A New Commons: Considering Community-Based Co-Management for Sustainable Fisheries

• Main Author: Dohrn, Charlotte L
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2013
• Subjects: Fisheries management; community-based co-management; Port Orford; Sitka; San Diego; Santa Barbara; Commercial Fishing; Nature and Society Relations; Social and Cultural Anthropology; Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/81; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1079&context=pomona_theses

Commercial fisheries on the West Coast are traditionally managed under large-scale management and conservation plans implemented by state and federal agencies. This scale of management can present obstacles for fishing communities. This thesis examines emerging cases of attempts to define and implement sustainable management of commercial fisheries under a community-based co-management model. In Port Orford, Sitka, San Diego and Santa Barbara, preliminary community-based co-management models are enabling fishing communities to pursue social sustainability through preserving access, participating in local science, and direct marketing for fish products. These communities are actively reshaping traditional models of conceptualizing and managing common-pool resources like fisheries.