Considering Community-Based Co-Management for Sustainable Fisheries" (2013)
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Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont Pomona Senior Theses Pomona Student Scholarship 2013 A New Commons: Considering Community- Based Co-Management for Sustainable Fisheries Charlotte L. Dohrn Pomona College Recommended Citation Dohrn, Charlotte L., "A New Commons: Considering Community-Based Co-Management for Sustainable Fisheries" (2013). Pomona Senior Theses. Paper 81. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/81 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Pomona Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pomona Senior Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A NEW COMMONS: CONSIDERING COMMUNITYBASED COMANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES Charlotte Dohrn In partial fulfillment of a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Environmental Analysis, 2012‐13 academic year, Pomona College, Claremont, California Readers: Dr. Nina Karnovsky Dr. Heather Williams Dohrn 2 Dohrn 3 Many thanks to my readers, Nina Karnovsky and Heather Williams, for their advice, support and confidence throughout my project. It was an honor to work with both of you. Many thanks to Char Miller, for being the heart and soul of the Environmental Analysis Department, for being an incredible resource, and for the tea and “recommended” writing sessions. Many thanks to my family for listening to me ramble, helping me edit and providing love and support over the phone. Many thanks to my fellow EA majors for the laughs, late nights and moral support. Many thanks to my non‐EA friends who I will now be able to enjoy spending time with. And many, many thanks to all of the people who spoke with me and taught me about their lives during this research process. Dohrn 4 A note on confidentiality—Interviewees whose names appear in the text gave me permission to quote them and use their names. Quoted material from interviewees who did not give me explicit permission to use their names is identified only by their title or role. Information that I was told outside of formal interviews and information that is sensitive and identifiable by title is footnoted as a personal communication. A note on “fisher” versus “fisherman”—I have used both terms in my text interchangeably. Many people accept “fisherman” as a gender‐neutral term, although I had some difficulty with this. Some also object to the term “fisher.” I tried to stay true to what identifiers the interviewees used. Dohrn 5 Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Background....................................................................................................................... 8 I. Status of the StoCks....................................................................................................................................11 a. A Global Fisheries Crisis?...................................................................................................................................... 11 b. West Coast Fisheries................................................................................................................................................ 14 II. Regulatory StruCtures.............................................................................................................................18 a. The Magnuson‐Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act................................................. 18 b. NMFS and Regional Fisheries Councils............................................................................................................ 21 c. Fisheries Science and Stock Assessments....................................................................................................... 23 III. ReCent Regulatory PoliCies and ACtions..........................................................................................27 a. Open Access to Limited Entry.............................................................................................................................. 28 b. From Limited Entry to Catch Shares................................................................................................................. 31 IV. ResearCh FoCus.........................................................................................................................................33 Chapter 2: Methodology...................................................................................................................35 I. Overview .......................................................................................................................................................35 II. Study Sites...................................................................................................................................................36 Chapter 3: Results—Management Ideas in Practice ..............................................................40 I. Port Orford, Oregon ..................................................................................................................................42 a. Port Orford’s Response to Current Fisheries Management and Policy.............................................. 43 b. Defining and Forming a Community Fishing Association ...................................................................... 51 c. Sustainability in Practice........................................................................................................................................ 58 d. The Future for Port Orford.................................................................................................................................... 65 II. Sitka, Alaska ...............................................................................................................................................67 a. Management and Industry Context ................................................................................................................... 69 b. Organizing as a Fishing Community ................................................................................................................. 79 c. Implementing Sustainability Practices............................................................................................................. 83 III. A Nod to California—San Diego and Santa Barbara ....................................................................92 a. San Diego....................................................................................................................................................................... 92 b. Santa Barbara............................................................................................................................................................101 Chapter 4: Discussion—Definitions and Context for CommunityBased Fisheries Co Management ..................................................................................................................................... 108 I. Fisheries, the Commons and CommonPool ResourCes ............................................................. 108 a. Fisheries as the Classic ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ ..................................................................................108 b. Departing from the Classic Commons Model..............................................................................................111 c. Locating “Communities” within the Commons...........................................................................................118 II. Communitybased fisheries Comanagement .............................................................................. 121 a. Combining Terms ....................................................................................................................................................121 b. Identifying Community Fisheries: Three Shared Components...........................................................126 c. What factors Define Successful Co‐Management?.....................................................................................132 d. Revisiting the Commons ......................................................................................................................................135 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 138 Appendix 1: List of Included Interviews.................................................................................. 140 References ......................................................................................................................................... 143 Dohrn 6 List of Acronyms NMFS—National Marine Fisheries Service NOAA—National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association ODFW—Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife POORT—Port Orford Ocean Resource Team RCA—Rockfish Conservation Area PFMC—Pacific Fishery Management Council NPFMC—North Pacific Fishery Management Council FMP—Fishery Management Plan IFQ—Individual Fishing Quota ITQ—Individual Transferable Quota QS—Quota Share IQ—Individual Quota TAC—Total Allowable Catch CFA—Community Fishing Association MSA—Magnuson Stevens Act POSS—Port Orford Sustainable Seafood CSF—Community Supported Fishery ADF&G—Alaska Department of Fish and Game ALFA—Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association RAM—Restricted Access Management CDQ—Community