Fisheries Governance Research Articles

Timing and magnitude of climate-driven range shifts in transboundary fish stocks challenge their management.

Climate change is shifting the distribution of shared fish stocks between neighboring countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and the high seas. The timescale of these transboundary shifts determines how climate change will affect international fisheries governance. Here, we explore this timescale by coupling a large ensemble simulation of an Earth system model under a high emission climate change scenario to a dynamic population model. We show that by 2030, 23% of transboundary stocks will have shifted and 78% of the world's EEZs will have experienced at least one shifting stock. By the end of this century, projections show a total of 45% of stocks shifting globally and 81% of EEZs waters with at least one shifting stock. The magnitude of such shifts is reflected in changes in catch proportion between EEZs sharing a transboundary stock. By 2030, global EEZs are projected to experience an average change of 59% in catch proportion of transboundary stocks. Many countries that are highly dependent on fisheries for livelihood and food security emerge as hotspots for transboundary shifts. These hotspots are characterized by early shifts in the distribution of an important number of transboundary stocks. Existing international fisheries agreements need to be assessed for their capacity to address the social–ecological implications of climate‐change‐driven transboundary shifts. Some of these agreements will need to be adjusted to limit potential conflict between the parties of interest. Meanwhile, new agreements will need to be anticipatory and consider these concerns and their associated uncertainties to be resilient to global change.

Asia-Pacific Fishing Livelihoods by Michael Fabinyi and Kate Barclay

Reviewed by: Asia-Pacific Fishing Livelihoods by Michael Fabinyi and Kate Barclay Fiona McCormack Asia-Pacific Fishing Livelihoods, by Michael Fabinyi and Kate Barclay. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. isbn hardcover, 978-3-030-79590-0; e-book, 978-3-030-79591-7; xv + 112 pages, color illustrations, index. Hardcover, us $69.99; free download from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79591-7. Asia-Pacific Fishing Livelihoods is an exemplary book that cements the critical role of the social sciences in fisheries research, an area that in the past was dominated by the disciplines of economics and marine science (both of which still tend to dominate in fisheries governance). In the last few decades, interest in fisheries, and ocean-related research more broadly, has also proliferated in the humanities and Indigenous studies as the sea has become a transformative medium for environmental imaginings and postcolonial critique. Social scientists have long advocated for the centrality of culture, history, social relations, kinship, property regimes, and the broader political economy in any understanding of marine ecosystems. Weaving these strands together, Michael Fabinyi and Kate Barclay have produced a holistic account of fishing livelihoods in the Asia-Pacific region and their connection to global processes, and they suggest an astute approach for future governance and research. The authors have a long track record of academic and applied research in fisheries, the combination of which is evident throughout the book. The first of the book's five chapters, "Fishing Livelihoods and Fisheries Governance," introduces the central arguments underpinning the research: that fishing livelihoods should be understood as relational phenomena, as informed by the field of political ecology, and that relationships of poverty should be incorporated into this analytical framework. While deceptively simple, this is also a political reading of fisheries wherein fisher and fish, nature and culture, human social relations and marine ecosystems, history and development, governance, local ways of life, and institutional regimes are brought into critical conversation. Fishing livelihoods are described as characteristically diverse, flexible, dynamic, and responsive to changing environmental, climatic, and economic conditions. These can be small-scale or large-scale (with distinctions between these sectors being hard to maintain in practice), inland, inshore, offshore, or aquaculture. They can also be in the diverse work that makes up the different nodes in fisheries value chains—seafood processing, marketing, and trading, boat and gear construction, servicing, and so on. All have been impacted by historical change, particularly the intensification of globalization since the second half of the twentieth century, a development explored in chapter 2, which conceptualizes globalization as centered on capital accumulation. The authors' field research in the western Philippines and Papua New Guinea points to globalization's nonlinear trajectory. Using a relational approach, the authors examine how fisheries livelihood activities have been shaped and reshaped by global and local forces over time. Chapter 3 focuses on social diversity through concepts such as class, status, cultural values, kinship, [End Page 502] ethnicity, power relations, hierarchies, and gender and explores how these come into play in particular contexts. Fabinyi and Barclay provide an overview of social science research on local fisheries, mindful of the contested and nonhomogeneous nature of "community," and then situate these insights by drawing on ethnographic data from the western Philippines and Oceania. An issue explored in Oceanic contexts is the invisibility of women in fishing, an absence that exemplifies a worldwide trend. Across Oceania, the proportion of women fishing for food or livelihood purposes ranges from around 20 to 50 percent. In Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands, around 80 percent of women engage in fishing. The absence of women in official data may be methodological—surveys typically do not capture part-time, nearshore, or invertebrate-focused fishing. This oversight has implications for sustainable resource management, as it fails to account for human effects on ecosystems, such as those resulting from women's production of shell money in Langalanga Lagoon, Solomon Islands. It also impacts women's opportunities to participate in consultative processes, such as those around establishing marine protected areas, and to receive training and funding for fishing-related livelihoods. Fabinyi and Barclay suggest that careful project design can empower women in fisheries. Importantly, recognizing social...

Opposing trends in fisheries portfolio diversity at harvester and community scales signal opportunities for adaptation

Understanding mechanisms that promote social-ecological resilience can inform future adaptation strategies. Among seafood dependent communities, these can be illuminated by assessing change among fisheries portfolios. Here, in collaboration with a Coast Salish Nation in British Columbia, Canada, we used expert Indigenous knowledge and network analyses to chronicle differences in fisheries portfolios pre and post a social-ecological regime shift. We then evaluated key drivers of change using semi-structured interviews. We found that while portfolios decreased in diversity of seafood types harvested and consumed among individuals overtime, portfolios increased in their diversification at the community level because more similar seafoods within less diverse individual portfolios were more commonly harvested and consumed by the Nation as a whole. Thus, diversity can operate simultaneously in opposing directions at different scales of organization. Experts identified four key mechanisms driving these changes, including commercial activities controlled by a centralized governance regime, intergenerational knowledge loss, adaptive learning to new ecological and economic opportunities, and the trading of seafood with other Indigenous communities. Unexpectedly, increased predation by marine mammals was also flagged as a key driver of change. Adaptation strategies that support access to and governance of diverse fisheries, exchange of seafoods among communities, and knowledge transfer among generations would promote social-ecological resilience, food security, and community well-being.

Canadian and Russian Fisheries Management in the Arctic: Complexities, Commonalities and Contrasts

This article reviews and compares Canadian and Russian approaches to Arctic fisheries management through a three-part format. First, the complex array of laws and policies applicable to Arctic fisheries is described for each country. How Canada and Russia have addressed international fishery issues is also highlighted, including their participation in the 2018 Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement. Second, commonalities in fisheries governance approaches are summarized, including national commitments to implement precautionary and ecosystem approaches. Finally, contrasts in Arctic fisheries management are discussed. Major differences include the greater devolution of management responsibilities by Canada to Indigenous communities through land-claim agreements and co-management arrangements and Russia’s greater success in formalizing bilateral fisheries management arrangements with its neighbours.

Biophysical modelling of larval dispersal and population connectivity of a stalked barnacle: implications for fishery governance

Numerical biophysical models are a standard methodology used to provide estimates of larval dispersal and population connectivity for marine species with a bi-phasic life cycle. However, confidence on biophysical models, tested by confronting model estimates with empirical evidence, is seldomly assessed. We compared time-series estimates of larval supply of the stalked barnaclePollicipes pollicipesto rocky shores in 3 regions around the Iberian Peninsula (Asturias, Galicia, SW Portugal) with recruitment observations made at monthly intervals for 2 yr. Supply estimates were made with the Regional Ocean Modelling system using several larval behaviour scenarios, while the number of recruits on the stalks of adult barnacles was used as a measure of recruitment intensity. Cross-correlation analysis showed that passive, surface-dwelling and ontogenetically migrating larval scenarios generally produced significant positive correlations at time lags of 0 to +2 mo at the regional level but not at sub-regional or site levels. None of the scenarios produced a substantially better fit than the others, and all 3 produced estimates of average realized dispersal (-73 to +63 km in the S/W and N/E directions) and larval retention (2.0 to 2.4%) that were numerically very similar. These estimates indicate high levels of connectivity, either during larval life or via steppingstone processes, within and between the 3 regions. Based on these estimates, we advocate that the management of theP. pollicipesfishery requires an interactive, polycentric governance system at transregional, regional and local scales, which will give the resource a higher possibility of persistence by diversifying the fishery’s management portfolio.

Attributes of climate resilience in fisheries: From theory to practice

AbstractIn a changing climate, there is an imperative to build coupled social‐ecological systems—including fisheries—that can withstand or adapt to climate stressors. Although resilience theory identifies system attributes that supposedly confer resilience, these attributes have rarely been clearly defined, mechanistically explained, nor tested and applied to inform fisheries governance. Here, we develop and apply a comprehensive resilience framework to examine fishery systems across (a) ecological, (b) socio‐economic and (c) governance dimensions using five resilience domains: assets, flexibility, organization, learning and agency. We distil and define 38 attributes that confer climate resilience from a coupled literature‐ and expert‐driven approach, describe how they apply to fisheries and provide illustrative examples of resilience attributes in action. Our synthesis highlights that the directionality and mechanism of these attributes depend on the specific context, capacities, and scale of the focal fishery system and associated stressors, and we find evidence of interdependencies among attributes. Overall, however, we find few studies that test resilience attributes in fisheries across all parts of the system, with most examples focussing on the ecological dimension. As such, meaningful quantification of the attributes’ contributions to resilience remains a challenge. Our synthesis and holistic framework represent a starting point for critical application of resilience concepts to fisheries social‐ecological systems.

Survival of the Richest, not the Fittest: How attempts to improve governance impact African small-scale marine fisheries

The sustainable use of fisheries resources is a priority of the African Union in developing the Blue Economy (BE). Growing global demand for seafood has attracted diverse actors to African waters, including Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFNs) fleets. Complex fisheries governance challenges, unsustainable rates of fishing and rising fisheries-related crimes have ensued. To reverse these impacts, some African states are deploying various fisheries governance mechanisms. Drawing on extensive expert experiences, the review of literature, fisheries databases, international and regional agency reports, NGO and government reports and case studies from West and East Africa, we demonstrate two critical findings. First, fisheries governance mechanisms in Africa act largely to constrain small-scale fisheries (SSF) while failing to contain the industrial fisheries sector, resulting in the marginalisation of the SSF. Secondly, despite a higher incidence of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in industrial fisheries than the SSF, fisheries governance mechanisms continue to advance the 'Survival of the Richest' – the industrial sector, to the detriment of the 'Fittest' – the SSF. The SSF supports millions of jobs and is better adapted to meet the continents' nutrition and socio-economic security. For the fisheries sector to contribute to the sustainable development of Africans, states must redirect governance towards regulating the industrial sector, emphasising equitable access for the SSF whilst prioritising ecological sustainability.

Precision Fishery Management Framework Based on Fisheries Management Area

Implementing precision fisheries management is a challenge for fisheries governance. Precision fisheries management might depend on the availability of data, area, carrying capacity, utilization, labor, industrial capacity, and fish consumption of the community. For Indonesia, the Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs) approach could become the basis for traceability and measurability of precision fisheries management. To ensure its effectiveness, the design of precision fisheries management must be started with the development of a logical framework, which then serves as a foundation for a further management design. This paper aims to present a management framework for precision fisheries management based on Fisheries Management Area. The framework covers sub sector in fisheries including capture fisheries, aquaculture, fish processing, and conservation activities. Meanwhile, supervision is the cornerstone that will oversee the implementation of all the fisheries sub sector. The framework shows that spatial-based data is one of the determinants in the efficacy of precision fisheries management.

Political participation and small-scale fishery management in the Tonlé Sap, Cambodia

ABSTRACT This paper investigates fishery governance in Tonlé Sap, Cambodia, with a specific focus on fishery management since 1963 and recent determinants of political participation. The research suggests that the policy reforms leading to the implementation of open-access fisheries have not produced satisfactory outcomes due to inequitable access to fishery resources. The results of statistical analyses reveal: the dependency of small-scale fisherfolk on fishery resources; the level of institutional support available to small-scale fisherfolk; the capacity of the local community; and the important roles fishery management initiatives play in determining the level of political participation in fishery governance.

Blue revitalization or dispossession? Reform of common resource management in Japanese small‐scale fisheries

AbstractBased on in‐depth anthropological field research in rural Japan, this paper analyses the ongoing reform of Japanese fishery governance and its social and environmental justice implications, as globally proliferating discourses on the ‘blue economy’ and ‘blue growth’ are driving the enclosure of one of the last vestiges of natural resource commons in small‐scale fisheries. Coastal fisheries in Japan are often idealized as one of the last bastions of resource co‐management in an industrialized country, with local cooperatives collectively controlling territorial fishing rights. However, demographic change, declining profitability, and dwindling resource stocks are challenging their viability. Reform of the fishery law, designed to stimulate new growth and industrialization – particularly in aquaculture – includes the opening up of coastal fishery resources to corporate investors, the strengthening of top‐down regulation, and the introduction of individual fishing quotas (IQ). The desire to boost domestic seafood production also has to be seen within the context of the double anxiety of high dependency on international trade for foodstuff and of Japan's vanishing rurality. This emphasis on private capital and presupposed economic and scientific rationality builds on the same rationale of blue economy and blue growth discourses, which promise financial along with ecological returns on large‐scale investments in sustainable ocean economies. Growth‐oriented reform in Japan now imperils successful resource co‐management in coastal small‐scale fisheries. Its analysis therefore offers deeper insights into the transformative as well as dispossessive potential of the global paradigmatic shift towards an intensified industrial exploitation of the oceans. The question of social and environmental justice is central in the re‐allocation of access rights to ocean spaces and resources and the re‐arrangement of decision‐making processes in fishery governance, as local fishing communities face a very real threat of dispossession and disempowerment.

KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF FISHERS ON FISHERIES RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN RUDRASAGAR LAKE, TRIPURA

Rudrasagar Lake is a lowland deep and extensive lake in Tripura. It is declared as National as well as an International Lake and is a Ramsar site. Presently, the lake is under threat of variety of human induced changes to its hydrology. The resource on which the livelihood of fishers depends, is in peril. Majority of fishers (67.85%) realized that the amount of fish in the lake is limited. Around 45.29 % of the respondents had positive attitude whereas 28.29 % had negative attitude and faith on the authority, community and government regulations on fishery resource management in lake. The attitude of consulting the government fisheries officials and applying government regulations was rather negative. The dispersed distribution of responses of the groups over the different answering categories, indicated that the results are sometimes slightly distorted by the social acceptability of the responses. Key words: Rudrasagar lake, fishers, knowledge, attitude, practices, fisheries, resource management.

Politics, power and unequal access to fisheries subsidies among small-scale coastal fisherfolk in Ghana

This paper contributes to the literature on subsidies in the fishing industry and its implications for fishery governance and sustainability. Using a political ecology approach, we examine the political forces behind the distribution of subsidized premix fuel by disclosing the winners and losers, and the implications of unequal access to subsidies on declining fish stock and small-scale marine fishery governance in Ghana. The empirical data consisted of 300 household surveys and 20 in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders from the Western Region of Ghana. The findings indicate that significant controversies exist in the distribution of fuel subsidies among small-scale fisherfolk. There are high levels of asymmetrical power relations among the local fishers. Access to vital subsidized fishing input (specifically premix fuel) is highly characterized by unequal power relations between the politically connected and the less connected within the fishing communities. This distributive inequality has had deleterious consequences on fisherfolk livelihood in terms of reduced frequency of fishing, reduction in catch, frequent damage of outboard motors and increased illegality in fishing. This study calls on governments and policy makers interested in fisheries subsidy reforms to consider the impact of unequal access to subsidies on vulnerable groups. In addition to livelihood diversification, a target intervention must consider beneficiaries’ characteristics – the winners and losers, to ensure the most vulnerable groups and less politically connected are treated equitably in the distribution of subsidies.

Spatial–temporal variation, decoupling effects and prediction of marine fishery based on modified ecological footprint model: Case study of 11 coastal provinces in China

The ecological security of global marine fishery is facing severe threat. Overfishing and pollution contributes to drastic declines in sustainable fishing yields and generally curtails the ecological resilience of marine systems. However, marine fishery ecological system provides an essential source of sustenance and economic livelihood for populations throughout the world, and is considered the “backbone” of global food and nutrition security. Thus, sustaining marine fishery ecological security is essential for the future of economic and food security. This study used the modified ecological footprint model and Tapio elastic decoupling model to further research the spatial–temporal variation characteristics of marine fishery ecological footprint (EF) and the decoupling effects related to the fishery economy from 2010 to 2019 of 11 coastal provinces in China. The results showed that marine fishery EF from 2010 to 2019 of 11 coastal provinces in China increased in a fluctuating manner. The differences of spatial distribution pattern expanded, and “polarization” was prominent. The biocapacities (BC) of marine fishery were consistently stable overall, and those of the southern provinces were slightly better than those in the northern provinces. Spatial distribution pattern changed from relative dispersion to gradual concentration. Ecological deficit (ED) was continuously exacerbated in marine fishery, represented by the spatial expansion. Decoupling effects between the marine fishery EF and fishery economy in China were mainly subjected to weak decoupling, strong decoupling, and expansive negative decoupling status. Additionally, combined with the prediction analysis of ARIMA model and GM(1,1) model, the marine fishery EF in China will increase overall in the future five years. The ecological security situation of marine fishery is extremely serious. These research findings provide profound significance for marine fishery sustainable development in China as well as for the coastal areas in other countries and serve as an important reference for the ecological security governance of global marine fishery.

Accounting and disciplinary methods in fishery management

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to contribute to the research related to “the interplay between accounting and the state, politics, and local authorities in the broad government and administration of food for sustainability of populations” (Sargiacomo et al., 2016). Considering contemporary examples and investigating the genealogy of an 18th-century reform of fishery management (the New Plan), the authors explore the role played by accounting and calculative practices when local authorities intervene using forms of discipline based on control systems that acted on commons (fish), people and space.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is historically grounded on archival research on a fish provisioning case during the 18th century in Ancona, an Italian town on the Adriatic coast. The investigation adopts an approach focussed on the use of disciplinary methods in the terms highlighted by Foucault. This perspective offers a lens capable of revealing the key role of accounting in a period when discipline became “general formulas of domination” (Foucault, 1977) and the Papal States were looking for food provisioning solutions (Foucault, 2007). The study highlights similarities with contemporary fishery management.FindingsThe paper shows that governability of fishery in a commons' logic is not limited by the properties of the good, but rather “it is achieved through the objects and instruments that are deployed to make it possible” (Johnsen, 2014, p. 429). It reveals forms assumed by economic calculation in different eras and their contribution in the art of governing realised by the state (Hoskin and Macve, 2016). The study unveils how accounting effectively operates using “naming and counting” activities (Ezzamel and Hoskin, 2002) based on a system of documents and accounting registers; these have a pivotal role in redefining fishery management and in keeping goods (fish) and people (fishermen) under control. The investigation also highlights the importance of properly quantifying data in fishery management, confirming the literature on the topic (Beddington et al., 2007, p. 1713). In contemporary situations, data refer to quantifying the fish stock in the sea and the consequent estimation of fish catch. In the historical investigation, although environmental protection was not an issue, quantification refers to the fish that entered the town of Ancona, whose estimation was the result of a new calculative approach adopted by local authorities facing fish needs. In addition, it offers early evidence of organised and rational-based control mechanisms that were the result of Enlightened ideas emerging in the Papal States context.Originality/valueDespite the fact that fish represent a fundamental good for governments to act on in response to a population's needs, there has been no attention paid to how governmental authorities have used disciplinary mechanisms to intervene in fishery management or the role played by accounting. This study's novelty is its investigation of fishery, using Foucauldian disciplinary methods to understand accounting's contribution in fishery governance. In addition, this investigation permits to unveil the role of accounting to support one of the main principles of the governance of commons that is represented by the congruence between rules and local conditions (Fennell, 2011, p. 11; Ostrom, 1990, p. 92).

Corrigendum: The Need for Social Considerations in SDG 14

Corrigendum on: Haward M and Haas B (2021) The Need for Social Considerations in SDG 14. Front. Mar. Sci. 8:632282. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.632282 In the original article, there was an error that incorrectly reported data for fisheries workers who have been forced to work.A correction has been made to "Labor Challenges In Current Fisheries Governance" paragraph 1:Fishing is important for the livelihood of millions of people. Approximately 59.5 million people worked in the primary sector of fisheries and aquaculture in 2018 (FAO, 2020a). Most of the workers live in developing countries and where a lack of controls and regulations make these workers especially vulnerable to labor abuse (OSA, 2020). It has been estimated that around 24.9 million people are victims of forced labor, with an estimated 1.76 million workers in the fisheries and agriculture sectors (ILO 2017a).

On inter-organizational trust, control and risk in transboundary fisheries governance

Inter-organizational collaboration is often considered essential to transboundary fishery governance, due, in part, to the high levels of task interdependence, the remote and often treacherous conditions, and the limited levels of information available to any policy actor on resource status. In the high seas, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) are responsible for sustainably managing highly migratory and straddling fish stocks through the implementation of ecosystem-based approaches and ensuring adequate inter-jurisdictional cooperation. A central question facing RFMO governance is therefore how to structure and sustain inter-organizational transboundary collaboration under high uncertainty? This paper presents the case of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO), conceptualized as a strategic alliance between the bureaucratic organizations responsible for north Atlantic salmon fishery management in the member countries. We identify and explain how dimensions of trust, control, and perceived risk have structured the collaborative performance of the alliance. The application of an integrated trust-control-risk framework increases conceptual clarity for how, when and why alliance managers might seek to develop different forms of trust through different management control systems in ways that further multi-actor collaborative network performance. Future research needs are identified, including better understanding how managerial strategies and control mechanisms facilitate inter-organizational trust in transboundary governance settings and mitigate the perceived risks of working together.

Full spectrum sustainability and a theory of access: Integrating social benefits into fisheries governance

The United Nations has identified access to and benefits from fisheries resources as key sustainable development challenges. The business-as-usual management approach focusing on a limited set of biological and economic considerations has not adequately addressed widespread global calls for governing the distribution of access and benefits effectively and equitably. Our paper develops a novel approach for incorporating social science analysis of the generation, distribution and maintenance of benefits into integrated full spectrum sustainability frameworks. To do so, our paper puts a full spectrum sustainability framework into conversation with Ribot and Peluso’s influential Theory of Access framework, a political ecology framework which allows for a comprehensive understanding of who benefits from resources, and through what processes they are able to do so. Our paper proposes five immediate uses of these combined frameworks: (i) to facilitate the development of indicators around access and benefits; (ii) to help identify, organize and analyze social benefit data; (iii) to guide the development of cross-disciplinary representations of a system; (iv) to lay out potential trade-offs, cumulative impacts and changes to oceans governance; (v) and to help users respond to national and international objectives around the generation and distribution of benefits. In proposing novel ways of analyzing sustainable resource use in fisheries, our paper thus responds to management challenges associated with an expanding agenda and set of priorities, and growing policy interest in governance and management of the ocean for the benefit of coastal peoples and their communities.

A Case Study of Fisheries Governance and Management in a Reservoir of Lao PDR: Perspectives for Improvement

A Case Study of Fisheries Governance and Management in a Reservoir of Lao PDR: Perspectives for Improvement

Maritime security and the securitisation of fisheries in the Gulf of Guinea: experiences from Cameroon

ABSTRACT Since the 2000s, maritime security threats in the Gulf of Guinea region have been of growing international concern. In many countries, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is one such problem with negative impacts on environmental, food and national security and links with wider maritime crime. Focussing on Cameroon, this article argues that there has been a securitisation of the fisheries sector within the broader context of changes in maritime security governance in the Gulf of Guinea. The article examines the process and implications of the securitisation of Cameroon’s fisheries sector. Using documents, direct observations, and in-depth interviews with state agents and actors of civil society organisations (CSOs), the article illustrates how the fisheries sector was securitised through a range of linguistic, institutional, and structural mechanisms. The institutional and structural mechanisms were highly militarised with the increased deployment of military forces in monitoring, control and surveillance of fishery activities. These changes, the article concludes, subsequently diminished the agency and capacity of non-military state and civil society actors in fisheries governance and undermines their role in cooperative efforts within the broader maritime security architecture that now operates in Cameroon.

Quantity or quality of fish in a developing country: A hedonic analysis

ABSTRACT The mass production of fish in a developing country like Bangladesh has ensured food security with quality of fish hardly. The purpose of this study thus is to identify the implicit price of the fish quality characteristics. In total, 200 consumers were randomly interviewed from three different coastal districts of Bangladesh where both farmed and wild fish were available. The consumers were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire during their purchase and the semi-log functional form of regression model was applied to explore the implicit price of the fish quality characteristics. The findings indicated that consumers’ high payment (at least 61% price premium) on wild fish for its taste, size, and eye character. However, it was found that consumers preferred farmed fish for its freshness and bright color while they disfavored swollen abdomen and odor. The results also revealed that consumers paid 18% more for the farmed fish freshness and 9% less for the fish with odor and swollen abdomen. It was also noticed that quantity of the fish and presence of bones were the influential factors of reducing the price of both fish. The study implies that fish farmers need to produce fish considering quality characteristics rather than producing more since good food ensures good health. The study refers to the implementation of the ‘Government Fishery Act’ for increasing the wild fish stock including different small indigenous species, catfish, and hilsha for consumers’ demands and preferences.