Barbed wire and bandwagons: a comment on ITQ fisheries management

Abstract

It would seem, at least on the basis of the essays presented in this special issue, that individual transferable quotas (ITQs) are a welcomed, long overdue fisheries management initiative. Herein and elsewhere, ITQs have received positive endorsement and, in some instances, enthusiastic championship. They are associated with the achievement of long sought fisheries management goals, goals such as resource conservation, economic efficiency, fisheries sustainability, and, even, harvester co-participation in fisheries management. As a result, the ITQ system, in the minds of some, has achieved panacea status with respect to the endemic problems of fisheries economies, ecologies and management. Many social researchers working within the theoretical orientations, research methodologies and evidence associated with fields of inquiry such as social anthropology, political science, political economy and sociology have taken, and continue to take, issue with the ITQ system, most particularly with its organizational matrix. This essay examines several aspects of the fisheries social research literature and the issues that it considers with respect to management systems such as ITQs. The features and history of ITQs are discussed by several of the special issue essays. So, rather than repeating this exercise, emphasis here is placed on examining what a social research perspective has to offer to the understanding of fishing and fisheries management, including ITQs. Curiously, mention of fisheries social research literature is virtually absent in the special issue essays. This is even the case regarding the studies directly associated with the topics discussed, such as Palsson's work on Icelandic fisheries (Durrenberger and Palsson, 1987; Palsson, 1991). Indeed, fisheries biologists and resource economists rarely exhibit substantive acquaintanceship in their published work with the findings and research of the 'other' social scientists. Yet, fisheries as a locus for social and political economic inquiry has a notable history, the early years arguably highlighted by Harold Innis' The Cod Fisheries (1954), first published in the late 1920s, and the late 1940s publication of Raymond Firth's Malay Fishermen (1966). Certainly the last 30 years have witnessed a tremendous growth in research and publication concerning social, cultural and political economic dimensions of fisheries throughout the globe.