Record Details
Fisheries Sustainability Challenges Embedded in Individual Transferable Quota Systems: Knowledge, Technology and Indigenous Fisheries Development in New Zealand
ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Fisheries Sustainability Challenges Embedded in Individual Transferable Quota Systems: Knowledge, Technology and Indigenous Fisheries Development in New Zealand |
| Names |
Bodwitch, Hekia
(creator) |
| Date Issued | 2014-07-07 (iso8601) |
| Abstract | In 1986, New Zealand implemented the world’s first comprehensive individual transferable quota management system for fisheries, designed to ensure sustainable use of fish resources by restricting take levels. Today, fewer people are fishing less frequently, often using with more efficient capture technologies. Drawing on ethnographic research with Maori fishing communities in New Zealand’s South Island, in this paper I demonstrate how this outcome operates in contrast to the quota system’s sustainable development goals for in-shore fisheries on two fronts. First, quota was not allocated to part-time fishers, many of whom are Maori. These individuals can no longer afford to fish as frequently as they were previously. As a result, less information about the status of the fishery is gathered, posing a challenge to fishery restoration efforts, most of which are tribally-led. Second, the tradable nature of quota corresponds to a concentration of capital resources, enabling the purchase of more intensive commercial fishing technologies. Commercial fishers now engage with the fishery less frequently but more invasively, drawing in less precise knowledge about the status of the fishery. Proposing an alternative to the quota system’s restrictions on take, I examine how restrictions on gear technology may have a greater impact on ecological and social metrics of sustainable fishery development. I highlight the methods and marketing strategies of Maori eel fishers in Lake Ellesmere to show that developing high-end direct-to consumer markets for fish caught with traditional fishing technology is an economically viable option for prompting social and ecological sustainability. |
| Genre | Presentation |
| Topic | Fisheries Economics |
| Identifier | Bodwitch, Hekia. 2014. Fisheries Sustainability Challenges Embedded in Individual Transferable Quota Systems: Knowledge, Technology and Indigenous Fisheries Development in New Zealand. In: Towards ecosystem based management of fisheries: what role can economics play?: Proceedings of the Seventeenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 7-11, 2014, Brisbane, Australia. Complied by Ann L. Shriver & Melissa Errend. Corvallis, OR: International Institute of Fisheries. |
