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Abstract:
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"Scholars interested in sea tenure generally display a bias towards artisanal fishers, the idea being that such fisheries contain the finest specimens of sustainable management practice. This prejudice has brought about a spate of studies on far-away communities and small-island states. It has, on the other hand, also resulted in the relative neglect of non-artisanal fisheries, such as the ones of trawler fishers in developing countries.
"Some authors take the distinction between artisanal and non-artisanal fisheries a long way. McGoodwin (1990: 41), who wrote a comprehensive volume on the crisis in fisheries, thus opposes ecosystem fishers and biosphere fishers, the fundamental difference being one of range. The category of ecosystem fishers which from his point of view is synonymous with artisanal fishers - depend on circumscribed fishing grounds and display an active interest in conservation. Thus for McGoodwin (ibid.:108) "indigenous management is mainly the purview of small-scale fishers." Biosphere fishers, on the other hand, roam from fishing ground to fishing ground and subscribe to a myth of superabundance. This myth entails "the feeling that there are always other ecosystems and other resources to exploit should the ones they currently favor run short" (ibid.:41). From such a point of view, trawler fisheries are one of the last places to look for tenurial arrangements.
"One could argue, however, it depends on how sea tenure is defined. The current tendency, - fuelled by a realization of environmental crisis - is to connect sea tenure to the responsible management of resources. Several scholars, however, observe that tenure arrangements sometimes have other backgrounds and purposes. For instance, arrangements may reflect the pursuit of repute (Carrier 1987), the structuring of trade (Pannell 1996), or the organization of harvesting (Berkes 1987). For purposes of analysis, I believe it is useful to avoid preconceptions about the nature of sea tenure systems. Instead, one should allow for a multiplicity of objectives, instruments, forms and development phases.
"This paper considers the management arrangements employed by mechanized boat fishers in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. I focus on the efforts boat owners have made to create and enforce social boundaries, and thus limit access to fishing. Although social boundaries are a particularly hot issue in this particular boat fishing community, and worthy of study for that reason alone, the analysis is also relevant for the discussion on the management of common pool resources (CPR). After all, collective action theorists argue that restricting access is a core element in resolving CPR-problems (cf. Ostrom et. al 1999, Schlager and Ostrom 1993).
"The first section of the paper briefly describes the mechanized boat sector of Chennai. It is followed by an analysis of boat owner associations and the types of rules they try to implement. Then attention shifts to the issue of social boundaries."
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