FAO.org

Management of artisanal fisheries in coastal lagoons and estuaries is treated in three broad categories -- regulatory management, non-regulatory management, and interactions between fisheries or fishery interests.

Regulation of artisanal fisheries in coastal lagoons and estuaries by government authority is hampered for several reasons. Technical and financial constraints on government severely limit enforcement capabilities. Socio-economic considerations, chiefly the lack of alternative employment opportunities for fishermen, preclude the adoption of many of the classical regulatory management techniques. As a means to complement or supplement management by central government authority, revitalization of local traditional authority is advocated.

Non-regulatory management, the application of methods which increase capture and culture fishery potential through manipulation of the environment, is illustrated by various kinds of hydraulic engineering, predator control, stocking, artificial nursery areas, and brush-park fisheries.

Interactions between fisheries or fishery interests is treated at several levels. Considered are competition between groups of fishermen of different ethnic and economic backgrounds, interactions between artisanal capture fisheries and aquaculture, and competition between artisanal fisheries of coastal lagoons and estuaries and off-shore shore industrial fisheries which fish the same stocks.