. Having the ‘right’ institution is needed for sustainability – they need to be structured properly, with widespread support, and seen as fair and just. Other factors making a fishery management institution work effectively, and much more on institutions, will be discussed later in the book, in Chapters 6, 14, 16, 17, and elsewhere. Indeed, within this book, the term ‘institution’ is used often, and in either of the above senses, depending on the context.
Management and policy measures to promote fishery sustainability are certainly central to this book, and any attempt to analyse aspects of sustainability requires a broad, integrated view of the fishery. Specifically, sustainable development is not just a matter of protecting fish stocks but rather involves all aspects of the fishery. We cannot assess the state of ecological sustainability if we fail to look at the ecosystem beyond individual fish stocks, and we cannot enhance community sustainability if we restrict our attention solely to those catching the fish.
In addition, complementary to sustainability is the fundamental goal of resilience – the ability of a fishery to absorb and ‘bounce back’ from perturbations caused by natural or human actions. Resilience can be defined more rigorously (Hughes et al. 2005, p. 380) as the ability of a system to ‘absorb recurrent natural and human perturbations and continue to regenerate without slowly degrading or unexpectedly flipping into alternate states’. (See also Armitage et al. 2017; Merrill et al. 2018.)
As will be discussed, the idea of resilience, while first formulated with ecosystems in mind (Holling 1973), is of great relevance to all parts of the fishery. Indeed, resilience is needed in the human aspects of the fishery (e.g. the socioeconomic structure and fishing communities) and in the management infrastructure and governance institutions, as well as in the ecosystem. For example, management must be designed with resilience in mind, so that if something unexpected happens (as it will, from time to time), the management processes still perform adequately. Sustainability and resilience must go hand‐in‐hand in fisheries, with the two being mutually necessary and mutually supporting. The widespread range of experiences with fishery collapses worldwide clearly suggest a lack of both sustainability and resilience in these cases.
Conservation
The word ‘conservation’ will be used often in this book and is very widely used throughout all fishery discussions. However, the meaning of ‘conservation’ is not always clear.
Following the early 1990s cod fishery collapse on the Atlantic coast of Canada (to be discussed at several points in this book – see especially Chapter 12), the government set up an organisation called the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council to give advice on what to do after that devastating fishery collapse. The first topic discussed on that council was the meaning of ‘conservation’ – or specifically, how did the name of the Council reflect its actual mandate. Some worried that conservation might mean ‘preservation’ in the sense of preserving the fish by keeping fishers away. But in fact, that advisory body's mandate was focused on the idea of conservation as ‘sustainable use’.
That reflects the links of conservation and sustainability, ones that will be important throughout the book. Wishing to ‘conserve the fish’ may suggest a desire to ensure healthy populations of fish, plenty of fish in the sea or the lake, at least avoiding the number of fish dropping too low. Pursuit of ‘marine environmental conservation’ may focus on efforts to have healthy ocean ecosystems with abundant life in them. These are two reasonable ways to look at ‘conservation’, which involves a complex mix of various activities. In some cases, it may involve an urgent act of ‘preserving’ (perhaps for threatened species or areas) while in other cases it is more a matter of ‘maintaining’ what we have (indeed, this often being the sense of ‘sustainability’) and in a third form, conservation can involve actively ‘rebuilding’ of fish stocks (Garcia et al. 2018) or ‘restoring’ (particularly used to refer to aquatic habitat or ecosystems).
1.2 Rationale for a Systems Approach
The broad nature of sustainability and resilience in fisheries leads us to recognise the need for a ‘systems focus’ that looks comprehensively at the full fishery system. The idea of this approach is to envision fisheries as webs of inter‐related, interacting ecological, biophysical, economic, social, and cultural components – not as the fish separate from those doing the fishing, separate from the processors, and so on. A systems perspective is an integrated one, facilitating the assessment of management and policy measures in terms of implications throughout the system. The need for such a perspective has been put forward for many years (e.g. Berkes et al. 2002), but has particularly emerged as a key lesson in recent decades, as the reductionism at the heart of most scientific disciplines (the idea of dividing up the study of a system into small pieces for ease of analysis) has been seen to be useful but not sufficient. To put it simply, we cannot lose sight of the forest while we study the trees.
A focus on systems avoids both an overly simplistic view of the fishery – ‘fish in the sea, people in boats’ – and the contrasting view of the fishery as an unintelligible mess of ‘so many types of fish, so many ways of fishing, so many conflicts’. While fisheries certainly are complex, there is a pattern, a structure, and a set of fundamental themes that arise repeatedly in fishery discussions.
A systems perspective aims to look at this ‘big picture’ in order to: (1) better understand the unique nature of the fishery as a human activity, and (2) through this, help make the fishery ‘work better’. For example, this can involve understanding the two‐way flow in which the natural aquatic systems produce benefits to humans, and in turn, conservation work by humans improves ecosystem health, and using that understanding to develop appropriate management measures and policies to support the two‐way flow (e.g. Charles 2021).
As Stephenson et al. (2017, pp. 1986–1987) note, an integrated approach involves ‘a more diverse set of objectives that include the higher standards of ecological integrity and diverse social, economic and institutional aspects of sustainability’ and ‘promises better success at meeting objectives, fewer unintended consequences, better appreciation and support of management and increased management credibility’. In contrast, ‘Failure to adopt a more comprehensive integrated approach will perpetuate the focus on a subset of primarily ecological objectives and the neglect of many social, economic and institutional objectives. This will result in further unintended (or at least untracked) consequences, failure to achieve the diverse spectrum of objectives in legislation, and further loss of confidence in management systems’.
An integrated approach represents ‘a solution to the overly‐narrow approaches that fed fisheries management crises’ through ‘recognition that fisheries issues, just as deforestation or climate change, are not merely ecological or scientific but also social and political, requiring strong socio‐political processes, laden with issues of social justice, societal values, and equity’ (Garcia and Charles 2008, p. 525). Indeed, Degnbol and McCay (2007) warned of ‘unintended and perverse consequences of ignoring linkages in fisheries systems’.
With this rationale, a major focus of the book lies in developing an integrated view of the fishery system – exploring the nature, structure, and dynamics of the various components of the fishery. The idea is to provide an idea of the ‘pieces of the puzzle’ in fisheries, and how they fit together to create a fishery system.
1.3 Fishery Systems as Social‐Ecological Systems
This chapter begins the examination of fishery systems with an overview of their nature, structure, and characterisation, including the various approaches available for depicting fishery systems – in diagrams, words, or ‘pictures’. We then explore the various ways to define and characterise fishery systems, particularly in terms of their spatial scale, and the dichotomy between small‐scale and large‐scale fisheries.
The discussion in this chapter is framed around the concept of ‘social‐ecological systems’ (SES). The SES approach is one of the most important developments in recent decades – see Berkes et al. (2002) and a range of other work, such as Wilson (2006), Ommer et al. (2012), Hunt et al. (2013), and Colding and Barthel (2019). The SES approach builds on a longstanding recognition of the systems nature of fisheries (Garcia and Charles 2008), in which eco‐ and human systems interact in complex ways that affect overall governance. As Santos et al. (2017, p. 60) note, ‘resources are embedded in complex, social‐ecological systems’ including such components as ‘resource system, resource units, users, governance systems’ and these ‘interact to produce outcomes at the SES level’ which in turn implies the need for ‘scientific knowledge that combine ecological and social sciences’. Indeed, the popularity of an SES approach has moved the longstanding systems approach into standard practice within environmental and natural resource fields, as a mechanism to integrate ecosystems, human systems (e.g. fisheries, fishing communities, and coastal regions), and governance systems.
At this point, it is important to lay out some terminology and some assumptions that will continue throughout the book. These are described in the boxes below.
Fishers, Fishworkers, and Harvesters
In French‐speaking places, a person who fishes is referred to as a ‘pêcheur’ and similarly in Spanish‐speaking locations, it is ‘pescador’. In the English language, figuring out what to call such a person is remarkably challenging, and can vary from country to country. In many places, those who go fishing professionally call themselves ‘fishermen’ (‘fisherman’ for one), including women who do so. However, current thinking about the use of words would consider ‘fisherman’ to be along the lines of ‘fireman’ for someone who fights fires – and over time, in many places, ‘fireman’ has been replaced with ‘firefighter’. There has been a similar effort to use different words for those who fish, but there are various options. For example, of the world's two major organisations of fishing people, one (World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers, WFF) uses ‘fish harvesters’ while the other refers to ‘fisher peoples’ (World Forum of Fisher Peoples, WFFP).
For fishery publications – books, journals, and reports – what term is used? That is perhaps most commonly the word ‘fisher’. Although when I am working with fishermen colleagues, I will use the term they prefer, for this book, ‘fisher’ will be used throughout. Other options are ‘harvester’ or ‘fishworker’. However, ‘fishworker’ has its own range of definitions, sometimes referring to everyone working in the fishery (whether fishing or in other aspects, e.g. processing) and sometimes to those working in the fishery excluding fishers per se (usage adopted in this book). The term ‘harvester’ is used, as with the WFF above, by some fishing organisations to describe themselves, although others are less keen on the term. Further, it has another meaning, discussed below.
