Man, state, and fisheries: An inquiry into some societal constraints that affect fisheries management

Abstract

Abstract The rise and fall of the Peruvian anchoveta fishery provides an interesting case study of the mixture of socioeconomic, oceanographic, meteorological, and biological factors that can affect fish populations in coastal upwelling regions. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the societal factors that might have an adverse effect on the rational management of this fishery. The paper focuses on views expressed in the social and physical sciences literature that relate successes and failures of fisheries management to activities at the international level, the national level, or to individual behavior. While some of the factors occurring at the three levels of analysis are obvious to those involved in fisheries, the effect of others are not so obvious. This framework for analysis of natural resource issues might offer a new approach to an improved understanding of how societies interact with their physical and biological environments.