Understanding Tradeoffs in Fishers Decision Making: Catch, Distance, and Safety Influence Where Fishers Fish

Here we explore the tradeoffs between the distances that gleaning and non-gleaning fishers travelled, and the benefits they gained. We found that gleaners stayed close to their starting location and obtained larger, more valuable catches when they travelled further. Non-gleaning fishers travelled four times further on average, but travelling far did not correspond to larger or more valuable catches.

Regardless of gear, fishers described important fishing grounds as having desirable catches and being nearby, but also being safe and having good habitat quality. Our findings suggests that management could benefit from accounting for the spatial and economic differences among fishing methods, and from identifying the diversity of attributes of fishing grounds that fishers value.

Selgrath J.C., Kleiber, D. & K.P. O’Donnell (2014). Understanding Tradeoffs in Fishers Decision Making: Catch, Distance, and Safety Influence Where Fishers Fish. In: McConney, P., R. Medeiros, and M. Pena (eds). Enhancing Stewardship in Small-Scale Fisheries: Practices and Perspectives. Too Big To Ignore (TBTI) and Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. CERMES Technical Report No. 73. pp 162.