The behavioural dynamics of fishers: management implications

Abstract

In pursuing their livelihood, fishers develop strategies when faced with changes in regulations and other fishery conditions. Changes involve each individual in a decision‐making process governed by his/her own goals or constraints. Despite this reality, the complex dynamics of fishing has usually been ignored in designing management initiatives, which has contributed to management failures in many parts of the world. Fishers have generally been treated as fixed elements, with no consideration of individual attitudes based on their operating scales (geographical, ecological, social and economic) and personal goals. We review existing research on the social, economic and behavioural dynamics of fishing to provide insight into fisher behaviour and its implications for fisheries management. Emphasis is placed on fisher perception, and how fishers develop dynamic fishing tactics and strategies as an adaptive response to changes in resource abundance, environmental conditions and market or regulatory constraints. We conclude that knowledge of these dynamics is essential for effective management, and we discuss how such information can be collected, analysed and integrated into fisheries assessment and management. Particular emphasis is placed on small‐scale fisheries, but some examples from industrial fleets are provided to highlight similar issues in different types of fisheries.

Spatio-temporal distribution and target species in a longline fishery off the southeastern coast of Brazil

“…The influence of the north portion of the SCZ, however, is most pronounced close to the southern coast of Brazil (OLSON et al, 1988), during the second and third quarters, which might explain the higher catches of swordfish, in sub-area 2, during the third quarter (MOURATO et al, 2007;ERZINI, 2008). A proper identification of the spatial and temporal variation in the distribution of fishing effort is a key factor, not only to adequately compensate for its influence when standardizing CPUE, prior to its use in stock assessments (MAUNDER;PUNT, 2004), but also in the design of effective conservation and management measures (SALAS;GAERTNER, 2004). Such distribution evidently reflects fishermen's behavior, which may strongly influence the apparent abundance of the species caught and due to, sometimes subtle, changes in targeting strategy.…”

“…The targeting strategy of a given fishery is determined by a complex interaction of various factors, including environmental constraints, stock availability, market variability and advances in fishing technologies and methods (SALAS;GAERTNER, 2004). For that reason, the longline fleet based in Sao Paulo has changed target species through time.…”

Technical efficiency of small-scale fishing households in Tanzanian coastal villages: an empirical analysis

“…Increasing small-scale fishing households' productivity becomes a vital issue. Although the importance of linking fishing households' behaviour and their productivity has often been raised in policy debates on coastal resources management (Gaertner et al 1999, Salas and Gaertner 2004, there have not been any recent empirical studies done in Tanzania. This paper aims at Keywords: coastal areas, fisheries development, policy development, socio-economic factors, stochastic production frontier Sesabo and Tol 52 identifying factors which influence the technical efficiency of small-scale fishing households in order to derive policy options for sustainable management of the small-scale fishery sector.…”

Spatio-temporal distribution and target species of longline fisheries off Southeastern/Southern Brazil between 2000 and 2011

“…Preferences, skills, perceptions and access to resources play a fundamental role in the success of the catch and the distribution of fishing effort (SALAS;GAERTNER, 2004). These strategies are one of the most important factors that affect Catch Per Unit Effort -CPUE (HE et al, 1997).…”