Is rebuilding collapsed fisheries a wicked problem ?:lessons from a fish chain analysis of northern gulf cod fisheries

• Main Author: Khan, Ahmed
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2012
• Subjects: atlantic cod
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/6136/; https://research.library.mun.ca/6136/1/Khan_AhmedS.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/6136/3/Khan_AhmedS.pdf

As with many collapsed fisheries worldwide, the rebuilding of Newfoundland's Northern Gulf cod fishery has been a huge challenge to coastal communities, resource users, scientists, and policy makers. Almost twenty years after a moratorium was declared in the early 1990s, the cod stocks are below conservation limit reference points; only small quotas are available for commercial and recreational fisheries, and a strong possibility exists that the stocks will be listed as endangered. Not only have these and other regional Atlantic cod stocks been slow to rebuild, the cod fishing industry also faces challenges along the production chain, from harvesting to processing, and marketing. While the fishing industry has been restructured from reliance on groundfisheries towards an emphasis on shellfisheries, challenges persist and fishing dependent communities in regions such as the Great Northern Peninsula are struggling to survive. -- A review of global experience with rebuilding collapsed fisheries demonstrate that rebuilding is a 'wicked' problem; meaning that the challenges go beyond scientific and technical solutions, to socioeconomic and sociopolitical concerns. Rebuilding differs from recovery in that it perceives fisheries as coupled social-ecological entities connected to larger societies and the global economy. Rebuilding also takes into account both current and future generations and related equity issues including who pays for the costs of rebuilding and who benefits in the long term. The imperatives for rebuilding fisheries are multidimensional and include food security, livelihoods, revenue, cultural heritage, and ecosystem services. Using a case study of Newfoundland's Northern Gulf cod fisheries, the thesis examines the reasons why rebuilding collapsed fisheries is a wicked problem, and explores governance options for dealing with such multifaceted problems. It employs a 'fish chain' approach (that entails three production stages - the pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest stages) in order to generate ...