| Summary: | Verkefnið er lokað til 14.10.2022. Privatized fisheries management leads to intended and predictable decreases in the numbers of individual fishers because of the multiple barriers to access them, such as high costs and reduced efforts for experience at sea. These neo-liberal management schemes, alongside other cultural and social changes, have led to a phenomenon known as “greying of the fleet” in fisheries around the world, where youth and newcomers are under-represented, and concerns are raised over the future of the industry. Iceland, with a privatized fisheries management system that is over 30 years old, is a perfect laboratory in which to explore the greying of the fleet phenomenon. This research explored the current and future opportunities and constraints for youth and newcomers in Icelandic fisheries with the aim of addressing if and how Icelandic fisheries policies should ensure equitable access to employment in commercial fisheries. Equity in natural resource governance is a growing area of research and this research draws on scholarship that addresses the human dimensions of fisheries. Data were collected through 25 semi-directed interviews with critical informants in fisheries and through countless hours of participant observation by living in a fishing community. Inductive qualitative analysis of interview data determined recurrent themes that explained how rural outmigration, cost, and changing social expectations have led to a decrease of youth or newcomers in Icelandic fisheries. Results show that the perception of fishermen in Iceland by the general society fluctuates as the economic and cultural climate of the country changes. Greying of the fleet in small-scale fisheries is explained by the limited access to property rights that are consolidated into bigger companies, and the inability for youth to secure capital and invest it into a fisheries operation. Large-scale fisheries, on the other hand, have a different set of barriers for youth, such as lack of career advancement opportunities ...
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