Introduction to the Special Feature on rebuilding fisheries and threatened communities

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In this introductory essay to the Special Feature on rebuilding fisheries and threatened communities, we review the contributions of the researchers whose work is contained in this Special Feature. The essays are reviewed using the lens of the three questions that were posed by the Special Feature editors: Why is rebuilding so challenging? What is the relationship between fishery collapse/degradation and short-and long-term issues for food security, livelihoods, employment, and industrial and community resilience? How can we avoid situations in which the communities and people who may have contributed least to collapses/degradation end up paying the most for rebuilding and, indeed, may no longer be in a position where they can benefit from the results of their necessary sacrifices?Key Words: changing industrial structures and organizational and industrial strategies from ocean to plate; geographic locus of key decisionmaking about fisheries management; higher-level governance actions; marine social-ecological interactions in the form of shifting ecologies INTRODUCTION: RATIONALE FOR THIS SPECIAL FEATUREThe Community-University Research for Recovery Alliance (CURRA; http://www.curra.ca) was a seven-year initiative that used community-engaged research carried out in west coast Newfoundland fishery-dependent communities to help identify strategies for building ecologically, economically, and socially resilient fisheries and fishery communities. CURRA researchers from multiple disciplines worked with different methods and tools to investigate collaboratively a range of issues. These issues included the following: challenges related to rebuilding collapsed fisheries and threatened communities; the documentation of regional cod migration patterns; research on invasive species, species at risk, and lobster conservation initiatives; missed opportunities for synergies between fisheries and tourism and between fisheries and food security; young people's perceptions of fisheries and their home communities; and the effects of globalization and changing labor markets on current and future options for regional fisheries. CURRA researchers and community partners jointly developed community sustainability plans, as well as community radio capacity and programming.

Evaluating and implementing social–ecological systems: A comprehensive approach to sustainable fisheries

“…Further, the social–cultural and institutional aspects tend, when considered, to be in separate processes (Link et al., ). Insufficient attention to the human dimensions including distribution of access and benefits, community sustainability and well‐being has resulted in unintended or untracked consequences, an inability of nations to achieve the aspirations of modern “oceans” legislation and public dissatisfaction with management processes (Begg et al., ; Haward, Jabour, & McDonald, ; Ommer & Neis, ).…”

Environmental change and food security: the special case of small island developing states

“…This approach challenges the view of human and ecological systems as being separate and instead embraces their interdependencies, with human systems a part of, and thus shaping and being shaped by, ecological systems (Berkes and Folke 1998;Berkes et al 2003). SES thinking has been used to understand a range of natural resource issues in the context of forests and fisheries (e.g., Cilliers et al 2013;Glaser and Glaeser 2014;Ommer and Neis 2014) and is increasingly being applied to the study of food systems. Ericksen (2008) argued for an SES approach to analyzing the ''synergistic effects of the multiple stresses that interact with food systems, sometimes making these systems vulnerable' ' (p. 14).…”

Modern Forms Of Fishery Enterprise Management: Ecological Aspect

“…Opportunities and problems of fisheries are largely caused by the specifics of its raw material base, which is an element of the world's ocean ecosystem and directly depends on its condition and reproductive abilities. Modern reality is so that because of the negative anthropogenic impact on the aquatic and biological environment of seas and oceans in the context of global climate change, there has been a critical deterioration in the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of fishing objects, which is mentioned in a number of scientific and applied publications (Ommer & Neis, 2014;Voss et al, 2017). The world community (represented by international public organizations, including the specialized UNO agencies and individual fishery management organizations) has developed a number of normative documents (within the framework of the ISO 14000 and ISO 19000 series of standards) and policy documents (Hambrey, 2017;European Commission, 2016;European Commission, 2017;Resolution…, 2015) aimed at implementing an ecosystem approach to the fishery, including aquaculture.…”