Privatizing the fisheries observer industry: Neoliberal science and policy in the U.S. West Coast fisheries

Abstract

This article examines fisheries observation and monitoring programs as sites for the neoliberalization of science and the expansion of rights-based management. Rights-based management strategies are argued to avert the tragedy of the commons and yield sustainable commercial fisheries. Individual fishing quotas are a popular but contentious rights-based management tool, that is thought to privatize access to fisheries resources. For quotas to be effective, they require constant monitoring and surveillance to ensure compliance. The task of quota monitoring has fallen to fisheries observers––biologists that accompany commercial fishing trips and collect fisheries data. In this paper I draw from work in science and technology studies (STS) and political ecology, bridging scholarship on the neoliberalization of science and nature. Analyzing archival documents and interview data, I examine the history of the U.S. observer program then narrow focus to the U.S. West Coast Groundfish Observer Program as a case study. Through this analysis, I make two central arguments. First, fisheries observation and monitoring programs have undergone a shift to privatization and are thus important, and to-date understudied, sites of neoliberalization in fisheries science and management. Second, fisheries observation and monitoring programs have been restructured to resolve the inherent shortcomings of both capitalism and neoliberal fisheries policy. I highlight the impacts of restructuring on fishermen and the fisheries observation program more broadly, demonstrating that observation and data collection programs reproduce and reinforce neoliberal governance regimes. I conclude by discussing the ontological and epistemological implications of subsuming environmental monitoring and data collection under neoliberal governance.