The 'nature' of fisheries governance: narratives of environment, politics, and power and their implications for changing seascapes

Abstract

This article responds to recent calls for more engagement from political ecologists in ocean and coastal governance concerns, and employs a controversy over the practice of gill netting in North Carolina as a lens into questions about how narratives of nature and power affect fisheries policymaking processes. The article analyzes commercial and recreational fisher narratives about marine ‘nature,’ including perceptions of resource health, expressions of blame or responsibility, and storylines about the different roles of fishers and managers in the process of governing fisheries. The article focuses particularly on how fishers perceive the politics of fisheries management and where they believe power lies in negotiations about the ‘right’ ways to steward and allocate fishery resources. Fisher narratives are then compared to those of fishery regulators themselves. The article asks how the perceptions of different groups about politics and power in fisheries management affect their levels of trust and engagement with each other and with the policymaking process. It offers insights into the complex negotiations over the meaning of terms like ‘conservation,’ ‘endangered,’ and ‘livelihood,’ and analyzes the implications of these narratives for stimulating material changes in the coastal seascape and in the lives of fishers.

Through the Eyes of Another: Using a Narrative Lens to Navigate Complex Social-Ecological Systems and to Embrace Multiple Ways of Knowing

“…Fishers, scientists, policy makers and managers maintain different narratives that express and reinforce different constructs of what terms such as "ocean, " "fish, " "biodiversity" or "sustainability" mean. Boucquey (2020) illustrates this clearly in her narrative analysis of a conflict in North Carolina between recreational fishers, commercial fishers and managers. This conflict was triggered by a ban on gill net fishing, which was allegedly due to the impact this fishing method had on turtle by-catch.…”

“…The relevance of narratives for humans to create meaning of the world on multiple levels has resulted in a flourishing set of "Narrative approaches" originating from a wide array of disciplines including literary criticism, psychoanalysis, history, sociology, anthropology, education, and communication science (Turner, 1976;White, 1990;Bruner, 1991;Freud, 1997;Avraamidou and Osborne, 2009;Kusmanoff et al, 2020). More recently, narrative approaches have also been developed and used in fields like political ecology (Chambers et al, 2017;Boucquey, 2020), climate change adaptation research (Paschen and Ison, 2014) and environmental studies (Robertson et al, 2001). Such narrative approaches can take many forms but they are all interested in the discourses included in narratives that communicate symbols, images, and social practices of individuals but also from communities and cultures (Fisher, 1984;White, 1990;Czarniawska, 2004;Herrmann et al, 2013).…”

“…In marine sciences, examples of contested narratives situations abound. This is especially the case in the context of ocean conservation and governance, where allocation of resources such as fish and space are disputed by groups with different narratives (King, 2005;Boucquey, 2020;Reid et al, 2020). Fishers, scientists, policy makers and managers maintain different narratives that express and reinforce different constructs of what terms such as "ocean, " "fish, " "biodiversity" or "sustainability" mean.…”

“…The analysis of these narratives reveals that the experiential contexts in which these realities occur differ and crystallise in narratives that demonise or valorise certain engagements with the ocean (King, 2005). Therefore, examining the ways in which people talk about "nature, " "sea" or "fish stock" reveals something about the values and assumptions of the people defining the words (Cronon, 1992;Herrmann et al, 2013;Boucquey, 2020). In addition, the analyses of the contested narratives highlighted that these weren't different perspectives on a common issue but also different definitions of what the problem at hand was and how each group uses a diverse set of experiences to frame such problems.…”

“…Thinking about relationships in the social realm, stories and narratives are also important. For example, considering how narratives influence relationships between groups of people is crucial for marine governance and management as this hinges on the connection and co-existence of different actors, stakeholder groups and activities (Boucquey, 2020). As such, stories and narratives exist and operate on multiple levels and serve different functions.…”