Small scale fisheries and the community: an alternative perspective
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COMMENTARY
Small scale fisheries and the community: an alternative perspective David Symes 1 Received: 11 November 2020 / Accepted: 16 November 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
I have long been in awe of sociologists and social anthropologists who through long periods of study living in the community are able to conjure up something of its inner organisation, interpersonal relations, beliefs and values that shape the inhabitants’ behaviours and ambitions. And I have been more than happy to use their findings to support my own research. Hence, I was delighted to read Svein Jentoft’s Life above water, an illuminating re-evaluation of the close relationship between community and small scale fisheries. My concern is whether that relationship will prove robust enough to withstand the pressures of modern fisheries management. Here, I assume the role of the devil’s advocate to suggest that what may be at risk are the community values, not the small scale fisheries. Throughout the developed world, processes of globalisation, economic rationalisation, urbanisation and demographic transition have conspired to undermine the economic rationale of small scale fisheries and threaten their social reproduction. Fisheries policy has compounded the problem and the changing perspectives of the fishing community are captured in Ross’ 2015 paper on ‘communities of the mind’. No longer an occupation of necessity, small scale fisheries have become an endangered species without the protected status conferred by government. Governments are seldom comfortable in their handling of the small scale sector. In part, this is because fisheries are treated as a resource management issue, where rules are framed by concerns for biological sustainability and economic efficiency but small scale operators do not conform to the norms of ‘economic man’. Other than being ‘small’, there is no single set of circumstances that adequately defines the sector; the very diversity of species, métiers and participation levels makes them appear ‘unmanageable’. Small scale fisheries are thus a source of embarrassment to governments, often regarded as ‘too small to matter’ and treated with benign
* David Symes [email protected] 1
University of Hull, Hull, UK
neglect. Wiser counsels may lead to devolving responsibility for management of inshore waters—the essential habitat for small scale fisheries—to local authorities acting in collaboration with the fishing community in a co-management approach. Most coastal states have failed spectacularly to secure fishing rights for present and future generations. One reason is the almost universal adoption of quota as the means of allocating fishing shares in the total allowable catch and as an easy way of regulating fishers. The assumption of quota as a perpetual right led increasingly to its transferability through sale or lease. Hardin’s 1968 paradigm for solving the ‘tragedy of commons’ is thus fulfilled through privatisation of fishing rights. Only a few states have so far opted for formal adoption of market-led rights b
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