« La mer ne nous appartient plus ! »

• Published in: VertigO
• Main Author: Emilie Mariat-Roy
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Éditions en environnement VertigO 2021
• Subjects: Iceland; individual tradable quotas; fishing territories; marine resources; fishermen knowledges; Environmental sciences; GE1-350
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4000/vertigo.29853; https://doaj.org/article/0aa67cdded8040b3b095608141a8f92e

The establishment of a policy of marine resources management by Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) in Iceland 1990 had multiple consequences and profound implications in fishing activities and in the representations that fishermen have of their work environment and their profession. In this article, we will focus our attention on artisanal fishing from small boats, which has played a very important role in the revival or maintenance of fishing activity in regions closely dependent on the fisheries production sector. The difficulties affecting the world of artisanal fisheries are the result of the commodification of rights to produce at the basis of a reconfiguration of fishing activity. We intend to show how far this commodification of access to marine resources undermines what is at the basis of fishing activity in its most concrete and most fundamental and strategic dimension : not only the collective production of a practical knowledge of the maritime environment but also the recognition, beyond the professional sphere, of its legitimacy. This article will be divided into four parts : after having exposed some framing elements, we will analyze the evolution of fishing practices on board small boats between 1990 and 2010 we will go back to the development of small boats for the viability of coastal communities we will then show how ITQs transformed the values of fish and of work finally, we will finish before concluding with the identification and analysis of the processes of "dis-appropriation" and "wildness" of maritime spaces.