SoFISHticated policy - social perspectives on the fish conflict in the Northeast Atlantic

Author(s): Anja Gänsbauer, Harald Wilfing, Ulrike Bechtold
Abstract: Ecosystem changes currently question the traditional allocation of fishing rights and quotas in the fishery of Northeast Atlantic mackerel and Norwegian spring-spawning herring in the Northeast Atlantic. Variability in the distribution of these highly migratory species escalated in a political conflict between member states of the European Union, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway, which is a driving force for unsustainable fishery. The aim of this paper is to investigate this conflict by outlining the social understandings of diverse stakeholders by using the Q methodology. The method reduced the complexity of numerous opinions, detected four distinct perspectives and simultaneously categorised the participating stakeholders. Although the perspectives differ in various elements, the protection of economic interests seems to dominate over the quest for sustainability. The call of all stakeholders in this study to clarify the fishing rights in the Northeast Atlantic reveals a clear deficiency of the current international fishery management in handling abrupt ecological changes and the necessity to acknowledge this as a complex adaptive system.
Organisation(s): Department of Geography and Regional Research, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Department for Teacher Education
External organisation(s): Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)
Journal: Marine Policy
Volume: 66
Pages: 93-103
No. of pages: 11
ISSN: 0308-597X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.01.014
Publication date: 04-2016
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 507024 Environmental policy
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General Environmental Science, Economics and Econometrics, Aquatic Science, Law, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Portal url: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/e7edc4ea-0bad-4dad-92ff-35c0f28b471d

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