Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Fisheries Fisheries Fishery management Fishery management Sustainable fisheries Sustainable development'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2004.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 247-261). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Fisheries management is not only about managing the resource fish, but also includes managing the social system. Aquatic ecosystems and the social system are both complex and change continuously. It is important to address what types of uncertainty the combination of both systems, complex socio-ecological systems leads to, their consequences and how these should be dealt with. Successful or unsuccessful management outcomes are difficult to address whether or not they are due to management efforts or natural changes. In addition, uncertainties often lead to a short-term management, since lack of knowledge makes it difficult to act in a long-term perspective. This thesis conceptualizes how to address different types of uncertainty prevalent in fisheries management, with focus on natural process uncertainty, measurement and estimation uncertainty, decision and implementation uncertainty, and institutional and regime uncertainty.  This was done by analyzing how three theoretical approaches, namely co-management, adaptive management and adaptive co-management address these uncertainties. In order to highlight how different types of uncertainty have been dealt with in practice, a case study on the fishery management in Lake Vättern has been made. A comparison between the literature study and this thesis’ case study shows that hypothesis-testing, cooperation, communication and transparency are corresponding factors on how to deal with uncertainties in fisheries management and that institutional and regime uncertainty is inadequately addressed in Sweden.

It is evident that natural fish stocks are in rapid decline and that millions of people around the world rely on these resources for food and for securing a livelihood. This has brought many social scientists, biologists and fisheries experts to acknowledge that communities need to take more control in managing their natural resources. The paradigm shift in fisheries management from a top-down resource orientated control to a participatory people-centred control is now being advocated in many maritime nations in facilitating community-based natural resource management. At the heart of these projects is the establishment of institutions and social networks that allow for clear communication and information sharing, based on scientific data and traditional knowledge which ultimately allow empowered communities to collectively manage their resources in partnership with government, market actors and many other stakeholders. Central to the problem is the issue of access rights. In many situations where co-management of natural resources through community-government partnerships is advocated, the failure of coastal states to provide adequate legislature and regulatory frameworks has jeopardised such projects. A second issue is the failure of many states to provide adequate investments in social and human capital which will enable communities to become the primary stakeholder in the co-management of their natural resources. Whilst investments like capacity building, education, skills training and development, communications and institution building can initially require high financial investments, the regulatory costs for monitoring, controlling and surveying fish stocks along the coastline will go down as communities take ownership of their resources under sustainable awareness. The main unit of investment therefore is social capital which allows for the increase in trust, cooperativeness, assertiveness, collective action and general capabilities of natural resource governance. High levels of social capital require good social relations and interactions which ultimately create a social network of fishers, community members and leaders, government officials, market players, researchers and various other stakeholders. Co-management thus has an inherent network structure made up of social relations on a horizontal scale amongst community members as well as on a vertical scale with government and fisheries authorities. These bonding relations between people and the bridging relations with institutions provide the social capital currency that allows for a successful co-management solution to community-based natural resource governance. The South African coastline is home to thousands of people who harvest the marine resources for food security and securing a basic income. Fishing is a major cultural and historical component of the livelihoods of many people along the coastline, particularly along the Wild Coast of South Africa located on its South-eastern shoreline. Due to the geopolitical nature of South Africa’s apartheid past many people were located in former tribal lands called Bantustans. The Transkei, one of the biggest homelands, is home to some of South Africa’s poorest people, many of whom rely on the marine resources. By 1998 the government sought to acknowledge the previously unrecognised subsistence sector that lived along the South African coastline with the promulgation of the Marine Living Resources Act. The act sought to legalise access rights for fishers and provide opportunities for the development of commercial fisheries. The act and many subsequent policies largely called for co-management as a solution to the management of the subsistence sector. This thesis largely explains the administrative and legislative difficulties in transporting the participatory components of co-management to the ground level. As such co-management has largely remained in rhetoric whilst the government provides a contradictory policy regarding the management of subsistence and small-scale fishers. This thesis attempts to provide qualitative ethnographic research of the East Coast Rock Lobster fishery located in a small fishing village in the Transkei. The fishery falls somewhere on the spectrum between the small-scale and subsistence sector as there are a basket of high and low value resources being harvested. It will be argued that in order to economically and socially develop the fishery the social capital and social networks of the community and various stakeholders needs to be analysed in order to effectively create a co-management network that can create a successful collective management of natural resources thereby sustaining these communities in the future.

Bangweulu Wetlands is a 6000 km² public-private-partnership conservation area in northeastern Zambia, lying on the south-eastern margins of the Bangweulu Swamps, Congo River system. The area is important for wildlife conservation, tourism and as a fishing ground for the local inhabitants. This study provides a baseline of the fish and fisheries of this area. The conservation area is situated on the transition zone between woodland, floodplain and swamp. A total of 42 fish species representing 12 taxonomic families were collected. The fish fauna of the area was characterised by a diversity of small cyprinids (14 species), cichlids (9 species), clariid catfishes (4 species) and mormyrids (4 species). Species such as Clarias gariepinus, C. ngamensis, Marcusenius macrolepidotus, Tilapia rendali, T. sparrmanii and several small Barbus species were shared with adjacent floodplain systems such as the upper Zambezi and Kafue rivers. Fishing was undertaken by fishing groups consisting of a fisherman and his family, or a group of men fishing together. Access to the fishing grounds was controlled by traditional fishing leaders, who collected tribute from fishermen. Fishing groups utilised fixed, distinct fishing areas determined by ancestry. The most important time for fishing was during the drawdown phase of the floodplains, from March until June. During the dry season fewer groups were engaged in fishing, with many having returned to farming activities. The main fishing methods of the floodplain fishery were basket traps and mosquito-mesh funnel nets set into earth fish barriers (fish weirs) constructed on the plains, various mesh sizes of gillnets, hook longlines and seine nets. The use of fish spears, drag baskets and piscicides was of lesser importance. Most fishing gears were constructed of a variety of natural and modern, manufactured materials. The fishery was multi-species and 23 fish species were recorded from in catch. The three most important species in the catches were C. gariepinus, T. rendalli and M. macrolepidotus. Together these contributed 67% by weight to the catch. Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) for the different gears was 0.4 ± 0.3 kg.trap.night⁻¹ for basket traps, 2.7 ± 4.6 kg.net.night⁻¹ for funnel nets, 0.3 ± 0.5 kg.50 m net.night⁻¹ for gill nets, 3.5 ± 6.3 kg.100 hooks.night⁻¹ for longlines, 1.79 ± 1.11 kg.haul⁻¹ for mosquito-mesh seine nets and 6.87 ± 6.27 kg.haul⁻¹ for larger-mesh seine nets. The weight of average daily landings of fishing groups, using a variety of gears was 7.8 ± 7.4 kg. Fishermen were able to maintain the same catch rate between dry and wet seasons, with no significant differences (p < 0.05) in daily landings between seasons. Yield per fisherman for a seven month season, which required 2-3 relocations due to falling water level, was 1.64 t based on catch assessment, and 1.9 t from a socio-economic survey. A tentative yield per area estimate for the area was 2I7 kg.ha⁻¹ over the three month shallow-floodplain fishing season. Most fish landed in the fishery were processed into sundried or smoke-dried products. These were used for 1) home consumption, 2) trade with village farmers (from up to 70 km inland of the fishing grounds) in exchange for staple starch meal, and 3) sold to urban fish traders, reaching markets as distant as Lubumbashi in Democratic Republic of Congo. Fish traders toured fishing camps to buy fish, supporting auxiliary industries such as transport and accommodation services. The price for dried fish at source was 3.14 ± 1.34 USDlkg and the market price reported for the Zambian Copperbelt was 6.14 ± 2.54 USD/kg. Typical returns on investment in fish trading were estimated as 68-77%. The fishery was considered to be biologically and socially sustainable. By harvesting a seasonally transient assemblage of species with high productivity and biological turnover rates and with life histories adapted to high mortality, fishermen were able to maintain a stable and viable livelihood. Management recommendations for the area were that a fisheries management plan be developed that would seek to strengthen the traditional system of rights-allocation, address problems between fishing and tourism activities, and enhance communication between fisheries and conservation stakeholders. To do this it was recommended that: 1) conservation authorities recognise the importance of the fishery, 2) no changes to current effort levels and fishing methods were necessary, 3) points 1 and 2 above be used to improve communication and trust between conservation authorities and fishermen, 4) customary resource-access mechanisms be understood and strengthened so that local inhabitants' rights to the resource are protected, 5) fishermen help formulate and accept conservation and tourism rules, 6) tourists and guides be made aware of the function of the fishery, 7) a fisheries management forum of key community, government and conservation stakeholders be formed to shape and implement the fisheries management plan, 8) locally-adapted bylaws be created to legitimise crucial floodplain gears currently considered illegal (e.g. mosquito-net gears, fish weirs), 9) no intervention to formalise fish trading be made, and 10) a trained person with a fisheries background be hired oversee the implementation of the recommendations.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Verskeie korporatiewe fiaskos gedurende die afgelope dekade het wêreldwye opskudding veroorsaak met die gevolg dat daar vanaf ‘n nuwe oogpunt gekyk word na die wyses waarop korporasies bestuur word. Terselfdertyd is daar ‘n wêreldwye belangstelling gekweek in volhoubare ontwikkeling en korporasies se bydrae daartoe. Dit, tesame met korporatiewe bestuur, het tot die gevolg gehad dat die fokus vanaf die tradisionele finansiële verslaggewing geskuif het na rapportering op die sogenaamde “Tripple Bottom Line” en meer en meer maatskappye oor die wêreld genereer en publiseer deesdae op hul ekonomies-, maatskaplike-, omgewingsverantwoordelikhede en prestasies. Gou is daar egter besef dat rapportering en die opstel van beleide self nie genoeg is nie en een van die die grootste uitdagings aan korporatiewe bestuurders tans is om te verseker dat hul korporatiewe bestuurstelsels hul volhoubare strategieë ondersteun om te verseker dat die strategieë in hul maatskappystelsels en prosesse geintegreer is. Kaplan en Norton het in 1992 die Gebalanseerde Telkaart ontwikkel. Die telkaart is as instrument voorgestel om strategieë in aksie oor te skakel. Die telkaart erken dat die tradisionele finansiële maatstawwe nie voldoende is om die volhoudbare sukses van die maatskappy te verseker nie en skep ‘n balans tussen nie-tradisionele maatstawwe oor vier areas: finansieël, kliënte, interne prosesse en leer en groei. Alhoewel daar verskeie gevallestudies in literatuur voorkom waar Gebalanseerde Telkaart implementering gefaal het, het navorsing bewys dat in gevalle waar dit wel suksesvol geimplementeer is, die telkaart ‘n dramatiese verskil aan die maatskapy se prestasie gemaak het. Daar moet dus besef word dat die telkaart wel sy tekortkominge het en dat die implementering daarvan oordeelkundig moet geskied. Gedurende die 21st eeu het outeurs die potensiaal van die Gebalanseerde Telkaart om korporatiewe volhoudbaarheidsstrategië in aksie oor te skakel raakgesien om sodoende die gaping tussen volhoudbare korporatiewe bestuur en die integrasie van beleid en strategieë in die maatskappy prosesse en -stelsels te oorbrug met die integrasie van volhoudbare maatstawwe in die Gebalanseerde Telkaart. Wêreldwyd is die visvangbedryf gedurig onder die kollig vanweë sy impak op die omgewing en die Suid-Afrikaanse visvangbedryf word nie uitgesluit nie. Die visbedryf is ‘n bron afhanklike bedryf en maatskappye moet teen mekaar meeding vir toegang tot die ontgunning van die bron. Vanuit ‘n ekonomiese en ‘n omgewings oogpunt is dit dus van uiters belang dat maatskappye in die bedryf volhoudbare strategieë toepas om die hernubaarheid van die bron te verseker. Suid-Afrikaanse maatskappye bevind hulself egter in ‘n unieke situasie in terme van maatskaplike verantwoordelikheid vanweë die onregmatighede van die apartheidstelsel en maatskaplike verantwoordelikheid moet dus transformasie insluit. Daarvoor het die Departement van Handel en Industrie reeds Die Swart Ekonomiese Bemagtigings Telkaart ingestel om die vordering van maatskappye te meet. Hierdie telkaarte vorm dus ‘n uitstekende basis vir die volhoudbaarheids gebalanseerde integrasie, nie net om te voldoen aan die legislatiewe regulasies nie, maar ook om die geleenhede wat daaruit kan voortspruit ten volle te benut. Hierdie navorsingsverslag ondersoek dus die skakels tussen korporatiewe bestuur en korporatiewe volhoudbaarheid, die teorië rondom die Volhoudbaare Gebalanseerde Telkaart en die moontlike toepassing daarvan op die Suid-Afrikaanse visbedryf.
ENGLISH SUMMARY: Over the past decade outrageous corporate fiascos has resulted in a renewed interest in Corporate Governance and the way Corporates are managed. At the same time sustainable development and the Corporate contribution and Corporate sustainability has gathered worldwide interest in both institutional and corporate spheres. This has triggered new expectations for business transparency and has shifted the focus from traditional financial reporting to reporting on the organization’s impact and performance on the triple bottom line. More companies from across the globe are developing and reporting on their economic, social- and environmental responsibility and performance. It soon became clear that reporting on broad policy is simply not enough and one of the biggest challenges of corporate managers today are to ensure that their sustainable strategies and policies are integrated into their organizational governance structures and processes. Kapland and Norton have developed the Balanced Scorecard in 1992 to provide business managers with a management tool to translate their strategies into action. The scorecard recognizes that traditional financial measurements is not enough to ensure the continued success of organizations and creates a balance between non traditional measurements across four perspectives: financial, customers, internal processes and learning and growth. Although various case studies exist about Balanced Scorecard implementation, empirical research have indicated substantial performance improvement at organizations that have successfully implemented the Balanced Scorecard. Implementation thereof therefore has to be carried out with caution. During the 2000’s authors has recognized the potential of the Balanced Scorecard to translate Corporate sustainability strategies into action and bridge the gap between the way corporates are governed and sustainability by integrating sustainability measures into the Balanced Scorecard for the creation of the sustainability Balanced Scorecard. Fisheries, world wide are continually under the spotlight as a result of their impact on the environment and the South African fishing industry is certainly not excluded. Fisheries are a resource dependent industry and companies have to compete against each other for access to these resources. Apart from its environmental impact it is therefore of outmost importance that managers within the industry considers all the sustainability aspects in their organizational structures. This research report thus explores the link between Corporate Governance and Corporate Sustainability, the theory surrounding the sustainability Balanced Scorecard and the possible application thereof in order to ensure the long term sustainability of the industry.

Masters (M.Sc.)--University of Sydney, 2006.
Title from title screen (viewed 27 February 2007). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science to the School of Geosciences. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in print.

The Sustainable Seafood Movement's "theory of change" is predicated on using markets to improve the supply of, demand for and governance of sustainable fisheries. Over four articles, this thesis will examine the implications of this approach. Article I evaluates the cultural model of seafood eco-labelling and demonstrates that while the theory of using market demand to motivate fishery improvements has been a powerful incentive, consumers have had a minimal role in incentivising that change. This is validated through semi-structured consumer interviews and structured surveys (n=196), which indicate consumers' general understanding of sustainability issues. Article II examines the roles of actors in the Sustainable Seafood Movement in facilitating the growth of sustainable seafood products in the supply chain, thus explaining how in the absence of large consumer demand, certified sustainable seafood product offerings have continued to grow. Article III examines the private governance mechanisms that the Sustainable Seafood Movement has established in the supply chain and how these are rivalling, complementing and substituting those of state-led fisheries governance mechanisms. At the same time both private and public governance mechanisms continue to monopolise certain spaces, such as flag state authority. Greater coordination between these two governance systems is needed to facilitate additional sustainability gains and strengthen the resilience of these governance systems. When public and private governance efforts to improve the supply, demand and governance of sustainable seafood are looked as whole, as in Article IV, it is evident that consumers/citizens are minimally engaged. Lack of consumer/citizen engagement could lead to an undervaluing of these governance systems by society. Civic engagement organizations are needed to bridge these systems and facilitate citizen/consumer/steward engagement. Public accountability mechanisms are one means to better engage the public in both governance systems, so that sustainable fisheries are realised by collective engagement of all actors.

There exists a lack of information about many of the social, economic and ecological links within coastal Small-Scale Capture Fisheries; such knowledge is pertinent to the future sustainable exploitation and management of marine ecosystems by coastal communities. To conserve natural resources for future generations, sustainable management of natural resources is necessary. Sustainable resource management can help ensure that the use of resources does not cause an imbalance in the environment, and increasingly, sustainable management practices are being encouraged to preserve both animal and plant life for the benefit of future generations. Supply Chain Management is the active management of supply chain activities. It represents a conscious effort by supply chain managers to develop and run supply chains in the most effective way to meet Consumer demand. However,the vast majority of research and practice regarding sustainable supply chains has followed an instrumental logic, which has led firms and supply chain managers to place economic interests ahead of environmental and social interests. Ecologically Dominant Sustainable Supply Chain Management is a planning and decision-making process that seeks to coordinate and balance the social, economic and environmental demands of resource use to achieve long term sustainability. In this thesis, the Sustainable Supply Chain Management of the Lipsi Small-Scale Capture Fishery has been approached from a Sustainable Supply Chain Management perspective. The thesis interrogates the seafood supply chain of ‘place’ (The Municipality of Lipsi) by taking into consideration each ‘stage’ of the seafood supply chain; expressed here as Habitat, Assemblage, Fishery, Market and Consumer. In adopting q novel Conceptual Framework this thesis provides a platform for Small-Scale Capture Fishery research to move beyond ‘Catch to Market’ thinking (that treat’s the ocean as a ‘black box’ or homogenous entity) and helps to articulate the heterogeneous roles that coastal habitats play in provisioning Small-Scale Capture Fishery seafood supply chains. Furthermore, it aims to provide an intuitive and accessible platform for inter-disciplinary discussion, be that between business managers, ecologists, socio-ecological researchers, fisheries managers or local stakeholders.

L’objectif général de la thèse est de modéliser les principaux processus biologiques et économiques régissant des pêcheries multi-espèces et multi-flottilles afin de proposer des stratégies viables pour la gestion durable de ces pêcheries mixtes, dans un contexte stochastique et multiobjectif. Plus spécifiquement, cette thèse utilise des analyses de co-viabilité stochastique pour étudier les arbitrages entre des objectifs contradictoires de gestion (conservation, et viabilité économique et sociale) des pêcheries mixtes. Deux pêcheries mixtes sont analysées dans cette thèse : la pêcherie française mixte démersale du golfe de Gascogne et la pêcherie crevettière australienne du Nord (NPF). Ces deux pêcheries sont multi-espèces, et utilisent des stratégies multiples de pêche, induisant des impacts directs et indirects sur les écosystèmes. Cette thèse propose une application de la co-viabilité stochastique à ces deux cas, en prenant en compte leur histoire, leur contexte socio-politique et les différences dans les stratégies et objectifs de gestion. Les résultats suggèrent que le status quo peut être considéré comme une stratégie biologiquement durable mais socio économiquement à risque dans les deux pêcheries (ainsi qu’à risque écologique dans le cas de la pêcherie australienne). Les simulations réalisées pour le golfe de Gascogne permettent de comparer les arbitrages associés à différentes réductions de capacités par flottille et de montrer qu’il existe des solutions de gestion permettant la co-viabilité du système (viabilité biologique des différentes espèces considérées et viabilité socio-économique des flottilles) contrairement à des stratégies de gestion mono-spécifiques ou basées sur la maximisation de la rente. Dans la pêcherie crevettière australienne, l’analyse montre que les stratégies de diversification permettent de limiter le risque économique contrairement aux stratégies plus spécialisées
Empirical evidence and the theoretical literature both point to stock sustainability and the protection of marine biodiversity as important fisheries management issues. Decision-support tools are increasingly required to operationalize the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management. These tools need to integrate (i) ecological and socio-economic drivers of changes in fisheries and ecosystems; (ii) complex dynamics; (iii) deal with various sources of uncertainty; and (iv) incorporate multiple, rather than single objectives. The stochastic co-viability approach addresses the trade-offs associated with balancing ecological, economic and social objectives throughout time, and takes into account the complexity and uncertainty of the dynamic interactions which characterize exploited ecosystems and biodiversity. This thesis proposes an application of this co-viability approach to the sustainable management of mixed fisheries, using two contrasting case studies: the French Bay of Biscay (BoB) demersal mixed fishery and the Australian Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF). Both fisheries entail direct and indirect impacts on mixed species communities while also generating large economic returns. Their sustainability is therefore a major societal concern. A dynamic bio-economic modelling approach is used to capture the key biological and economic processes governing these fisheries, combining age- (BoB) or size- (NPF) structured models of multiple species with recruitment uncertainty, and multiple fleets (BoB) or fishing strategies (NPF). Economic uncertainties relating to input and output prices are also considered. The bioeconomic models are used to investigate how the fisheries can operate within a set of constraints relating to the preservation of Spawning Stock Biomasses (BoB) or Spawning Stock Size Indices (NPF) of a set of key target species, maintenance of the economic profitability of various fleets (BoB) or the fishery as a whole (NPF), and limitation of fishing impacts on the broader biodiversity (NPF), under a range of alternative scenarios and management strategies. Results suggest that under a status quo strategy both fisheries can be considered as biologically sustainable, while socio-economically (and ecologically in the NPF case) at risk. Despite very different management contexts and objectives, viable management strategies suggest a reduction in the number of vessels in both cases. The BoB simulations allow comparison of the trade-offs associated with different allocations of this decrease across fleets. Notably, co-viability management strategies entail a more equitable allocation of effort reductions compared to strategies aiming at maximizing economic yield. In the NPF, species catch diversification strategies are shown to perform well in controlling the levels of economic risk, by contrast with more specialized fishing strategies. Furthermore analyses emphasize the importance to the fishing industry of balancing global economic performance with inter-annual economic variability. Promising future developments based on this research involve the incorporation of a broader set of objectives including social dimensions, as well as the integration of ecological interactions, to better address the needs of ecosystem-based approaches to the sustainable harvesting of marine biodiversity

Subsistence fishing is impacting on freshwater and marine biodiversity to the extent of extinction of some fish species. These illegal subsistence fishermen have created a huge impact on marine biodiversity, irrespective of marine and riverine laws that are put in place and practiced. There have been attempt to provide subsistence fishing extension officer services to facilitate in bringing subsistence fishermen fully into the management system, in an orderly and equitable manner, by facilitating the granting of formal subsistence fishing right, providing permits via policy management and effective rules via permit applications. However the follow up process as to whether these policies and rules administered is effective or not has not been measured. This investigation attempts to identify potential fishing that should be considered as suitable for subsistence fisheries in selected highly exploitable areas. Though it cannot be confirmed from previous studies that some relevant organizations are not fully taking their responsibilities, the study will further enable exploration of options and challenges associated with future management of subsistence fisheries and provide recommendations to enable proper implementation of the policies and legislations.
Environmental Sciences
M. Env. Sc. (Agriculture and Environmental Affairs)