Overcapacity and Effort Management in Reconciling Fisheries with Conservation: Case Studies of Effort Reduction

摘要

The Chair introduced the theme as perhaps one of the most important problems to address for the future viability of the world fisheries, despite the fact that some other concurrent sessions were better attended. In fact, attendance and participation in this session was excellent, and audience participation was such that there was generally inadequate time to address all questions raised. Since the mid-1990s, several authors have claimed that global fishing capacity needs to be reduced by at least 50%. In fact, many fisheries commentators have suggested that overcapacity is the single most important factor threatening the long-term viability of exploited fish stocks and the fisheries that depend on them. Although overcapacity is widely acknowledged as an important issue, it has proven difficult to address it in all but a few instances. This may explain why relatively few papers were submitted to this session and why even fewer contained examples of permanent effort or capacity reduction. The situation worldwide is that of a general failure to reduce overcapacity to levels commensurate with the productive capacity of fisheries resources.