Marine tourism fisheries - Challenges of governance and governability Northern Norway as a case study

• Main Author: Solstrand, Maria-Victoria
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: UiT The Arctic University of Norway 2014
• Subjects: marine angling tourism; consumptive wildlife tourism; sustainable tourism development; interactive fisheries governance; tourist behaviour; institution; socio-ecological systems; common pool resources; Iceland; Norway; marine tourism fisheries; Arctic; Northern Norway
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/7001

Papers number 1 and 2 of this thesis are not available in Munin: 1. Maria-Victoria Solstrand: ‘Marine angling tourism in Norway and Iceland: Finding balance in management policy for sustainability’, Natural Resources Forum 37 (2013) 113–126. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1477-8947.12006 2. Maria-Victoria Solstrand, Thomas Gressnes: ‘Marine angling tourist behavior, non-compliance, and implications for natural resource management’,Tourism Management, 45 (2014) 59-70. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.03.014 The research focus for this dissertation is marine tourism fisheries – a sector rapidly growing in popularity in Northern Norway. Data from this research study suggest that the ecological impacts may be more significant than previously thought. As such, it is suggested that marine tourism fisheries be considered separately from recreational fishing, and alongside commercial-scale and small-scale fisheries with regard to fish stock impacts and management. The overarching research question being answered with this dissertation is: What are the critical components of a governance strategy that would support a sustainable path of development for marine tourism fisheries in Norway? To answer this question, a case study analysis was conducted of marine angling tourism (MAT) in Northern Norway — a popular form of consumptive wildlife tourism in the Arctic fjords. MAT offers great potential to contribute to regional development of the remote coastal regions of Norway; but it is generating conflict, primarily as the result of tourists’ non-compliance with Norway’s regulations. This dissertation explores in depth why the fish as a natural resource cannot be managed separately, but must be managed with consideration of MAT as a complex socio-ecological system. Sustainable tourism development for this form of consumptive wildlife tourism requires that a management strategy find balance between prioritizing the mitigation of multi-stakeholder conflicts; providing sufficient ecological data to ...