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Article Excerpt
Introduction
The social and ecological interactions inherent to marine fisheries are a mystery for many who are not fishermen or members of fishing families. In areas where fishing takes place near the coast, there may be a general awareness and understanding of these interactions as fishing activities become part of the economic, social, and cultural landscape of the community.
Understanding offshore commercial fisheries, however, can be challenging for coastal and non coastal residents alike. Site visits to ports leave many questions unanswered. Vessels come and go along with trucks hauling catch (in many cases already processed, bagged, or packaged) away from ports. Additionally, while nearshore fisheries often supply local markets, larger scale commercial fisheries that commonly fish offshore often cater to markets outside local and even regional boundaries. Distance as well as increased vessel size and mobility present challenges for understanding the interactions between fishers, other fishery participants, and fishing grounds. Given the increased specialization of the fishing industry, one might have a general understanding of one fishery but the social, economic, and ecological connections in another may not be obvious.
Not only do fishing methods differ between fisheries, but the distribution, processing, and marketing of commercial marine resources also varies significantly. Certain fisheries are better understood than others. For example, coastal residents of Maine and elsewhere in New England are likely to have a general understanding of how and where lobsters, Homarus americanus, are caught and will certainly be able to recognize the species.
This familiarity is due in part to the fishery's visibility. Lobsters are predominantly caught close to shore and multicolored buoys commonly dot inlets and coastal waters. Owner-operated vessels are moored in harbors and go out daily to check and empty traps. Traps are ubiquitous--stacked in backyards, on piers, and even used as coffee tables in summer homes. And, of course, live and cooked lobsters and lobster products are widely available at the local fishmonger and restaurants.
Social and ecological interactions in most fisheries are much less obvious to fishery stakeholders. Fisheries in the northeastern United States such as herring, Clupea harengus; squid, Loligo vulgaris; monkfish, Lophius americanus; cod, Gadus morhua; and other groundfish species are examples of this disconnect. Some fisheries have few participants and are highly localized, landing their catch in a limited number of ports, while others have thousands of participants scattered along the coastline with catch being distributed throughout the region. While one species might be processed, packed, distributed, and consumed locally, another might be frozen and shipped abroad for international consumption. Understanding these land-sea linkages and social networks is essential to understanding the human component of the ecosystem as well as comprehending how changes in the condition of the resource or regulations might impact coastal communities and other stakeholders in the short term and over time.
Mapping Socio-Ecological Marine Connections
Analysis of economic and social impacts of fishery regulations is required by the National Environmental Policy Act and by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, with the latter emphasizing the need to understand the history of the fishery and impacts on fishing communities (National Standard 8). Each fishery management plan or amendment to a plan must include a description of the potentially "affected human environment." Ideally, this information is used as a baseline against which sociocultural and economic changes experienced by stakeholder groups and relevant communities can be measured over time.
A common criticism of these documents is that they are too long, complicated, and inaccessible to the average fishery stakeholder. A recent Federal court decision in a challenge to Amendment 13 of the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan found that while the content of the document met legal requirements, it was less successful at "disclosing information in terms intelligible to interested members of the public, public servants, and legislators." (1) The total length of this document was over 1,500 pages with the "affected human environment" section of the document comprising over 350 pages (NEFMC, 2003).
Formal analysis of fishing activities is generally limited to either at-sea activities or the economic impacts of regulatory changes on fishing businesses. Only recently have research efforts focused on the social and cultural impacts on fishermen, their families, and other fisheries stakeholders such as coastal communities. Traditionally, the types of data about fishery participants available in government databases have focused on vessels and landings.
Socio-cultural data is only now beginning to be acquired. One example of this is the baseline demographic data on coastal communities now being collected to better document social change over time (Federal Register, 1998). Rarely, however, is there a connection drawn between the marine resource and coastal stakeholders at any scale to evaluate how...
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