1.1 Fisheries in crisis
1.2 Changing priorities in fisheries development
1.3 Understanding fisheries as a system
1.4 Terminology
Up until the beginning of the 1980s, the principal focus of fisheries development, and thus of a large proportion of fisheries projects, was to catch more fish. Policy and decision-makers, concerned with the need to feed rising populations and ensure food security, concentrated on identifying new fisheries resources and new technologies for exploiting them, as well as establishing the means of financing new fisheries enterprises. This emphasis on production has been in tune with the general perception that at this time both marine and freshwater fisheries resources, particularly in less developed countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, were plentiful and generally underexploited. Increasing fisheries production was often an important element in strategies to overcome chronic shortages of protein in many countries. In addition, higher value species of fish could be exported and generate valuable foreign-exchange earnings for countries which often had few other exportable products to offer on world markets.
After four decades of fisheries development based on this approach, the situation of world fisheries has changed radically. Fishing fleets of all kinds - artisanal, semi-industrial and large-scale industrial - have grown rapidly and they are equipped with technology which has increased their catching power and efficiency enormously. The range and coverage of these fleets, and the capacity of world markets to absorb the fish they produce, has expanded to the point where most fisheries resources in the world are now fully, if not over, exploited. Often in spite of the best efforts of fisheries scientists and those entrusted with the management of fisheries resources, major fisheries the world over have been fished beyond their sustainable limits one after another. This has led to the collapse of entire fisheries, and the communities dependent on them, and a steady erosion of the capacity of the seas to provide a sustainable source of food for the world's burgeoning population.
In part, the deterioration in the condition of fisheries resources is the result of poor policy. Some fishing fleets have been heavily subsidised leading to overcapacity and overcapitalisation. This in turn has encouraged cases of exploitation of the resource beyond optimal and therefore sustainable levels.
These failures in fisheries policy are accentuated by the pressure on resources as a result of rising population. Particularly in coastal waters the numbers of people engaged in artisanal and small-scale fishing has often risen dramatically either because of general population increase or pressure on other forms of employment which has pushed people to take up fishing either permanently or on a seasonal basis. The situation in these waters, which were often already heavily exploited, has been made even worse by new semi-industrial or industrial fisheries exploiting the same coastal resources as the small-scale sector, leading to conflicts and the collapse of fish stocks.
In the open ocean, whether in territorial or international waters, regulation of fishing by large-scale offshore fleets has frequently proved difficult due to poor understanding of the biology and population dynamics of fish stocks. Even where resources have been relatively well-understood, the advice of fisheries scientists has often been overridden by political priorities which have encouraged higher rates of exploitation, the expansion (often subsidised) of fishing fleets in order to support employment in the sector, and the subsequent over-fishing of the resource.
As a result, there are now very few areas or fish stocks remaining where fishing effort can be viably expanded or fishing fleets added to. Instead, the priority of fisheries development has become, almost universally, the sustaining of fisheries production through better management of the resource.
At least partly because of this widespread crisis in world fisheries and the shift in focus which it has caused, some of the complexities of fisheries systems have also become clearer. "Fisheries development", in the past, was almost universally interpreted as meaning "increased fisheries production", usually through the identification of un-, or under-, exploited resources, the development of new and more efficient technology for exploiting them, and the facilitation of the diffusion and adoption of that technology. The effects of this constant drive for expansion of fishing effort are now becoming all too obvious as fishing industries the world over face economic crisis because of overcapitalisation and declining resources But it has also become increasingly apparent that introduced changes in fisheries have often had unexpected consequences above and beyond their impact on fisheries resources and on the efficiency and productivity of fisheries.
Fisheries development has often generated, at least in the short term, improved food supply and significant benefits for those involved in the sector. But, in some cases, it has also had more ambiguous results. Particularly in some less developed economies, the improvements expected through the introduction of new technologies and the raising of production levels have not materialised or have been achieved at the cost of significant disruption in the livelihoods of other groups of people dependent on the sector.
For example, the sudden jump in fish catches following the introduction of large-scale industrial fisheries has sometimes had dramatic effects on the price of fish and the structure of the market with negative impacts on artisanal fishers who have often not had the resources or skills to adapt to changing circumstances. Those people displaced by changes in the structure of the industry caused by technical innovations, such as small-scale fishers, fish traders and processors, have at times not been able to find alternative sources of employment.
Even where planning for the fisheries sector has tried to take account of these potential impacts, the structure of economic and political power has often meant that the benefits of new technologies and new forms of organisation in the sector have been channelled in different ways from those originally envisaged. Improvements in domestic supplies of fish in some poorer countries have not always occurred. The economic imperatives of industrial-scale fisheries, such as industrial trawling, and their dependence on world markets for fisheries products in order to be viable, has often meant that effort has been concentrated on high-value species for export. In some fisheries, large quantities of lower-value fish, which would normally feed local people, are caught as by-catch only to be discarded, causing significant wastage within the fisheries system.
These experiences in fisheries development have led to a better appreciation of the complexity of the mechanisms in which fisheries decision-makers are intervening during the course of their work. The shift in planning priorities from development to management has made this even clearer. Past fisheries planning approaches tended to look at fisheries as a combination of resources, the technology required to exploit them and the economic forces driving demand for fisheries products (Fig.1).
Figure 1: Fisheries systems in early planning approaches
However, it has become increasingly clear that a far wider range of factors combine to make up the fisheries system and that they all need to be considered in order to formulate interventions which are appropriate and do not irremediably damage the system. Besides the resources and technologies which are directly utilised by the sector, interactions with other sectors are clearly significant - coastal industries can affect water which can affect fish, forest management in the hills affects water quality in rivers which also affects fish, both in the rivers themselves and in the sea into which those rivers flow. Understanding of the economic context of fisheries has also been broadened and deepened to take into account the macroeconomic environment and the economic connection which can link even the smallest-scale artisanal fisher to global markets both for fisheries and other products.
The complexity of the system surrounding the use of fisheries resources is practically open-ended, with many elements constituting sub-systems in their own right which may require detailed analysis. The social and cultural factors which affect the people participating in the fisheries sector are particularly complex as they connect the system focused around the use of fisheries resources to a far broader system which determines the ways in which people interact with one another. However, complex as these factors may be, they are increasingly being recognised as of key importance. Many past failures in fisheries development and management have been attributed to the failure of those responsible to understand the wide range of social and cultural factors in the lives of people involved in the sector and their affects on fisheries interventions. The social structure of fishing communities, the forms of institutions governing resource-use, the patterns of decision-making among resource-users or the historical and cultural background of fishing communities can all have a profound influence on the way innovations in fisheries are perceived or how management initiatives are accepted, regardless of how appropriate those innovations or initiatives might seem to analysts and decision-makers themselves.
Figure 2: Complex fisheries systems
However, in addressing these social elements, those involved in making decisions for the fisheries sector or designing its development and management have frequently found themselves at a loss due to the lack of appropriate skills within fisheries agencies. The biological, technical and economic focus of fisheries development in the past is, not surprisingly, reflected in the composition of fisheries departments the world over. Proper incorporation of social issues into the process of making policy, formulating strategies and designing interventions for fisheries will inevitably require an increase in the numbers of social scientists involved in fisheries agencies, as only they are likely to have the particular training required to carry out detailed social analysis. But more awareness within fisheries agencies of the key aspects of the social sphere, the terms and concepts involved in social analysis and the ways in which social analysis can be incorporated into the more general analysis of conditions required for strategic planning is of equal importance in ensuring that social issues are given the level of importance they require in the planning process.
This paper aims to improve this general awareness by providing an introduction to the social elements in fisheries systems, and how fisheries agencies can go about analysing and understanding these elements so that they can be better addressed.
Some clarification of the terms used in this discussion is needed. In particular, the role of those involved in institutions engaged in the fisheries sector requires some definition.
1.4.1 Fisheries managers
These are referred to as institutional figures not concerned merely with the management of fisheries resources in the biological sense, but with managing change within the fisheries sector. Thus the term "fisheries manager" can refer to a relatively wide range of technical, administrative and decision-making roles which are concerned with the sector. Significantly, as used in this paper, "fisheries manager" does not mean someone merely concerned with conserving fisheries resources but can also be with developing the sector and making it more efficient.
1.4.2 Fisheries administrators
This term is used to refer more specifically to those covering institutional roles concerned with sector and its regular functioning. For the purposes of this paper the term is used to distinguish those concerned with the sector in a more strategic sense, i.e planners and decision-makers, from those involved in a more practical sense i.e. administrators. However, fisheries administrators are regarded as one type of fisheries manager.
1.4.3 Decision-makers
Decision-makers are referred to as those who are responsible for making strategic decisions regarding the fisheries sector. Thus they are concerned with the formulation of policies for the sector and the development of strategies for its management which will then be implemented by a range of "managers" working at different levels and within different institutions and agencies.
1.4.4 Fisheries planning
Fisheries planning is intended here to refer to the process of formulation of strategies for the fisheries sector and therefore refers more to the activities carried out by decision and policy makers. Increasingly, the extent to which any sector can be "planned" by single institutions or agencies is being questioned, but the importance of a general definition of sectoral goals and strategies is widely accepted to ensure that resources are used efficiently and conflicts are minimised.
1.4.5 Interventions
The management of fisheries is increasingly perceived as a collaborative activity involving all stakeholders in the fisheries sector. However, in many parts of the world, depending on the political and social context, management of the sector may rely on interventions introduced by institutions, bureaucracies or other agencies who are not dependent on fisheries in the same way as the resource-users who will be primarily affected by their interventions. The subsequent degree of involvement of resource-users in implementing these measures will vary but "intervention" is intended here to refer to those elements of management of fisheries which are dependent on "outside" agencies.
