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Fishing rights and small communities: Alaska halibut IFQ transfer patterns
Abstract
In the Alaska halibut individual fishing quota (IFQ) fishery, small remote fishing communities (SRFCs) have disproportionately lost fishing rights. Our analysis of quota market participation from 1995 to 1999 confirms that SRFC residents are more likely to sell than buy quota. Alaska Native heritage is another important predictor of quota market behavior. Residents of Alaska Native villages have an increased likelihood of selling quota. Loss of fisheries participation in small indigenous communities can be an unintended consequence of quota systems. Mitigation measures should take into account the social factors that can lead to such a redistribution of fishing rights in privatized access fisheries.
... The halibut and sablefish IFQ program was successful in keeping the general structure of the fleet through owner-onboard requirements for QS holders and limits on the transfer of QS between vessel size classes (NPFMC 2016;Kotlarov 2018). However, concern has been raised over the overall shift of halibut and sablefish QS from some coastal communities (Carothers et al. 2010). ...
... Those individual decisions to sell QS or move had adverse spillover effects on other businesses and households in the community. (Kotlarov 2018;Carothers et al. 2010) In pre-historic times, Pacific Northwest native tribes and clans used diplomacy and force to secure spatial rights to the fisheries they relied on (Higgs 1982, Newell 1993, Trosper 2003. With colonization, those prior spatial rights were overridden by new claimants. ...
... This chapter has given a brief overview of changes in commercial fisheries in Alaska and how those changes have affected small coastal communities. Until now, most discussions of the negative impacts of IFQ on small communities have failed to offer viable suggestions for helping rural communities reestablish and sustain their fishing-based economies (e.g., Carothers 2008, Carothers et al. 2010. This chapter has focused on the halibut and sablefish IFQ program, and it also provides an overview of different management programs from three other fisheries and varied levels of success. ...
This chapter looks at how Alaskan commercial fisheries have evolved and how this has affected small coastal communities. Alaska's commercial fisheries policies and regulations have maintained the biological integrity of the ecosystem, but they have also, intentionally or inadvertently shaped the economies of fishery-dependent communities along the Alaskan coastline. Federal fisheries off Alaska are conducted under the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976 (Public Law 94-265), later renamed the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (MSA). The MSA expanded U.S. fishing boundaries from 12 miles to 200 miles offshore of the United States coast and required the establishment of Fishery Management Plans (FMPs) for all fisheries in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The MSA subdivided the U.S. EEZ into eight regions and articulated eight (now ten) national standards that each FMP must satisfy to ensure the conservation of fish stocks and to sustain marine ecosystems
and fisheries dependent communities
... Catch share programs may also create dichotomies between the program's winners and losers in fishing communities. These imbalances include inter-generational inequities in initial distributions, as well as changing dynamics between vessel owners and crewmembers, which can affect the social bonds in the community (Carothers, 2008(Carothers, , 2015Carothers et al., 2010;McCay et al., 1995;McCay, 2004;Pálsson and Helgason, 1995). Although such community impacts are receiving increasing attention, specific community attributes, which may contribute to or buffer against losses of fishing privileges, are not well documented. ...
... Following the first few years of the IFQ Program, researchers documented the outmigration of QS from communities on the Alaska Peninsula (Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC), 1998). Carothers, Lew, and Sepez (2010) analyzed QS market behavior during the first five years of the halibut IFQ Program by community of residence of the QS buyers and sellers. The authors found residents from small remote fishing communities 1 had a greater probability of selling their QS. ...
... Our analysis updates and extends the Carothers et al. (2010) study, which explored halibut QS transfers from 1995 to 1999. Here we focus on QS transfer decisions from 1995 to 2016 with additional communitylevel variables that account for the increasing necessity of transportation post-IFQ and individual level covariates representing the participant's quota shareholdings and QS attributes. ...
... In the halibut IFQ fishery alone, researchers have examined entry through multiple approaches. Some analyses consider the demographic characteristics of individuals who buy and sell quota shares (Carothers, 2013;Carothers et al., 2010;Szymkowiak et al., 2019). Others analyze changing entry patterns and altered succession associated with leasing practices and capital needs Himes-Cornell, 2015, 2017). ...
... Others analyze changing entry patterns and altered succession associated with leasing practices and capital needs Himes-Cornell, 2015, 2017). Researchers have also described the generational and community-level impacts of lost access to the fishery (Carothers et al., 2010;Ringer et al., 2018). ...
In fishing communities, livelihoods and well-being depend on sustaining access to key fisheries through changes in natural resource management. In Alaska, the rationalization of the commercial fishery for Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) in 1995 led to the consolidation of the halibut fleet. The high cost of halibut catch shares have since become a crucial barrier to prospective entrants, especially small-scale operations with few options for portfolio diversification. However, quantitative approaches to understanding that barrier face an information gap: datasets on harvest and catch share ownership in fisheries lack common identifiers for individuals. We match individuals across harvest and catch share ownership data from 1991 through 2019, enabling a detailed examination of entrants and non-entrants-those who acquire or do not acquire halibut catch shares over the time series. We compare fisheries portfolios in terms of participation and earnings through duration, dissimi-larity, and network analyses. Differences over time and between entrants and non-entrants emerge across analyses. For both groups, cohorts of participants shrink and real individual earnings increase over the time series. However, entrants' cohorts have decreased further relative to historical participation, while entrants' real earnings and fisheries portfolio compositions have diverged from those of non-entrants. Our results reveal broad differences in Alaska fisheries participants' access to a critical fishery, underscoring the role of catch shares in shaping fishing communities' opportunities and resilience in the face of social and environmental change.
... Many rural and Indigenous fishing communities have been negatively impacted by modern resource allocation and management regimes that restrict and privatize fishery access through the creation of individual property rights [11][12][13][14]. The loss of locally held fishing rights (e.g., fishing permits and quotas) in rural communities in the North Pacific has been well-documented in both federal and state managed fisheries that have transformed the right to fish into a tradable commodity [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. ...
... When the Permit Loan Program launched in 2008, BBEDC set a firstyear goal of supporting seven to 15 residents in acquiring a salmon limited entry permit. 16 Several years later, in 2014, BBEDC reached the low end of their target with seven residents having acquired a permit through the program. Several factors, primarily financial constraints discussed above, contribute to the limited success of the program in the early years [81]. ...
The challenge of designing institutions and resource policy for ecosystem and social resilience in rural and small-scale fisheries is receiving renewed attention in Alaska and elsewhere. Many rural and Indigenous fishing communities have been negatively impacted by modern resource allocation and management regimes that restrict and privatize fishery access through the creation of individual property rights. This article draws on ethnographic and interview data from a multi-sited study to improve policy considerations for rural and small-scale fisheries access. The Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska is a site of concerning social trends including the ‘graying of the fleet’ and a rise in nonlocal ownership of fishing rights. Since the state began limiting entry into salmon fisheries in 1975, local permit holdings in Bristol Bay communities have declined by roughly 50%. This paper examines the ways in which assumptions and norms operating within state, regional, and local institutions support and/or constrain local fishing practices and participation in the region. A central objective is to challenge dominant and universalist assumptions of fishermen as dis-embedded, profit-maximizing, self-interested actors that do not fit well with small-scale, rural, and Indigenous fisheries. This paper identifies social relationships and interdependencies as central to rural fishing communities and livelihoods and absent from the rational choice/individual economic actor assumptions of modern resource allocation and management regimes. Findings presented here offer new framings for environmental analyses and help to inform solutions to ecological and social sustainability concerns marking global fisheries today.
... This is often an intended outcome in fisheries that are known to be overcapitalized, as quota sale provides a voluntary mechanism for some quota holders to leave the fishery, with compensation from those who remain. However, this process can favour larger operations at the expense of small-scale harvesters or native communities (Carothers, Lew, & Sepez, 2010;Connor, 2001). Additionally, the profitability supported by ITQs leads to share price increases, which presents a high financial barrier to entry by aspiring owners (McCay, 2004). ...
... Numerous short-term fishing jobs can be lost and replaced by fewer long-term jobs: in the Bering Sea king crab fishery, average season length increased 2-3 times, with 87% of the remaining crew experiencing some increase in earnings (Abbott, Garber-Yonts, & Wilen, 2010). As the market decreases the total number of crew needed to harvest in an ITQ system, the remaining or entering participants receive a higher potential income, as they each earn a higher share of revenue (Carothers et al., 2010). Furthermore, ending the race-to-fish means jobs are safer, as harvesters are less likely to go out in bad weather as in the US West Coast groundfish trawl fishery (Pfeiffer & Gratz, 2016) and the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery (Boen & Keithly, 2012). ...
Wild capture fisheries produce 90 million tonnes of food each year and have the potential to provide sustainable livelihoods for nearly 40 million people around the world (http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5555e.pdf). After decades of overfishing since industrialization, many global fish stocks have recovered, a change brought about through effective management. We provide a synthetic overview of three approaches that managers use to sustain stocks: regulating catch and fishing mortality, regulating effort and regulating spatial access. Within each of these approaches, we describe common restrictions, how they alter incentives to change fishing behaviour, and the resultant ecological, economic and community‐level outcomes. For each approach, we present prominent case‐studies that illustrate behaviour and the corresponding performance. These case‐studies show that sustaining target stocks requires a hard limit on fishing mortality under most conditions, but that additional measures are required to generate economic benefits. Different systems for allocation allow stakeholder communities to strike a locally acceptable balance between profitability and employment.
... The Alaska region is an important area to study with regard to cross-fishery participation because (1) permit holders in Alaska fisheries often hold permits for more than one fishery (Sethi et al. 2014b); (2) there is concern over how regulatory changes affecting fishery participation impact Alaskan fishing communities (Carothers et al. 2010, Knapp 2011, Carothers 2013, particularly because Alaskan fisheries are considered at high risk for catch and revenue variability (Sethi et al. 2012); and (3) fishery portfolios in Alaska have become increasingly less diverse over time, and as a result, variability of individual-and community-level fishing income has increased (Kasperski and Holland 2013, Sethi et al. 2014a, Sethi et al. 2014b). ...
... For example, Sethi et al. (2014b) develop a metric-based approach to monitor the status of Alaska fishing communities over time, and show that both the average number of permits held within a community and the average number of permits held by a permit holder have declined over the past two decades. Carothers et al. (2010) and Knapp (2011) show that there has been a disappearance of fishing permits from rural Alaskan communities since the implementation of rights-based fishery policies, such as limited-entry programs in the salmon fisheries and individual fishing quotas in the halibut fishery. Other work has focused on the stabilizing role of fishery diversification on fishing revenues. ...
Many fishermen own a portfolio of permits across multiple fisheries, creating an opportunity for fishing effort to adjust across fisheries and enabling impacts from a policy change in one fishery to spill over into other fisheries. In regions with a large and diverse number of permits and fisheries, joint-permitting can result in a complex system, making it difficult to understand the potential for cross-fishery substitution. In this study, we construct a network representation of permit ownership to characterize interconnectedness between Alaska commercial fisheries due tocross-fishery permitting. The Alaska fisheries network is highly connected, suggesting that most fisheries are vulnerable to cross-fishery spillovers from network shocks, such as changes to policies or fish stocks. We find that fisheries with similar geographic proximity are more likely to be a part of a highly connected cluster of susceptible fisheries. We use a case study to show that preexisting network statistics can be useful for identifying the potential scope of policy-induced spillovers. Our results demonstrate that network analysis can improve our understanding of the potential for policy-induced cross-fishery spillovers.
... The town itself 130 has a population of just over 6,000 people, many employed in the local fishing or wilderness 131 guiding industries (see Tables 1, 3). Salmon and halibut provides the livelihood for commercial 132 fishermen, and also provides subsistence for both Alaska Natives and Anglo community 133 members (Carothers 2008, Carothers et al. 2010. The island has been inhabited for over 7,000 134 years by Alaska Natives; while there are several groups that trace their ancestry on Kodiak 135 ...
... Island, the most prominent nation is the Sugpiaq Alutiiq group, who continue to live and work on 136 the island (Carothers 2010). 137 ...
Climate scientists have proposed that many people have not yet felt the results of climate change. This explains, at least in part, why some people are so unmotivated to make changes to mitigate climate change. Yet, a range of studies focused on other types of weather-related anticipated and experienced disasters, such as drought, clearly demonstrate that climate-related phenomena can elicit strong emotional reactions. Using a combination of open-ended interview questions and close-ended survey questions, the authors conducted semistructured interviews in three biophysically vulnerable communities (Mobile, Alabama; Kodiak, Alaska; and Phoenix, Arizona). The relatively high number of respondents who expressed sadness and worry at the possible outcomes of climate change indicates emotional awareness, even among climate change skeptics. The patterns were significantly gendered, with men across the three sites less likely to indicate hope. Results suggest that emotional aspects of climate change might provide an entry point for rallying vulnerable U.S. communities to consider mitigation efforts.
... The willingness of fishers to jeopardize their relationships with traditional buyers may be linked to an increase in catch shares and other neoliberal fisheries policies that constrain fishing access. Indeed, there is multi-regional evidence of the disproportionate burden that rural coastal communities and small-scale and independent fishers often bear under these policies [26][27][28][29]. In attempting to solve environmental externalities and achieve economic efficiency, catch shares alter the nature of marine resources, transforming them from public goods to quasi-private property. ...
... Researchers have highlighted the management importance of ensuring that fishers capture adequate financial value from their catch [47,63,64], and there are instances where policy measures have been implemented to this end [33,60,[64][65][66][67]. However, fisheries management structures generally lack such provisions, and policies that promote privatization often have the opposite effect for small-scale fishers [26][27][28][29][30]61]. Alternative seafood marketing may therefore be helping to fill this gap by modifying seafood chains and helping fishers capture more financial value from their work. ...
This paper suggests that detrimental effects of certain neoliberal fisheries policies are key drivers behind the development of alternative seafood marketing programs in North America. It examines the structures, market and non-market values, and challenges of these programs. The primary aim of the research, based on interviews involving 20 programs and a conference workshop, was to advance understanding of the market value of alternative seafood marketing to fishers and communities. However, the importance of a broader set of non-market values was repeatedly highlighted by those engaged in these programs. Overall, the research suggests that alternative seafood marketing can enable fishers to participate in fisheries managed by neoliberal, market-based policies, through the promotion of market values along their diverse value chains. At the same time, alternative seafood marketing appears to resist market-based fishing systems, sometimes through the promotion of broader, non-market outcomes. Common challenges along these alternative seafood value chains highlight the structural conflicts that exist while simultaneously participating in and resisting neoliberal fisheries structures.
... Similarly, recreational fisher decisions regarding participation, location, and target species of fishing trips have also been modeled with discrete-choice models (Criddle et al. 2003;Carson et al. 2009;Lew and Larson 2011). Carothers et al. (2010) applied a logit analysis to explore how residency in various community sizes affects the likelihood that Alaskan participants will buy or sell quota shares in the Alaska Pacific Halibut IFQ program. ...
... Researchers have used annual fixed effects variables to model differential changes in the dependent variable over time in discretechoice fisheries models (Wilen et al. 2002;Carothers et al. 2010;van Putten et al. 2012). Since 2000, the IFQ program has been subject to several amendments that have relaxed the constraints on how shareholders can operate in the Alaska Pacific Halibut IFQ fishery, which could be expected to alter decisions for using hired skippers. ...
There is a growing body of literature evidencing the distributional impacts of leasing in catch-share fisheries but little research on the determinants of the leasing decision itself. This study addresses this gap by using a discrete-choice model to examine the determinants of the decision of quota shareholders to use hired skippers in the individual fishing quota (IFQ) fishery for Pacific Halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis in Alaska. Since the implementation of that Alaska IFQ program, there has been an increasing reliance on hired skippers by initial quota-share recipients in relationships that are often functionally equivalent to leasing. This has hampered the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s efforts to ultimately transition the IFQ catcher-vessel fleet to a group of owner-operators. This study shows that the probability of hiring a skipper is statistically significantly related to the residency and shareholdings of shareholders and identifies potential attributes of shareholdings, including quantity and diversity, which may contribute to more hired skipper use. This information may allow fishery managers to both predict the degree of such practices and to customize regulations that lead to preferred outcomes in program design or modification, as it relates to the IFQ program and other catch-share programs wherein leasing is a common practice prone to controversy.
Received October 9, 2015; accepted April 13, 2016
... In these types of management programs initial recipients receive quota shares, a percentage of an overall total allowable catch (TAC) in the fishery, which are translated into annual IFQ allocations (fishable pounds). Although numerous researchers have documented the success of these management regimes at increasing economic efficiency, profitability, and product quality, improving safety, managing the harvest within the TAC, and overall working conditions in the fisheries (Arnason 2005, Brinson and Thunberg 2013, Campbell et al. 2000, Costello et al. 2008, Dupont 2000, Grafton 1995, Grimm et al. 2012, Hilborn et al. 2005, Hughes and Woodley 2007, Newell et al. 2005a, others have shown that these types of management programs can have adverse impacts on some stakeholders and coastal communities due to consolidation and associated employment losses, changes in processing needs, and shifts in regional distribution of fishing privileges (Carothers 2008, Carothers et al. 2010, Copes and Charles 2004, McCay 2004, Olson 2011. ...
... Absentee shareholders may also have fewer ties to coastal communities than active fishermen, resulting in a transfer of the benefits from fishing privileges out of these communities (Carothers 2008, Copes and Charles 2004, McCay 2004, Olson 2011. Several researchers have shown that the implementation of a catch share or limited access program was associated with the migration of fishing privileges away from rural communities towards urban centers (Carothers et al. 2010, Knapp 2011. Since urban ownership of quota shares is sometimes associated with increased leasing (Le Gallic and Mongruel 2006), distributional and equity issues may be exacerbated in the fishery with geographic lines dividing lessors from lessees. ...
Although numerous IFQ programs include active participation measures intended to retain or transition fishing privileges to active fishermen, there has been limited research on the efficacy of these measures. This study addresses this gap by examining the impacts of active participation measures in the Alaska halibut and sablefish IFQ program, which were intended to provide for an ultimate transition of the catcher vessel fleets in these fisheries to becoming fully individual-owned and owner-operated. This paper shows that the effectiveness of these measures has been mixed and constrained by apparently strong incentives for many initial recipients of quota shares to effectively lease their annual IFQ allocations (through the use of hired skippers) rather than to sell their quota shares. Perhaps most problematic is the emergence of a class of wholly absentee quota shareholders, who hold only nominal interest in the vessel upon which their IFQ is fished, do not share in the risk of fishing, and continue to profit from the fishery while residing far away from the actual fishing grounds. There is also anecdotal evidence of differing cultural contexts for hired skipper use and second-generation entry between the Seattle and Alaska-based fleets in the Alaska halibut and sablefish fisheries. Wherein acting as a hired skipper may be analogous to an apprenticeship that facilitates quota share acquisition in the Seattle fleet, Alaskan hired skippers may be more analogous to strict lessees, who ultimately compete for quota shares in a market that includes initial recipients and second-generation shareholders both of whom were gifted quota shares.
... disproportionally hurting smaller communities, often because potential adverse effects were not sufficiently assessed (Carothers et al., 2010;Szymkowiak et al., 2019). While the model provides estimates at a relatively coarse spatial resolution, it can be considered a blueprint for analysis at a finer spatial scale, further contributing to the assessment of the vulnerability of communities to changes in the state of the Pacific halibut stock throughout its range. ...
The economic effects of changes to harvest levels can be far-reaching. Fisheries management policies that alter catch limits have a direct impact on harvesters, but at the same time, there is a ripple effect through the economy. To bring a better understanding of the magnitude of this multiplier effect, this paper applies multiregional economic impact assessment to the case study of Pacific halibut commercial fishing in Alaska.
The results suggest that the revenue generated by Pacific halibut at the harvest stage accounts for only a fraction of economic activity that would be forgone if the resource was not available to fishermen. However, the adoption of a multiregional approach to the economic impact assessment highlights that a myriad of economic benefits in this case are realized far from where the resource is harvested. This results from strong economic ties the Alaskan fishing activities have to the economy of the rest of the United States, be it through trade, nonresident workforce or out-of-state investment in production factors such as fishing quotas.
... A sense of agency, as with the impacts to wellbeing resulting from tradeoffs in management, can be unevenly distributed among individuals in a community (Cinner and Barnes, 2019). One of the points of consensus among discourses was the importance of including a measure of equity in fisheries management moving forward, perhaps an acknowledgement that attention must be paid towards potential unintended consequences of policies that widen the gulf between winners and losers (e.g., Carothers et al., 2010). There are places within each perspective to consider the implications of equity. ...
Coastal communities are being impacted by climate change, affecting the livelihoods, food security, and wellbeing of residents. Human wellbeing is influenced by the heath of the environment through numerous pathways and is increasingly being included as a desired outcome in environmental management. However, the contributors to wellbeing can be subjective and the values and perspectives of decision-makers can affect the aspects of wellbeing that are included in planning. We used Q methodology to examine how a group of individuals in fisheries management prioritize components of wellbeing that may be important to coastal communities in the California Current social-ecological system (SES). The California Current SES is an integrated system of ecological and human communities with complex linkages and connections where commercial fishing is part of the culture and an important livelihood. We asked individuals that sit on advisory bodies to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council to rank 36 statements about coastal community wellbeing, ultimately revealing three discourses about how we can best support or improve wellbeing in those communities. We examine how the priorities differ between the discourses, identify areas of consensus, and discuss how these perspectives may influence decision-making when it comes to tradeoffs inherent in climate adaptation in fisheries. Lastly, we consider if and how thoughts about priorities have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
... Specifically, stakeholders are concerned about: (1) financial barriers to entry; (2) the growth of de facto (and de jure) leasing and consequent dilution of owner-on-board requirements; (3) reduction in the number of crew positions; (4)changes in crew compensation, due to rental payments to QS holders; and (5) reductions in the amount of QS held by residents of some small rural communities. This latter issue is a particularly prominent component of discourse in small coastal communities in the Central GOA that depend on commercial fishing for their economic base (e.g.,Carothers 2008Carothers , 2010Carothers et al. 2010). The transfer of QS to persons outside a local area or a radical change in harvest and delivery patterns under the program might have harmful effects on some communities.Himes-Cornell and Kasperski (2016) show that the well-being and resilience for fishery-dependent communities in Alaska depends on the state of the available fish resources as well as the extent to which community residents are vested in the fishery through ownership of limited entry permits and QS. ...
This Technical Memo describes and analyzes the evolution of the Alaska region Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis)and sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) fisheries over the past 125 years. The development of these fisheries spans seven eras, each characterized by unique opportunities, challenges, and management innovations. The figures presented herein illustrate how these fish populations and fisheries have fluctuated in response to historical events that include the amount of fishing but also other aspects that have affected the fisheries.
... fishers or vessel owners may simply sell and exit, lowering welfare in lower-income communities (Carothers et al., 2010;Olson, 2011;Stewart & Walshe, 2008). Fewer vessels could also lower employment, although extended fishing seasons could increase the total hours worked, increasing the overall wage bill. ...
... Traditionally, social and economic aspects have been included as longstanding political imperatives, or short-term political choices made during decision-making processes rather than as a proactive explicit attempt to include them systematically. This, along with the substantial focus on the ecological dimension of sustainability, has not only resulted in governance failures that have reproduced inequalities and conflict [15,23,41,46,47,54] but it has also hindered oceans policies from being developed based on social science evidence. ...
The United Nations has identified access to and benefits from fisheries resources as key sustainable development challenges. The business-as-usual management approach focusing on a limited set of biological and economic considerations has not adequately addressed widespread global calls for governing the distribution of access and benefits effectively and equitably. Our paper develops a novel approach for incorporating social science analysis of the generation, distribution and maintenance of benefits into integrated full spectrum sustainability frameworks. To do so, our paper puts a full spectrum sustainability framework into conversation with Ribot and Peluso's influential Theory of Access framework, a political ecology framework which allows for a comprehensive understanding of who benefits from resources, and through what processes they are able to do so. Our paper proposes five immediate uses of these combined frameworks: (i) to facilitate the development of indicators around access and benefits; (ii) to help identify, organize and analyze social benefit data; (iii) to guide the development of cross-disciplinary representations of a system; (iv) to lay out potential trade-offs, cumulative impacts and changes to oceans governance; (v) and to help users respond to national and international objectives around the generation and distribution of benefits. In proposing novel ways of analyzing sustainable resource use in fisheries, our paper thus responds to management challenges associated with an expanding agenda and set of priorities, and growing policy interest in governance and management of the ocean for the benefit of coastal peoples and their communities.
... For example, fishermen often have a deeply ingrained fishing identity that sometimes results in them remaining in fisheries even in the face of severe revenue declines (Pollnac and Poggie, 2006;Holland et al., 2019). Omitting the human diversity in how well-being is derived from fisheries can exacerbate underlying inequities and lead to management choices that increase social conflict and decrease resilience (Hall-Arber et al., 2009;Carothers et al., 2010;Lord, 2011). ...
Qualitative network models (QNMs) have become a popular tool to assess how ecosystems respond to a perturbation within ecosystem-based fisheries management strategies. Yet, the incorporation of humans into these models is often rudimentary, potentially limiting the accuracy and reliability of the model results. We developed QNMs focusing solely on the social components, derived from content analysis of the literature on the effects of the US Pacific halibut Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program and evaluated how the QNMs performed with respect to simulating the programmatic effects on individual well-being components. The QNMs were effective at reproducing IFQ programmatic effects and demonstrating how well-being heterogeneity across user groups can be incorporated into network models. However, key mechanistic variables were omitted to maintain model stability, reducing our ability to fully replicate the IFQ system. We conclude that QNMs require improvement to incorporate human dimensions that reflect broader social realities. Yet, given the current structural limitations of these modelling frameworks coupled with the complexity of human decision making, there are likely to be continued issues with integrating humans accurately and representatively into these models.
... In some cases, these vessel owners no longer fish themselves (or may never have fished), increasing the probability that wealth associated with the catch share privilege may leave the communities where fishermen live (Olson 2011) --which may be ports, but also include nearby towns. 22,23 Quota privileges may also tend to redistribute ACL out of the control of certain social groups, such as Alaska Natives (Carothers et al. 2010, Donkersloot et al. 2020a. While some catch share programs do restrict use, transfer, and ownership in an attempt to maintain the character of the fleet, these are not always successful (Szymkowiak and Himes-Cornell 2015). ...
As United States fisheries managers develop and modify fisheries management plans that set catch limits for the Nation’s commercially important fish stocks, the importance of including and weighing the social impacts associated with changes in management has gained increasing attention. In recognition of the potential for social impacts, social impact assessments have been made a requirement of the overall environmental impact assessment process under the National Environmental Policy Act. To date, there has not been a standardized way of conducting and presenting a fisheries social impact assessment (SIA). In addition, there is a need for a template that incorporates existing data streams and identifies potential new sources of information while being applicable to a wide range of fisheries management decisions. The objective of this Handbook is to provide technical advice for NOAA Fisheries and fishery management councils to streamline the SIA process while fully capturing relevant social impacts. The Handbook provides a primer on SIA in fisheries, the purpose of an SIA, key elements that should be included in SIAs, and common types of social impacts associated with particular management measures. It also reviews the legal requirements for conducting SIAs and provides a set of best practices and analytical tools for conducting SIAs. In addition, it describes the relationship of this Handbook to NMFS Guidance for Social Impact Assessment.
... One of the consistent findings of this research is that the introduction of ITQs often leads to a transfer of quota and resource benefits from small, remote fishing dependent regions to larger fishing centres. The transfer of quotas and economic benefits out of smaller, remote coastal communities has been documented in Canada (McCay 2004), Iceland (Palsson and Helgason 1995), and Alaska (Carothers et al 2010;Olson 2012;. While these studies provide evidence to policy makers on the risks of ITQs for community and regional development, we need more evidence about alternative allocation and access arrangements. ...
... Where global capitalism assumed labor mobility, many people -and especially indigenous people -are deeply rooted in particular places and unwilling to make "rational" decisions to migrate as local economic opportunities fail. These threads of political ecology research were particularly strong in Alaska, where political ecology literature explored consequences of commercial fishery privatization for indigenous communities (Carothers 2008, Carothers et al. 2010, Lyons et al. 2016). ...
This dissertation explores some aspects of contemporary hunter-gatherer economies in Alaska, with an emphasis on quantitative approaches. Written in manuscript-style, the focus is on four decades beginning about 1980, which coincided with legal recognition of hunter-gatherer activities as “subsistence,” and with expanded subsistence data collection efforts. Subsistence is viewed through four theoretical frames: socio-ecological resilience, political ecology, social networks, and food security. Principles of common-pool resource management are reviewed, as are legal frames unique to Alaska that limited possible approaches to management and resulted in fragmented management systems. In the body of the dissertation, the first article explores trends in rural community populations, wild food harvests, and personal incomes over time, identifies factors associated with subsistence harvests, models subsistence productivity, and estimates road effects on harvests and income. The second article uses household-level social network and economic data from two Iñupiat communities to explore hypotheses designed to test an assumed transition from wild food dependence to market dependence. The third article combines concepts of sensitivity and adaptive capacity drawn from vulnerability literature to explore differences in household characteristics within and between three Alaska communities. The discussion adopts a political ecology approach, introducing narrative discourses of subsistence in Alaska, comparing subsistence narrative discourses with the results of the larger body of resilience, network analysis, and food security literature. It demonstrates how the same objective facts could drive competing narratives, and how resource management itself was subject to narrative construction.
... However, the productivity increase is important and often necessary to maintain the industry without increasing subsidies, as it allows the fishing sector to pay competitive wages [34]. 3 The importance of fishing resources to communities are often studied qualitatively, and reported in a narrative format [43,44]; often with an anthropological starting point [15,45]. Others have introduced a range of metrics [46,47] to be able to quantitatively asses the importance of fishing and to lay the foundation for studies of fisheries and community dynamics. ...
In several countries, maintaining the population of fisheries dependent communities are of major importance in the fisheries governance system. However, most studies investigating the relationship between fisheries and communities have a qualitative focus on the impact of fisheries policies on the communities. We have access to data on population and key employment indicators of every Norwegian municipality in addition to fisheries catch, landings and employment. These data allow us to study the effect of fisheries on population growth in fisheries dependent municipalities relative to all other municipalities. The data are analyzed using a multi-level approach integrating micro-and macrodata. The results indicate that general trends have a stronger influence on population growth than fisheries activities, implying that measures for increased fisheries landings are poor tools to support population growth.
... Individual transferable quotas as a fisheries management system have been widely promoted as a means of achieving positive economic and conservation outcomes (Casey et al. 1995, Grafton 1996, Branch et al. 2006, Grafton et al. 2006a, Grimm et al. 2012. Individual transferable quotas have had a mixed record, however, when the full spectrum of fisheries objectives are considered, particularly related to equitable distribution of benefits, social and economic outcomes for fisheries-dependent communities, resilience, employment, and safety (McCay 1995, 2004, Pálsson and Helgason 1995, Copes and Charles 2004, Carothers et al. 2010, Sumaila 2010, GSGislason & Associates Ltd 2013, Emery et al. 2014, Pinkerton 2014, Carothers 2015. Concerns over the competitiveness of markets (i.e., monopoly and monopsony issues) and related price manipulation are responsible, in part, for the restrictions on the concentration of quota share ownership that are present in nearly all ITQ fisheries (Anderson 2008). ...
The economically and culturally important Pacific halibut fishery in British Columbia, Canada, managed as an individual transferable quota fishery since 1993, has frequently been held up as an example of management best practices. This narrative of success has continued despite repeated warnings that there are serious problems with the fishery, including processors exerting ever greater control over the fishery, contrary to stated fisheries objectives. Administrative data from federal and provincial data sets were used to consider ownership and control in the halibut fishery, with a focus on processor quota ownership, leasing, and brokerage of leases. The analysis indicated that direct processor ownership of halibut quota, while more than doubling between 1996 and 2016, remains relatively low at less than 10% of the available quota. Processor control through the leasing of halibut, however, is much higher, accounting for more than half of all halibut quota transfers in 2016. Through strategies such as "holding licences," processors increasingly act as hubs for leasing activity, which has shifted the balance of power in the fishery. This analysis (a) reveals that there is much more processor control than is obvious from a cursory review of ownership, (b) highlights approaches for assessing the level of processor control, and (c) recommends alternative government procedures for improving transparency and evaluating full spectrum outcomes of fisheries management such as equitable distribution of benefits.
... fishers or vessel owners may simply sell and exit, lowering welfare in lower-income communities (Carothers et al., 2010;Olson, 2011;Stewart & Walshe, 2008). Fewer vessels could also lower employment, although extended fishing seasons could increase the total hours worked, increasing the overall wage bill. ...
In this chapter of the IBES Global Assesment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services we explored how global transformation involved key tradeoffs, and inequalities, as growing interactions drove economic growth but also degradation. Accelerations in consumption & interconnection have had tradeoffs.
... Across the state, communities in rural areas have been experiencing significant out-migration and population declines in recent decades (Himes-Cornell and Hoelting 2015). This decline has been linked to the loss of active fishing businesses and fishing-related employment opportunities (Donkersloot 2005;Carothers 2008;Langdon 2008;Carothers 2010;Carothers et al. 2010). ...
A guiding principle of the NOAA Catch Share Policy is to track the performance of programs to monitor whether they are achieving their goals and objectives. This report focuses on assessing changes in fisheries participation for communities
involved in each of the U.S. catch share programs. The indicators included here were chosen to better elucidate catch share performance by providing a comparison between pre- and post-implementation community participation in a particular catch share program. Indicators of community-level social well-being are included to provide a context for understanding community involvement in catch share programs.
... The programs have had unintended and unexpected impacts on smallscale fishing groups. Studies have demonstrated that fishers of small remote fishing communities had the tendency to sell their halibut and sablefish IFQ (Carothers, Lew, and Sepez 2010), not realizing that reentry would be more costly and difficult in later years (Carothers 2013). The implementation of these programs has reduced overall access to fisheries because of the increased costs of participating in fisheries (Himes-Cornell and Hoelting 2015), as has been demonstrated with fisheries privatization around the globe (Olson 2011, Pinkerton andEdwards 2009). ...
Fishing community social networks function as channels for transfer of fishery knowledge, resources, and business transactions that help mitigate risks and shocks associated with altered access to fishery resources. Research on such networks in Alaska is limited despite their cultural importance and community reliance on fisheries. We contribute to scholarship of fishery social networks by assessing Alaska fishing community perspectives of challenges related to fisheries policy and management, and the existing social networks that aid in overcoming these challenges. Our findings show that the greatest challenges fishing communities face pertaining to fishery management are high costs of participating in catch share programs, restricted subsistence fishing activity due to decline in salmon, and complex regulations. Social networks exist for coping with these challenges; fishery information, and resources such as food, fuel and medicines are shared between communities. However, networks for accessing fishery support services are centralized in fewer larger communities and hubs such as Anchorage. Smaller and remote communities are the most compromised in this regard given the distance they must travel to access fishery support services. Leveraging social networks for sharing resources and improving fishery support services in smaller communities will increase their adaptive capacity and ability to maintain participation in Alaska fisheries.
... Our finding of heavy reliance on subsistence fishing in all communities is consistent with other research that emphasizes the significance of subsistence fishing activity in Alaska communities (Donkersloot and Carothers 2016;Loring and Gerlach 2009). Also, the issues of permit loss and high costs of fisheries entry has been a common trend since the implementation of limited entry and later catch share programs in Alaska (Carothers 2013;Carothers, Lew, and Sepez 2010;Donkersloot and Carothers 2016;Fina 2011;Himes-Cornell and Hoelting 2015;Knapp 2011;Lyons, Carothers, and Reedy 2016). This suggests that indicators for fisheries policy and markets should also be included in evaluations of fishing community vulnerability. ...
Community vulnerability is increasingly evaluated through quantitative social indices, typically developed using secondary data sources rather than primary data collection. It is necessary to understand the validity of these indices if they will be used to inform policy and decision making. This paper presents a ground-truthing effort to validate quantitative indices that characterize the well-being of Alaska fishing communities. We utilized ethnographic data collected from 13 representative communities and a capital assets framework to ground-truth the indices, in which qualitative ranks of vulnerability were compared against quantitative indices. The majority (73.8%) of ranks were in complete or moderate agreement and the results indicate that most of the indices are representative of community vulnerability; yet some variables utilized to create the indices could be modified to better reflect realities in Alaska. Indices of commercial fishery engagement and reliance appeared to be more reliable than socio-economic indicators, particularly for smaller fishing communities. We also confirmed that the indices do not capture political, or ecological factors that affect levels of community vulnerability. We conclude that quantitative indices of community vulnerability are useful rapid assessment tools; however, they should be validated, and complemented with ethnographic data prior to their implementation as policy making and management tools.
... The question of geographical concentration has been one of the most contested aspects of the debate on fisheries management in Iceland. This also applies to other fishing nations, where concerns about the vulnerability of small coastal communities are often prominent (Carothers, Lew, & Sepez, 2010;Haas, Edwards, & Sumaila, 2016;Olson, 2011;Urquhart, Acott, Reed, & Courtney, 2011). It is therefore of great interest for the formation of regional development policy to show the actual extent to which this has happened. ...
Consolidation of the fishing industry worldwide is an issue heavily debated among scholars. Many economists have argued for its necessity, while others – such as sociologists, anthropologists and geographers – have pointed out negative effects of consolidation on fishing communities.
The aim of this paper is to measure the geographical consolidation of fishing in Iceland since the introduction of the quota management system in 1984, and during its development into an individual transferable quota system (ITQ). Lorenz curves, Gini calculations and maps are used for this purpose. Consolidation of the fishing sector is a logical outcome of ITQs and the analysis shows that the ITQ system has led to increased geographical consolidation in the demersal and pelagic sectors in Iceland. Regions and communities are unequally affected by geographical consolidation and many small fishing communities are vulnerable to changes in the industry.
The results are of value for fisheries management policy formation. When designing fisheries policy for the 21st century it is important to not only consider economic efficiency, but also geographical consolidation and its impact.
... Despite the extensive work on the benefits of diversification of individual and community fishing portfolios in Alaska (Kasperski and Holland 2013;Sethi et al. 2014a;Anderson et al. 2017;Cline et al. 2017), as well as analyses outside Alaska demonstrating that single-fishery management actions can spill over into other fisheries (Asche et al. 2007;Hutniczak 2014;Cunningham et al. 2016), there is limited information in Alaska on cross-fishery permitting patterns and the scope for potential spillover effects from single-fishery policies. The Alaska region is an important area to study with regard to cross-fishery participation because (i) permit holders in Alaska fisheries often hold permits for more than one fishery (Sethi et al. 2014b); (ii) there is concern over how regulatory changes affecting fishery participation impact Alaskan fishing communities (Carothers et al. 2010;Knapp 2011;Carothers 2013), particularly because Alaska fisheries are considered at high risk for catch and revenue variability (Sethi et al. 2012); and (iii) fishery portfolios in Alaska have become increasingly less diverse over time, and, as a result, variability of individual-and community-level fishing income has increased (Kasperski and Holland 2013;Sethi et al. 2014aSethi et al. , 2014b. ...
Many fishers own a portfolio of permits across multiple fisheries, creating an opportunity for fishing effort to adjust across fisheries and enabling impacts from a policy change in one fishery to spill over into other fisheries. In regions with a large and diverse number of permits and fisheries, joint-permitting can result in a complex system, making it difficult to understand the potential for cross-fishery substitution. In this study, we construct a network representation of permit ownership to characterize interconnectedness among Alaska commercial fisheries due to cross-fishery permitting. The Alaska fisheries network is highly connected, suggesting that most fisheries are vulnerable to cross-fishery spillovers from network shocks, such as changes to policies or fish stocks. We find that fisheries with similar geographic proximity are more likely to be a part of a highly connected cluster of susceptible fisheries. We use a case study to show that preexisting network statistics can be useful for identifying the potential scope of policy-induced spillovers. Our results demonstrate that network analysis can improve our understanding of the potential for policy-induced cross-fishery spillovers.
... Alaska Native fishermen in rural villages quickly sold their shares, typically to non-Native fishermen in larger Alaskan fishing communities or to Seattle-based fishermen. This "permit drain" bled the communities of further employment and income earning opportunities such that by 2001, nearly a 30% decline in the holdings of rural Native fishermen's initial ITQs had occurred (Carothers et al. 2010). In 2000, Leviathan was approached about the problems of impact and equity of halibut and sablefish ITQs in regard to rural Alaskan fishermen. ...
In the wake of neoliberal reworking of Alaskan fisheries beginning in the 1970s, Tlingit and Haida village residents in southeast Alaska rapidly lost rights to commercial salmon and halibut fisheries, primarily through the sale of the property rights awarded to them when the programs were initiated. At the same time, the lack of capital, financial qualifications (collateral, credit history), and basic knowledge about the operation of bureaucratic systems of finance and property rights, prevented young village residents from purchasing the state-created permits needed for commercial fishing. While commercial fishing as an economic foundation of village life has virtually disappeared, nevertheless village residents maintain strong ties to the customary and traditional salmon systems which have sustained their communities – culturally and nutritionally – for thousands of years. Villagers acquire salmon using small-scale technologies consisting of open skiffs and nets pulled by hand, operated typically by crews of two or three men. While conducting their subsistence fisheries, they have identified numerous cases of unharvested surplus salmon at stream mouths which the permitted commercial purse seine fishery directed by the biological managers have failed to capture. They have perceived and advanced the possibility of developing local, community based small-scale fisheries to make use of the foregone harvests. The neoliberal regime has tightly aligned six sectors – legal practitioners (politicians and lawyers), resource managers (biologists), commercial fishing permit holders (producers), processing firms (capitalists), financiers (bankers) and policing agents (enforcement personnel) – into an assemblage I refer to as “Leviathan”. This hybrid alignment presents itself and acts as an impregnable entity protecting the interests of its collaborators from the establishment of new fisheries or the entrance of new practices into its alignment. This paper will (1) describe the components and construction of “Leviathan” as it operates to protect itself, (2) demonstrate how an “optimizing” logic of cost minimization in management and production results in underutilization of salmon available for harvest and (3) present two case studies of salmon stocks that are presently not being utilized that could become community-based, small scale commercial fisheries that would be of substantial economic benefit to village residents for whom “Leviathan” makes no provision.
... Commercial fishing generates much less income overall than mineral development, but individuals' incomes from commercial fishing can be substantial and that income is spread more widely among the rural population (Goldsmith 2007). Yet, where fishing rights have been privatized in Alaska, rights tend to migrate away from rural communities (Carothers 2008, Carothers, Lew, and Sepez 2010, Knapp 2011. And commercial fishermen can be buffeted by global market forces, as happened in Bristol Bay in the 1990s (Hébert 2015). ...
Many Alaskans depend on family-centered harvests of wild fish, wildlife, and plants in what could be considered a home production model. State and federal laws provide priorities for these “subsistence uses,” a divisive political issue in Alaska. We explore Alaska’s subsistence economies using community-level demographic, economic, and subsistence harvest estimates from more than 18,000 household surveys administered during 354 projects in 179 Alaska communities. Neither mean subsistence harvests nor mean incomes are significantly associated with time alone. But harvests are associated with time in multiple regression models that explain more than 60% of the variation in mean subsistence harvests per person at the community level. Propensity score matching finds that roads have significant, strong, and negative effects on subsistence harvests, but no significant effects on incomes. Results suggest that – given sustainably managed renewable resources and appropriate levels of exclusion – subsistence economies can co-exist with market economies.
... A rich pool of research demonstrates how entire coastal communities may be affected by changes in their artisanal fishing sector(s) (Whitmarsh, Pipitone, Badalamenti, and Anna 2003;Carothers, Lew, and Sepez 2010;Mansfield 2011;Carothers 2013). In addition, there is a growing body of research focusing on the local knowledge that fishermen possess, and how they may provide valuable input to managers (Neis and Felt 2000;Bergmann et al. 2004;Grant and Berkes 2007;Marshall 2007;Martin et al. 2007;Verweij et al. 2010;Carr and Heyman 2012;Beaudreau and Levin 2014). ...
This article explores shifts in participation by artisanal Polish fishermen in management of the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) fishery since accession to the European Union. The European Union works to promote the long-term presence and influence of artisanal fishermen throughout Europe, and entering into the European Union system included an enhanced focus on stakeholder participation in Polish fisheries. However, impacts of this on artisanal fishermen have not been clear. For this project, shifts in participation by Polish artisanal fishermen in existing stakeholder forums were explored. A list of stakeholder groups in the Polish fishery was formulated, and stakeholders from multiple groups were interviewed about the fisheries management process. Participation by artisanal fishermen over time was qualitatively analyzed using inductive content analysis. Interview responses did not suggest that artisanal fishermen have experienced a marked increase in participation in the EU CFP system since accession in 2004. Although an increased number of potential spaces for them to participate exist, project participants did not identify artisanal fishermen as consistently or effectively active within them. This research is timely and important, because it addresses potential impacts of EU accession on artisanal fishermen in Poland. At the same time, descriptions of participation outlined in this paper are preliminary, and are meant to guide further inquiry into stakeholder participation in Polish fisheries management.
... Olson (2011:361) argues that the "negative impacts of privatization often fall on less powerful segments of the fishing industry," such as smaller fishing vessels and crew who can become marginalized under such management systems [28]. More broadly, rural, small and indigenous communities tend to be disproportionately negatively impacted by catch share programs [29][30]. In, Fishing Communities as Special Places, Macinko (2007:93) aptly notes: "People are scared of rationalization programs precisely because they are worried about what they will mean for, and do to, special places they care about" [22]. ...
In 2012, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council initiated the process of designing a new management structure for the Gulf of Alaska trawl groundfish fleet. The new program is currently structured as a catch share program and driven by the need to end the 'race for fish' and provide the trawl fleet with the tools to reduce bycatch. To date much of the discussion among policy makers and stakeholders has centered on community protection measures and how best to avoid the negative social and economic impacts of catch share programs including impacts to crew, consolidation and the flight of quota and resource wealth from Gulf of Alaska fishery dependent communities. This paper examines how community protection measures related to the distribution of benefits and access to fishery resources are considered and challenged in the North Pacific today. Special attention is given to the ongoing debate surrounding the potential inclusion of an initial allocation to place-based Gulf of Alaska communities via a Community Fishing Association. As part of this effort, this paper examines the political space and underlying power dynamics in which consideration of alternatives to the commodification of fishing rights occurs.
... The negative effects, particularly those of ITQs, include economic inefficiencies associated with highgrading (Anderson, 1994), excessive consolidation (Yandle and Dewees, 2008) or changes in bargaining power due to vertical integration (Dawson, 2006). Other researchers have called for a comprehensive review of the different dimensions of catch share fisheries to complete an impact assessment (Thébaud et al., 2012), while others have noted distributional consequences among individuals (Bromley, 2009;Macinko, 2014) and communities following implementation of catch share programs (Carothers et al., 2010;Olson, 2011). ...
In 2011 the National Marine Fisheries Service began a systematic collection of performance indicators for U.S. fisheries managed under catch shares. Catch shares are a fishery management tool that dedicate a secure share of quota allowing individual fishermen, fishing cooperatives, fishing communities, or other entities to harvest a fixed amount of fish. Catch share design varies widely across different programs and regions. Many programs share similar biological, social, and economic management objectives even though these design features are tailored to accommodate particular fishery characteristics. This paper evaluates fisheries using standardized indicators to measure the basic economic performance, regardless of catch share program design. Data collected were used to evaluate the economic and distribution effects of U.S. catch share programs. Catch share fishery performance is compared to a baseline period prior to implementation of the catch share program. Overall, the majority of objectives to improve the economic performance of catch share fisheries were achieved. Catch share programs have been effective in reducing fishing capacity. However, catch share programs have had distributional consequences as there are indications that consolidation is occurring in a number of programs. For example, there have been considerable reductions in the number of active vessels and entities holding quota share in the Alaska Halibut and Sablefish and the Mid-Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog catch share programs. However, it is important to note that the accumulation of ownership share may be less of a concern than consolidation in the use of quota. Thus, to the extent that consolidation is considered a management problem, it may be more effective to consider caps on the use of quota than by imposing more restrictive ownership caps.
... One common aspect of ITQ systems is the decreased access for newcomers to enter fisheries. Other research shows the negative impact of fisheries privatization schemes on those attempting to enter fisheries [9,15,[71][72][73] as original quota holders stay in the system and access for newcomers is limited. This "greying of the fleet" is present in Icelandic small-boat fisheries as well. ...
... Multiple recent studies address the difficult state of affairs for many fishermen and fishing communities throughout the U.S. as a result of fish stock decline and strict regulations (Clay et al., 2014;Jacob et al., 2013;Olson, 2011;Carothers et al., 2010;Allen and Gough, 2006). Many of these issues are becoming increasingly critical under climate change and prospects of drastic environmental transformation, as well as more frequent and intense natural disasters (Howard et al., 2013). ...
Fishermen may be increasingly impacted by natural disasters, given sea level rise and the likely increased frequency and severity of storms associated with climate change. Planning for resiliency in the face of these disasters requires understanding the factors that influence fishermen’s capacity to adapt. The paper examines perceptions of adaptive capacity of New York and New Jersey commercial and for-hire fishermen one year after Hurricane Sandy. Subjective adaptive capacity to changes in the fishery in general and those caused by natural disasters was assessed. A comparison between commercial and for-hire fishermen revealed important differences and similarities with regard to attributes influencing their perceived adaptive capacity. While both groups show high levels of coping capacity in general, for-hire fishermen presented more confidence in their ability to obtain work and income outside the fishery while commercial fishermen were more confident in their ability to remain in fishing. For both groups, those that suffered more intense impacts from the storm had more negative levels of perceived adaptive capacity. Understanding the perceived adaptive capacity of commercial and for-hire fishermen can help researchers and policy makers better understand and address each sector’s response to impacts of future natural disasters and human driven changes.
... Given that seafood and the marine environment are a central part of Alaska's economy and unique way of life (Loring, Gerlach, and Harrison 2013), it is crucial that policymakers can identify those areas of the state that might be adversely affected by future regulations and how community sustainability and well-being may change across the state. The wellbeing of Alaska communities can be greatly affected by a number of social and economic factors that can be impacted by external forces, including demographic shifts in population (e.g., changes in the number of transient residents, age structure, racial composition), environmental hazards (e.g., tsunamis, earthquakes, storms, flooding, volcanic eruptions), and changes in fisheries management (e.g., fleet consolidation, catch share programs, limited entry programs, annual catch limits), all of which can cause disruptions in communities (Carothers 2010;Langdon 1995;Loring and Gerlach 2009). The rapid and unprecedented nature of today's environmental and societal challenges creates special needs and many Alaskans are faced with the decision of whether to take short-term mitigative actions at the expense of long-term goals, such as health and sustainability. ...
Over recent years, fisheries managers have been going through a paradigm shift to prioritize ecosystem-based management. With this comes an increasing need to better understand the impacts of fisheries management decisions on the social well-being and sustainability of fishing communities. This article summarizes research aimed at using secondary data to develop socioeconomic and fisheries involvement indices to measure objective fishing community well-being in Alaska. Data from more than 300 communities in Alaska were used to create a database of socioeconomic and fisheries involvement indices of objective well-being and adaptability for Alaska communities dependent on marine resources. Each index was developed using a principal components factor analysis to assess the relative position of each community compared to all other communities in Alaska. We find that creating performance measures, such as the indices presented here, provides a useful way to track the status of socioeconomic conditions and fisheries involvement by communities over time.
... Firstly, fishers in general and these fishers specifically are greatly attached to and invested in fishing as a lifestyle (Pollnac et al. 2001;Pollnac et al. 2006;Harrison 2013;Britton and Coulthard 2013). Likewise, in many places it is not easy for fishers to change how or where they fish, whether because of policy barriers to entering new fisheries or economic circumstances that keep them locked-in to their current ones (Cinner et al. 2009;Carothers et al. 2010). ...
Coexistence theory (CT) in community ecology provides a functional perspective on how multiple competing species coexist. Here, I explore CT’s usefulness for understanding conflict and coexistence among human groups with diverse livelihood interests in shared resources such as fisheries. I add three concepts from social science research on coexistence: adaptability, pluralism, and equity and apply this expanded theoretical framework to the case of salmon fisheries in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, synthesizing catch records with anthropological research. The analysis addresses issues of inequity, such as who bears the costs of conservation measures, a lack of pluralism, in that people have come to devalue their neighbors, and a decline in resilience for some sectors, all of which undermine the likelihood of these groups continuing coexistence. I discuss policy options for addressing escalating conflict in the region, such as improving equity in management and the resilience of some fishing groups to temporary closures. Finally, I discuss points of engagement for CT with other areas of sustainability science such as resilience thinking.
... The CDQ program is widely regarded as one of the most successful community use rights systems (Mansfield 2007;Langdon 2008;McCay 2008). It has allowed communities in smaller coastal towns to use quotas to earn royalties from industrial offshore fleets as a way to support economic and social activities, and these have played a key role in job creation and infrastructure development (Holland and Ginter 2001;Carothers, Lew, and Sepez 2010). In this way, the CDQ program has effectively embedded wealth from offshore fish resources in Alaskan coastal communities. ...
Community use rights are rarely considered to be an economically viable or efficient option in conventional fisheries management policy. Our analysis challenges this view by pointing to the positive economic and social outcomes of community use rights in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. We argue that resources allocated to community-based organizations can be used to build “community economies,” in the theoretical vocabulary of J. K. Gibson-Graham. By combining insights of Gibson-Graham’s diverse economies framework with an empirical analysis of how ethical decision making helped build and sustain community economies in three fishing regions, the article promotes the allocation of new community use rights in fisheries and beyond. 2016 © Paul Foley and Charles Mather. Published by Taylor & Francis.
... In the US, the adoption of ITQs has been contentious. 1 However, several fisheries in the US have programs based on the ITQ model including quahog/surf clam (McCay and Brandt 2001); pacific halibut (Knapp 1996;Matulich and Clark 2003;Carothers et al. 2010); and Alaska crab (Fina 2005). Most recently, US federal fisheries policy has focused on "catch shares" as a transferable catching right policy option including all varieties of "limited access privilege" authorized by law including ITQs, individual fishing quotas (IFQs) 2 and territorial use rights fisheries (TURFs) (NOAA 2010, 1). ...
The golden crab (Chaceon fenneri) supports a small, economically healthy fishery in south Florida. Crabbers in the fishery have successfully protected themselves against larger outside fishing interests in the past, and management has been stable for over 15 years. Why, then, did a portion of the fleet propose shifting to individual transferable quotas (ITQs)? Our findings suggest that proponents sought ITQ management because they believed it would further limit the ability of other crabbers to enter the fishery and act as a mechanism to legally preserve the informal and formal property rights that they have previously negotiated among themselves. Opponents believed that a shift to an ITQ regime would destroy those same property rights. We explore the implications of these findings to a broader understanding of property rights and natural resource management institutions, noting that the currently existing system closely resembles a territorial use rights fishery (TURF).
... Nevertheless, clearly identifying these objectives in the fisheries policy arena is a critical first step. A re-centering of fisheries policy around placebased livelihoods and fishery dependent communities and regions can help to better define and address the challenges, inequities and insecurities encountered in fisheries and fishery dependent regions today (Menzies 2007;Mansfield 2011;Carothers 2015;Carothers et al. 2010;Pinkerton and Davis 2015). Fishery systems and fishing communities will be remade and reimagined in the global wake of shifting 21st century ecological and political-economic constraints and opportunities. ...
This paper examines the development of the Irish pelagic fleet and how it has impacted place-based fishing livelihoods in southwest County Donegal, both positively and negatively. As part of this effort, we consider how shifting local and global sociopolitical realities have shaped linkages between resource access and people-place connections in southwest Donegal. We pay particular attention to how Irish fishing opportunities, both at home and abroad, are created and constrained under EU governance and how this drives the displacement of fishing livelihoods from coastal southwest Donegal. We identify power as a key and dynamic mechanism underlying fishery systems in the Irish context. Drawing on interview and ethnographic data we discuss how power is perceived and exercised among local fishery stakeholders, and how this in turn works to shape contemporary adaptive strategies in rural fishery dependent Ireland.
... Socioeconomic monitoring is an evaluation of how fisheries regulations affect the social and economic well-being of fishing communities included but not limited to livelihoods (Abbott et al., 2010;Carothers, 2008;Hamilton and Haedrich, 1999), economic output (Arita et al., 2011;Cai et al., 2005), employment (Carothers, 2007;Stead, 2005), culture and sense of place (Allen and Gough, 2006a;Carothers, 2010;Dolan et al., 2005), community cohesiveness (Allen and Gough, 2006a), job satisfaction (Gatewood and McCay, 1990;Pollnac and Poggie, 1988;Pollnac et al., 2001;Pollnac and Poggie, 2006), and psychological well-being (Smith et al., 2003). Monitoring can also uncover potential environmental justice implications in fishery management by determining if minority or low income populations have been disproportionately affected by particular policies (Allen and Gough, 2006a;Arita et al., 2013;Carothers et al., 2010). Socioeconomic monitoring can be challenging because changes in a fishery's regulation or ecological status can occur quickly and unexpectedly, requiring researchers to rapidly respond to collect the best possible data about the socioeconomic conditions and responses related to the change and to present that information to managers for adaptive fishery management. ...
Individual transferable quotas (ITQs) have been introduced in a large number of fisheries worldwide, mainly to achieve resource sustainability and improve the economic performance of the fisheries. Fisheries have evolved since quota introduction and have developed different ownership structures, with some fisheries being predominantly owner-operator, while other fisheries have attracted investors and non-fishing quota ownership. These different ownership structures may affect the perceptions of the effectiveness of ITQs, although the influence of ownership structures to the perception of management performance based on different management objectives is rarely studied. In this paper, we draw on a case study of the Tasmanian abalone fishery in Australia to illustrate the influence of different quota ownership structures on perceptions about the social, economic and resource sustainability outcomes of ITQ fisheries. We find that fishers with low levels of quota ownership (i.e. lease dependent) have low levels of satisfaction, and believe the fishery is not performing well against the multiple management objectives.
In fisheries management, ex-ante analysis of fishermen’s preferences can provide reliable insights into specific characteristics of regulatory alternatives that are desirable, objectionable, or important, in the judgement of fishermen. This knowledge could facilitate consideration by fishery managers of additional regulatory alternatives with high likelihoods of meeting program objectives, minimal disruption to fishing operations and lifestyles, and high levels of acceptance and compliance from the fishing fleet. In this case study, we interviewed Pacific halibut fishermen (n = 76) in four communities across Southeast Alaska, to document their preferences about different types of data collection methods on their vessels. We demonstrate how to use interviewing to gather preference data from a relatively small group of fishermen and get a reliable snapshot of preferences across an entire region. Pairwise comparisons from interviews were analyzed using a three-stage analytic hierarchy process model. Results characterize the variability of fishermen’s preferences about data collection methods.
Our study uses data on vessel ownership and residency to link the earnings from North Pacific fisheries to the individual communities, cities, and states in which harvesters live and likely spend much of their fishing returns. We provide perspective on which fishing fleets generate the greatest revenues, describe the geographic location of vessel and quota owners in these fisheries, and analyze changes in the distribution of fisheries revenues over the past decade in response to new management initiatives. We examine trends in fishery diversification for fishing communities within regions and across population size. Our results suggest greater complexity than some of the literature and stakeholder sentiment which argue that limited access and catch share programs cause small fishing-dependent communities to lose revenue. Using data from 2004 to 2013, we find no consistent trend of revenue or transfer of vessels from rural Alaska to Seattle, nor revenue consolidation away from smaller towns toward larger cities. We find that some regions are increasingly concentrated and reliant on the revenue generating capacity of a smaller vessel fleet. This trend is likely a result of consolidation in the number of harvesting operations. We also discuss the set of factors specific to management programs in the North Pacific that may have limited spatio-temporal revenue redistribution across community size or region following rationalization. 2018
The Arctic is one of the world’s regions most affected by cultural, socio-economic, environmental, and climatic changes. Over the last two decades, scholars, policymakers, extractive industries, governments, intergovernmental forums, and non-governmental organizations have turned their attention to the Arctic, its peoples, resources, and to the challenges and benefits of impending transformations. Arctic sustainability is an issue of increasing concern as well as the resilience and adaptation of Arctic societies to changing conditions. This book offers key insights into the history, current state of knowledge and the future of sustainability, and sustainable development research in the Arctic. Written by an international, interdisciplinary team of experts, it presents a comprehensive progress report on Arctic sustainability research. It identifies key knowledge gaps and provides salient recommendations for prioritizing research in the next decade. Arctic Sustainability Research will appeal to researchers, academics, and policymakers interested in sustainability science and the practices of sustainable development, as well as those working in polar studies, climate change, political geography, and the history of science. © 2017 Andrey N. Petrov, Shauna BurnSilver, F. Stuart Chapin III, Gail Fondahl, Jessica K. Graybill, Kathrin Keil, Annika E. Nilsson, Rudolf Riedlsperger, and Peter Schweitzer.
Research on enclosure has often examined the phenomenon as a process and outcome of state, neoliberal, and hybrid territorial practices with detrimental impacts for those affected. The proliferation of increasingly complex environmental governance regimes and new enclosures, such as those now seen in the oceans, challenge these readings, however. Using the case of U.S. marine spatial planning (MSP), this article reexamines enclosure through the lens of assemblage. A comprehensive new approach to oceans governance based on spatial data and collaborative decision making, MSP appears to follow past governance programs toward a broad-scale rationalization and enclosure of U.S. waters. Yet this appearance might only be superficial. As an assemblage, U.S. MSP—and its shifting actors, associations, and practices—holds the potential to both close and open the seas for oceans communities, environments, and other actors. Planning actors use three practices to stabilize U.S. MSP for governance and enclosure: narrativizing MSP, creating a geospatial framework to underlie planning, and engaging stakeholders. These practices, however, simultaneously provide opportunities for communities and environments to intervene in U.S. MSP toward alternative outcomes. Rather than a closed seas, U.S. MSP presents opportunities for enclosure to happen differently or not at all, producing alternative outcomes for coastal and oceans communities, environments, and governance.
Distribution and associated concentration of access rights are critically important in assessing the functioning and benefits of a fishery, and understanding who controls access to fisheries is therefore of ever increasing importance. There is a growing dependence on market-based approaches that in turn rely on healthy, functioning markets to achieve economic outcomes. As well, social goals of equity and fairness in fisheries have re-emerged as priorities alongside the goals of ecological sustainability and economic efficiency. This study aims to address the past and present state of the concentration of fishing licenses in British Columbia's salmon and herring fisheries. Fisheries administrative data from federal and provincial data sets were mined to develop a timeline of fisheries ownership and control over a twenty-year period. Hidden corporate ownership of licenses through subsidiaries was identified and comprehensive criteria were co-identified with industry representatives to characterize the various user groups of fisheries licenses. Our analysis suggests that from 1993 to 2012, there was a notable shift in the ownership profile of salmon and herring licenses, with a marked increase in concentration of licenses owned by fish processors.
The latest reform of the Common Fisheries Policy introduces market instruments to manage European fisheries. The success of any regulatory measure requires compliance with and acceptance of standards on the part of the regulatory bodies. This is the second proposal made by the European Commission which poses this possibility; the previous reform agreed by European Parliament in 2002 removed it due to the opposition from fishermen in some countries, among them were most of Spanish fishers. But perhaps the fishermen's preferences changed for these years. This study analyses Spanish fishermen's preferences of the possibility of introducing fishing rights, and an international comparison of fishermen's preferences is made. The results show that the industrial segments are more favourable to implement a system based on quotas, whereas the artisanal segments are more in favour of an individual effort system. The greatest similarities are obtained in Iceland and Australia, although the results achieved are based more on qualitative than quantitative analysis.
Two important new directions in resource and environmental management are increased reliance on market mechanisms on the one hand, and on greater participation by local communities on the other. In fisheries, market-based management is found mainly in the “cap-and-trade” systems known as individual transferable quotas (ITQs). ITQs are effective in achieving certain economic goals but often with undesirable social costs, leading to the view that they are antithetical to community-based management. However, ITQ systems have been adapted to mitigate community losses. In addition, social resistance to ITQs has encouraged the development of innovative programs in communitybased fisheries management.
Ongoing changes in world fisheries, including those in the United States, are having dramatic impacts on fishers, their families, and their communities. The key drivers of these changes have been identified as open access and overcapitalization. The prevailing models being considered for addressing these issues are firmly rooted in the tenets of neoclassical economic theory and focus on establishing property rights or privileges in fisheries. The National Research Council has recently recommended that Congress lift the moratorium on the development of individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs established by the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996. In particular, among mainstream managers, a particular form of IFQ, the individual transferable quota (ITQ) has come to be viewed as the management tool of choice. ITQs, quasiprivatized property rights allocated to individual fishers, are expected to 'rationalize' the fishery through market forces. Externalities (costs that fall outside the market process) associated with ITQs, however, may preclude them from achieving either their biological or economic goals. Meantime, they may cause significant social impacts. Rather than allocating transferable quotas to individuals, allocating them to communities (CTQs) may capture the benefits of ITQs while minimizing social impacts and internalizing externalities (assuring that those who reap the benefits bear the costs). Recent work on property rights in resource management provides a model for how CTQs could be structured.
In 1986, New Zealand responded to the open-access problem by establishing the world's largest individual transferable quota (ITQ) system. Using a 15-year panel dataset from New Zealand that covers 33 species and more than 150 markets for fishing quotas, we assess trends in market activity, price dispersion, and the fundamentals determining quota prices. We find that market activity is sufficiently high in the economically important markets and that price dispersion has decreased. We also find evidence of economically rational behavior through the relationship between quota lease and sale prices and fishing output and input prices, ecological variability, and market interest rates. Controlling for these factors, our results show a greater increase in quota prices for fish stocks that faced significant reductions, consistent with increased profitability due to rationalization. Overall, this suggests that these markets are operating reasonably well, implying that ITQs can be effective instruments for efficient fisheries management.
In some fisheries, claims have been made that quota programs have led to increased vertical integration, with processors controlling quota and fishermen. In the US halibut fishery a quota program was designed specifically to maintain the small-scale vessel nature of the fishery. This paper reports on what changes have been seen in the vertical structure of the halibut fishery and offers some explanation for these changes. Results indicate that the specific rights granted can have significantly different effects on the vertical structure of the industry. In the case of the halibut fishery vertical integration was avoided and market transactions actually increased.
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