Governance Issues in Mixed-Fisheries Management: An Analysis of Stakeholder Views

Abstract

"The term mixed fisheries refers to fisheries where more than one species are present in the area being fished and are vulnerable to being caught in the fishing gear. In most cases this also means that more than one kind of fishing gear are also being used. For many reasons mixed fisheries present an immensely more difficult challenge for fisheries management than single species fisheries do. Many important fisheries in Europe are found in mixed fisheries so finding more effective ways to govern such fisheries is a high priority for the European Union and Member States. Mixed fisheries are a serious political challenge for managers because questions of fairness to different groups of fishers arise more quickly than in any other set of fisheries management problems. Perceptions of fairness play an important role in the politics of fisheries management. Social psychologists have shown that these perceptions of fairness depend mainly on three things: people having their needs taken into account; being treated equally; and, getting out something that is proportional to what they put in. Even more critical for our purposes here, people's judgements about fairness are not related to some abstract ideal of what should be, but come rather from comparisons of their situation with the situation of other groups they see as similar. Mixed fisheries provide many opportunities for such comparisons. "