Adaptation, Knowledge, and Leadership in Managed Fisheries

The dynamic nature of marine systems requires that fishers constantly navigate change. To do this, fishers deploy a range of strategies, changing where, when, and how they fish as well as what species they target. However,... [ view full abstract ]

The dynamic nature of marine systems requires that fishers constantly navigate change. To do this, fishers deploy a range of strategies, changing where, when, and how they fish as well as what species they target. However, increasingly, fisheries are being managed in ways that constrain fishers’ access to marine resources, whereby reducing their ability to adapt to socioeconomic and environmental shifts. One of the consequences of this process is that fishers tend to become more specialized and are therefore exposed to higher levels of financial risk. Here, I use a multigraph network approach to describe the social-ecological relationships between fishers and fisheries in a highly fisheries-dependent region of the United States (Maine) and investigate how differences in access among individual fishers also alter the production of local ecological knowledge and leadership – both key concepts in marine conservation. The results of this research suggest a need for greater attentiveness to the role fisheries management strategies play in theorizing about knowledge production, leadership, adaptive capacity among fishers.