Marine sacrificial zones are planned areas dedicated to the toxic violence of carbo-chemical port development around the world. In the marine environment in Chile, repeated fisher led new social movements have been raised regarding the need to create laws controlling marine pollution from combined coal power station/extraction complexes and realise participatory blue epistemic justice. A series of case studies from across Chile demonstrate the importance of integrating fisher observations of contamination. Interviews and participatory GIS shows how fisher communities LEK observations can be integrated from Quintero, Mejillones and Coronel, which help generalise about the participatory solutions to the impacts of other coastal industrial complexes. The social protests of 2020–2021 opened up a new space for environmental rights through a successful campaign for a new Chilean constitution, the importance of which is shown by the politization of the violence of these sacrificial zones locally and globally. Differently to the creation of the constitution by the neoliberal dictatorship, the participatory space afforded by a people’s constitution through a plebiscite means that environmental justice concerns can be implemented in concrete form.
English inshore fishers have long campaigned through the New Under 10m Fishermen's Association to have a fair share of the UK's fishing opportunities and to be involved in inshore fisheries management. They argue that their allocation of ∼2% of the UK Share of Total Allowable Catch species is unjust, with the inshore fleet contributing 78% of the workforce. Their concern, beyond quota shares, is that Local Ecological Knowledge / real time information from fishing grounds does not feature as information in the determination of the Marine Management Organisation's Fixed Quota Allocation pool. This is thought to be top down, inflexible and having limited potential for adaptive co-management. At the same time, this entails increased distrust for the Common Fisheries Policy, often through conflated ideas about who is to blame for the allocation of national quota within the UK. Once the overall Total Allowable Catch levels have been agreed on, every December at an EU wide level, fishing opportunities are given out by the member state. Many fishers and the wider public are surprised it is the member state's responsibility to assign access between fleets. Indeed, it is the Fixed Quota Allocation system which has left only 2% of the UK share of TAC species with inshore fishers, a decision which would benefit from a public enquiry. Leasing enough UK, Fixed Quota allocation Units is a barrier to entry for young fishers, as lease costs are high and inshore fisheries are mixed. An ageing knowledge base, with few new recruits to continue practising it, means the intergenerational transmission of fisher LEK is more at risk. Alongside this, the associated cultural value created by fisheries communities is under threat as a result of the inequality in terms of access to fishing opportunities. The newly recognised Coastal Producer Organisation could manage the 2% of the UK share of Total Allowable Catch, alongside promised ‘uplifts’ and any increases which may occur as a result of leaving the ‘relative stability’ system of EU Total Allowable Catch share. The Coastal Producer Organisation will listen to fishers and manage quota adaptively without permanently gifting fishing rights. Catchapp can be a way for members to integrate their fisher LEK to form the basis for real time updates to changes on fishing grounds. This can support determination in a scientifically robust manner improving on the previous monthly pool allocations for the seasonal mixed inshore fishery. This is an urgent requirement to improve buy in, compliance, confidence in science and foster adaptive co-management.
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