Socioeconomic Factors in Fisheries Management: The Ocean Prawn Trawl Fishery in New South Wales, Australia

摘要

We have used the Ocean Prawn Trawl Fishery in New South Wales, Australia as a case study to examine how fishers' expectations for management of their fishery compare with the management approach and measures applied by the state management agency. This paper gives a brief overview of the fishery and discusses the possibilities and constraints for sustainable management. The Ocean Prawn Trawl Fishery is the most commercially valuable and regionally important fishery in New South Wales. Despite complexinput regulations, increasing fishing effort and ineffective management strategies are threatening the sustainability of the fishery. Although there is a long history of biological research on prawns, socioeconomic factors have thus far been neglected.Most stakeholders in the fishery agree that the fishery needs to be restructured, but they have differing, and often contradictory, views on how to achieve this goal. The most pressing problems facing management of the fishery appear to be of an institutional, economic, and social nature rather than primarily biological.The findings of the survey are discussed in the context of the importance of economic and social factors in underpinning the sustainability of the fishery and providing improved outcomesfor fishers. If there is no improvement in the policies to address these issues, the fishery may reach an "irreversible" decline.