Unlocking the concept of capacity in modern fisheries management

Norges Forskningsrå

Caught in the environmental discourse—Coastal fisheries under pressure

For decades, the Norwegian coastal fisheries have been defined as the most sustainable, compared to industrial, offshore fisheries. This is due to the low fuel costs involved in the nearshore fisheries, the relatively low investments required and the fact that the coastal fleet is decentralized, providing work opportunities along the entire coast. However, over time new actors, outside the fisheries domain, have brought new sustainability attributes to the environmental discourse. The new agenda goes beyond the traditional sustainability concept, which was closely related to single stock management. Today, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, ghost fishing, plastic pollution at sea and a stricter quota control regime, have become central topics in the sustainability debate. Furthermore, sustainability labels from private certifying agencies have gained a strong position in defining sustainable fisheries, and hence, access to the best paying fish markets. Finally, the coastal fleet has been locked into a quota management regime which makes it difficult to utilize new green technologies. The new order puts considerable pressure on the traditional coastal fisheries. How the coastal fishers and the fisheries administration answer these challenges, will largely determine the future of this fleet. As described in the article, the answers have so far not been very convincing. This could turn the tables, favouring the offshore fleet, which so far has been more responsive to the new challenges.publishedVersio

Illegal fishing: A challenge to fisheries management in Norway

The management of the Norwegian Northeast Atlantic cod fishery has in many ways been a success story; quotas have been high (but now declining), profitability has been higher than most other industries and there is great interest among young recruits to enter the fishery. However, over the last decade illegal fishing of allocated quotas and black-market transactions throughout the value chain have become a significant of the political debate in the fishey, especially in northern Norway. Fisheries crime has been described as a priority area for law enforcement. To combat illegal overfishing the introduction of new automatic catch monitoring technologies onboard fishing vessels is considered a key strategy by the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries. However, the new quota control measures are met with considerable resistance by the fishermen. This paper outlines the key elements of modern fisheries management to address sustainability goals, how the institutional subsystems connect with each other, and how illegal overfishing may threaten the stability of the entire management system. The gravity of illegal overfishing supports the authorities' new strategies to increase catch- and quota control. Nevertheless, the implementation of new control technologies may not be straightforward. Especially small-scale fishermen have presented a number of valid arguments against the proposed control measures. Thus, this study outlines how the implementation process may gain increased support from the fishermen.publishedVersio

Institution Versus Technology - The History of Capacity Expansion in Norwegian Fisheries

The introduction of modern trawl fishing in Norway after the Second World War was intended to be the very platform for the modernisation of the fishing industry. Right up to the end of the seventies, market orientation and the absence of state regulation of fishing were on the agenda. However, the growth of unprofitable overcapacity, increase of international fishing efforts in the Barents Sea and declining resources contributed to the introduction of licences and quotas as a means of control. From the mid-eighties the authorities have initiated a number of capacity-reducing measures. Even so, one can ascertain today that overcapacity, lack of profitability and allocation conflicts still characterise the trawler fleet. This article deals with the growth of the trawler fleet in Norway and elucidates why there is continuing overcapacity in the fleet. Based on these facts, the authorities have launched new and dramatic measures intended to reduce catch capacity. The question now is whether or not the authorities’ new strategy will be the final solution for the problems of overcapacity in the trawler fleet

Capacity adaptation in modern fisheries; Lessons from Norway

According to the UN's Food and agicultural organisation (FAO, managing fishing capacity is a core elemnt to aceive sustainable fisheries. Here, FAO highlight the long term need to avoid unprofitable overcapacity; an adaptation which increase the pressure on fish resources, fisheres are marginalized economically, allocation conflicts among fishermen and high public expenditures to manage the fisheries egment. Thus, in Norway the main management system refers to a bundled individual vessels quota system (IVQ) to regulate both inputand output in fisheries. Within the frame of such a closed and strict regime, fisheries should be sufficiently framed to avoid unprofitable overcapacity. However, overcapcity have still proven to be a difficult question in Norway. Since the late seventies, the topic of reducing overcapacity have been more or less continously on the political agenda. In this presentation, we highlight some core element of the ongoing discourse and we suggest some possible solutions

Managing Capacity in An Ivq (Individual Vessel Quota) Regime

Prior to the introduction of the modern management regime, the concept of capacity constituted no other reference than the technical capacity of a given fishing vessel. However, after closing the commons and the introduction of a an heavily institutionalized management regime, the fisheries sector have been transfomed to complex web of rules for regulating fisheries in a detailed manner. The core element of this processes referes to the nationalisation of the fish resources, a scientific based quota production (TAC), the introduction of a complex regime for allocating limited fish resources and the quota regime at fleet level. In the Norwegian management system, the "capacity concept" constitute a special status, which corresponds to the individual vessel quota regime (IVQ). In this model, both quota size and the size of the individual vessel are integrated into one system. Hence, the IVQ model becomes a meeting place for technological adaptations as input regulations and the limited quota as output regulations. However, despite the strict and regulated regime as the Norwegian management model, adapting capacity have proven hard to manage. In this presentation I try to highlight the technological interplay between technological change and the institutional responce to modernisational processes

Hesitant reforms: The Norwegian approach towards ITQ's

Abstract In Norway, the rationale for fleet adaptations has been subject to different interpretations and policies. While coastal settlement, a surplus fishing capacity and a negative resource rent were dominant adaptations until the end of the 1980's, market orientation and economic efficiency have gradually become the most central fisheries political goals. However, the rate of market-based transactions have affected the fleet structure, the distribution- and ownership of quota rights in a manner that challenge the legitimacy of the quota regime. Today, the ownership of the fish resources, a future resource tax and the legal status of being a fisherman are high on the political agenda.acceptedVersio

Institutional nuts and bolts for a mesopelagic fishery in Norway

While most commercial fish stocks in the north Atlantic are regulated with TAC's (total allowable catch), access regulations and IVQ's (individual vessel quotas), harvesting mesopelagic fish resources, such as pearlsides (Maurolicus muelleri) and glacier lanthern fish (Benthosema glaciale), represents a clear exception. Neither TAC's nor rules for bycatch are implemented. As mesopelagic fish resources are classified as one of the largest fish resources globally and abundant in the north-Atlantic, the species represent a significant potential for the development a new fishery and source for the biomarine industry. However, with reference to the historical development of other fisheries, lack of TAC-regimes represents a major driver for capacity expansion. As a new mesopelagic fishery may be conducted either as a new- and additional season for today's deep-sea pelagic fleet or by specialized vessels for a year-round mesopelagic fishery, the alternatives represents different capacity adaptations and institutional implications for the management regime. This article outlines the mesopelagic potential, which management principles may be implemented to a mesopelagic fishery and the interplay to other TAC-regulated pelagic fisheries.publishedVersio

Catch-based aquaculture in Norway - Institutional challenges in the development of a new marine industry

Catch-based aquaculture (CBA) is an important production system in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries. In Norway CBA is based on capture and storage/farming of mature, North-east Atlantic (NEA) cod (Gadus morhua). The objective is to reduce seasonal variations and add value, by storing/farming fish to take advantage of higher prices in low seasons. Despite numerous development programs and economic incentives, the development of the CBA business has been slow. Few actors are storing fish long enough to take advantage of high price in low season. A reason for this is that CBA is caught in between two sectors: the fisheries and aquaculture, with radically different institutional frameworks, creating entry barriers and a complex regulatory framework. Moreover, the legitimacy of the CBA is in question, as CBA intervene into the resource allocation mechanism in traditional fisheries. Still, it is too early to conclude that CBA has failed, as we are dealing with an industry in the making.publishedVersio

The rise and fall of factory trawlers: An eclectic approach

Factory trawlers are the most controversial vessel group in Norwegian fisheries. At the time the fleet emerged, stern trawling in combination with on-board processing of cod fillets was regarded as a major innovation. However, the deep-sea fleet was intended to be a stable supplier of fish to the land-based industry. Factory trawlers were not a part of the political project. On the contrary, the vessels represented a serious departure from the traditional employment system for the fisheries' dependent districts. Factory trawlers have, since the seventies, been regarded as the main enemy to the coastal vessels and the land-based industry. The vessels have been subject to a profound debate about several built-in contradictory goals for the fisheries policy, such as the ideal of employment for all and the need for a profitable sector without state subsidies. Despite a series of policy-driven initiatives to remove the factory trawlers, the fleet has been one of the most profitable vessel groups in the Norwegian fisheries. Nonetheless, the fleet is now marginalised in the number of vessels and transformed into an obedient supplier of round fish to the land-based industry. In this article, we outline the history of the Norwegian factory trawlers and how the fleet was subject to a series of critical changes reflecting the complexity of the vessels.Factory trawling Cod trawling Fisheries politics