Fisheries Management Models: Assumptions and Realities or, Why Shrimpers in Mississippi Are Not Firms

Abstract

The Schaefer-Gordon model of fisheries management does not adequately predict the state of stocks or the behavior of fishermen. In any scientific discourse, this should call the basic assumptions into question. I review the challenges to the model's biological assumptions and argue that its economic assumptions are also flawed. I review the approach developed by A.V. Chayanov for studying peasant economies in conjunction with comparative data on other fisheries and data from Mississippi Shrimpers to show that Chayanov's model characterizes the shrimpers of Mississippi. From the comparative and ethnographic data, I conclude that fishermen do not operate as firms. This further calls into question the adequacy of the current fisheries management model and raises the question of how and why such an inadequate model is perpetuated.

Neoliberalism and the politics of enclosure in North American small-scale fisheries

“…Maritime anthropologists and sociologists have long noted the misfit between many fisheries economists' conceptions of fishermen as disembedded, self-interested rational actors and the ethnographic record of how fishermen and fishermen's organizations actually behave [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Faith in this construction has often enabled the introduction of individual transferable quotas (ITQs), which are permits allowing the holder to catch or transfer a fixed share of a total allowable catch (TAC).…”

Using Private Rights to Manage Natural Resources: Is Stewardship Linked to Ownership?

“…Nonfinancial drivers of behavior have been indicated in a range of other fisheries (Gatewood and McCay 1990, Durrenberger 1997, Salas and Gaertner 2004, Smith and Wilen 2005 and resource systems (Chouinard et al 2008, DeCaro and Stokes 2008, Steg and Vlek 2009). The problem is that they are rarely considered in economic assessments of resource use, which typically assume profit-maximizing behavior (e.g., Huppert 2005, BenDor et al 2009) and often ignore key motivations and behaviors that contribute to the sustainability of fisheries (Salas andGaertner 2004, Branch et al 2006).…”

Producing nature and enacting difference in ecosystem-based fisheries management: An example from the Northeastern US

“…Such matters of context, then, are especially of interest to the development of EBFM and raise issues of scale and governance, as the following sections explore. 3 A number of studies, some now-classic, have specifically explored these multiple, non-monetary factors that affect job satisfaction and fishing practices among fishermen, for whom fishing is not just a livelihood but a cherished way of life ( [28][29][30][31]; see also [32]). 4 Management of US federal fisheries in the US is a joint effort of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a federal regulatory agency, and regional fishery management councils.…”