Small-scale fisheries are a major source of food and employment around the world. Yet, many small-scale fishers work in conditions that are neither safe nor secure. Millions of them are poor, and often they are socially and politically marginalized. Macro-economic and institutional mechanisms are essential to address these poverty and vulnerability problems; however, interventions at the local community level are also necessary. This requires deep understanding of what poverty means to the fishers, their families and communities; how they cope with it; and the challenges they face to increase resiliency and improve their lives for the better. This book provides a global perspective, situating small-scale fisheries within the broad academic discourse on poverty, fisheries management and development. In-depth case studies from fifteen countries in Latin America, Europe, South and Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, demonstrate the enormously complex ecological, economic, social, cultural and political contexts of this sector. Conclusions for policy-making, formulated as a joint statement by the authors, argue that fisheries development, poverty alleviation, and resource management must be integrated within a comprehensive governance approach that also looks beyond fisheries. The scientific editors, Svein Jentoft and Arne Eide, are both with the Norwegian College of Fishery Science, Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, University of Tromso, Norway.

Fishing has played a vital role in human history and culture. But today this key resource faces a serious crisis as most species are being overfished or fished to their very limit. Governments have tried to tackle the problem with limited success. Many of their actions have been counterproductive or ineffective. What will happen to global fisheries, and the populations that depend on them, as we continue to catch more fish than the oceans can reproduce? This book explores the causes of the current crisis in the world's fisheries, and what needs to be done to address the situation. It explains the structure of the fishing industry, the incentives that persuade individuals or companies to catch fish at unsustainable levels, and illuminates the problems created by governmental efforts to use fishing policy as a tool for economic development or to win votes in domestic elections. It also looks at the role of aquaculture in either decreasing or increasing the pressure on wild fish stocks. The dire condition of fish stocks has led governments and consumer organizations to consider new approaches to protect the global supply of fish. DeSombre and Barkin conclude by showing how such methods, along with new forms of international regulation and informed decision-making by consumers, all have an important part to play in rewarding and thus encouraging sustainable fishing behaviour in the future.

Over the past twenty years considerable public attention has been focused on the decline of marine fisheries, the sustainability of world fish production, and the impacts of fishing on marine ecosystems. Many have voiced their concerns about marine conservation, as well as the sustainable and ethical consumption of fish. But are fisheries in danger of collapse? Will we soon need to find ways to replace this food system? Should we be worried that we could be fishing certain species to extinction? Can commercial fishing be carried out in a sustainable way? While overblown prognoses concerning the dire state of fisheries are plentiful, clear scientific explanations of the basic issues surrounding overfishing are less so - and there remains great confusion about the actual amount of overfishing and its ecological impact.
Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know(r) will provide a balanced explanation of the broad issues associated with overfishing. Guiding readers through the scientific, political, economic, and ethical issues associated with harvesting fish from the ocean, it will provide answers to questions about which fisheries are sustainably managed and which are not. Ray and Ulrike Hilborn address topics including historical overfishing, high seas fisheries, recreational fisheries, illegal fishing, climate and fisheries, trawling, economic and biological overfishing, and marine protected areas. In order to illustrate the effects of each of these issues, they will incorporate case studies of different species of fish.
Overall, the authors present a hopeful view of the future of fisheries. Most of the world's fisheries are not overfished, and many once overfished stocks are now rebuilding. In fact, we can learn from the management failures and successes to ensure that fisheries are sustainable and contribute to national wealth and food security. Concise and clear, this book presents a compelling "big picture" of the state of oceans and the solutions to ending overfishing.
What Everyone Needs to Know(r) is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press

This book is a multidisciplinary analysis of cultural, regional and economic factors affecting international food trade. Contributions from expert authors illuminate the importance of food culture prevailing in the market as a basis for decisions about food trading. Central concepts include value chains, conventions and public infrastructure and their importance for international trade. The reader is taken into a discussion about cultural and economic contexts which influence local decisions among buyers and manufacturers of seafood and how those contexts mutually influence trade between countries. Chapters investigate the trading pattern of codfish (Bacalao), between Nordic and Iberian countries and discuss how business relations are created and structured. The driving forces behind such patterns and how business relations become habits which are hard to change, are revealed through the research presented. As a multidisciplinary work, this book will have broad appeal. It will be of interest to those exploring cultural, economic and public policy issues associated with food trade, as well as anyone with an interest in the seafood market or the Nordic and Iberian regions.

Drawing on more than 30 case studies from around the world, this book offers a multitude of examples for improving the governance of small-scale fisheries. Contributors from some 36 countries argue that reform, transformation and innovation are vital to achieving sustainable small-scale fisheries - especially for mitigating the threats and vulnerabilities of global change. For this to happen, governing systems must be context-specific and the governability of small-scale fisheries properly assessed. The volume corresponds well with the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries adopted in 2014, spearheaded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). These affirm the importance of small-scale fisheries for food security, nutrition, livelihoods, rural development and poverty reduction. The book arises from the project Too Big To Ignore: Global Partnership for Small-Scale Fisheries Research (TBTI). "A nuanced, diverse, vibrant and local-specific collection of essays - just as the small-scale fisheries around the world - dealt with by this versatile array of authors. Following on the heels of the recently adopted FAO Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines, here is an erudite compendium which I heartily recommend to policy makers, academics and activists who wish to come to terms with the complex issue of governance of this important field of human activity." John Kurien - Founding Member of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), and Former Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, India "Likely to become a classic in its field, this book is about small-scale fisheries and interactive governance - governance which is negotiated, deliberated upon, and communicated among stakeholders who often share governing responsibilities. The authors show that interactive governance is not just a normative theory but a phenomenon that can be studied empirically, here with 34 case studies from as many countries around the world, north and south, east and west. Such "force of example" enables the editors to put together well-developed arguments and sometimes surprising conclusions about the way ahead. A must-read for managers, practitioners, stakeholders, and students!" Fikret Berkes - University of Manitoba, Canada, and author of Coasts for People

Fishing for a Solution provides a detailed, policy-based account of the development of Canada's fisheries relations with the European Union. It covers over 35 years of this contentious international relationship, from the extension of Canada's fisheries jurisdiction to 200 miles in 1977 and the creation of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) two years later, to the development of a proposed new NAFO Convention in 2007, which awaits formal approval. Based on the experience of participants from inside the deliberations and negotiations, the book explores the impact of Canada's internal politics on international fisheries negotiations. For anyone interested in the workings of Canadian foreign policy, resource policy or in the complexities of managing international relations, it offers a unique account of the development of Canada-EU fisheries relations, blending the academic perspective of a long--time student of those relations with the insights of two former senior public servants who led the international affairs directorate of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans .

Fishing Talk: The Language of a Lost Industry is the outcome of a lifetime's research by Lowestoft author David Butcher. Over the years he has recorded many hours of interviews with the fishermen of the east coast of the British Isles and has compiled their stories and accounts of their working lives into several books. For this title, he explains the words and phrases they use in their accounts, some to be found in the common parlance, some only found in use on the working boats of the fishing industry. The sea-going men - and women who handled the catches, kept the homes together and frequently looked after the business aspect of the fishing life - gladly contributed their recollections. The mid and deep sea fisheries of East Anglia have passed into history but this publication preserves their vocabulary.

In 2006 Congress recognised the need for international cooperation to address some of the most significant issues affecting international fisheries today: illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and fishing practices that may undermine the sustainability of living marine resources. In 2010, Congress focused on the need for enhanced international action to conserve and protect sharks in passing the Shark Conservation Act. By requirement, the Secretary of Commerce, in biennial reports, is to identify nations whose fishing vessels are engaged in certain IUU fishing, bycatch, and shark fishing practices; describe U.S. consultations with the identified countries to urge appropriate actions; and certify whether such actions subsequent to identification have adequately addressed the offending activities. The Secretary of Commerce has delegated authority to identify and certify countries under the Moratorium Protection Act to the NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries. The Secretary of Commerce is also directed, in consultation with the Secretary of State and in cooperation with relevant regional fishery management councils and any relevant advisory committees, to take certain actions to improve the effectiveness of international fishery management organizations in conserving and managing stocks under their jurisdiction. This book surveys efforts by the United States to strengthen its leadership toward improving international fisheries management and enforcement, particularly with regard to IUU fishing, bycatch of protected living marine resources (PLMRs), and certain shark fishing practices. Furthermore, this book covers issues that have been identified during congressional hearings and in legislation introduced during the last three Congresses, some of which include the flexibility in rebuilding overfished fisheries; annual catch limits; uncertainty and data needs; catch shares (limited access privilege programs); management process and decision making; bycatch; and environmental quality.

Through his ethnographic study of the fishermen and their religious beliefs, Webster speaks to larger debates about religious radicalism, materiality, economy, language, and the symbolic. These debates also call into question assumptions about the decline of religion in modern industrial societies.