Prosperous Fishing Communities

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Prosperous Fishing Communities

• How to move forward

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Sweden
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Crucial factors according to our analysis

• Good management/rules
• Healthy biological resources (large stocks)
• Functional/existing market/logistics
• Entrepreneurs

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Good management/rules

• Closed access (limited)
• Access regulated by law (all SE coastal segments)
• Strong authority
• Implies a balance between resources and capacity
  preferably in targeting Maximum Economic Yield
  (MEY)
• Simple fishing rules, easy to understand
• Participation (Generic understanding of the
  importance of the management system)
• Good control and surveillance

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Access

• Transferable access rights leads to loss of
  control of the fishing structure (SE pelagic
  fishery)
• The political objectives, for example prosperous
  local communities, entry of young fishermen might
  be impossible to achieve
• Access regulated by law (governmental decision)
  can achieve political objectives but might lose
  some economic gains
• Requires a strong regulatory force with regular
  cuts of the capacity
• Might create a coalition with the existing
  fishermen
• Free movement of capital and persons might
  jeopardize the political ambitions

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Healthy biological resources (much fish)
Ecosystem approach

• All stocks sustainable as a basic rule (no stock
  facing extinction)
• No degradation of the ecosystem
• Social considerations
• Economic manipulation of the stocks, if possible
• Implying for example keeping a big cod stock in
  the Baltic to the detriment of the sprat stock
• Small cod stocks in the Skagerrak implies good
  stocks of nephrops and shrimp

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Market

• Be tender of your market
• Very attractive species (be happy)
• Cod (high volume)
• Marine crustaceans shrimp (pandalus borelis),
  nephrops, European lobster (Homarus vulgaris)
• Freshwater speciesVendace (coregonus albula),
  pikeperch (Lucioperca lucioperca), crayfish
  (astacus astacus,pacifastucus leniusculus)
• 2. Visitor industry based on cod, salmon,
  crayfish, nephrops, European lobster

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Example of destroyed market (Swedish cod fishery)
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Market Cont

• Not very attractive species
• Pelagic species (herring, sprat, sandeel)
• Salmon
• Low cost, industrialised fishery with big units
  concentrated in urban areas

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Entrepreneurs

• Virulent in both ways but seldom infectious
  between generations
• Might be outside the pure fishermen families
• Creates cooperation among fishermen and in the
  local communities
• arrange the logistics, etc
• Create markets
• Visitor industry (SE salmon in the Baltic,
  European lobster in the west coast, crayfish in
  lakes)
• Vendace in the north (product development)
• 3. Create jobs

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Successful communities (Vendace)

• Seasonal trawl fishery (8 weeks in the Gulf of
  Bothnia)
• Spawning fishery (roe processing requires many
  hands)
• Management system
• Local understanding of the necessity to regulate
  (not self-governing)
• Close cooperation with the scientists (SBF)
• Regulated entry decided by the SBF (No of
  vessels)
• Restricted fishing period (closed periods)
• Restricted area (closed areas)
• Regulated mesh size
• Regulated compulsory use of grids

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Vendace cont.

• Small community (100-200 persons)
• Stock in fairly good shape due to the management
  system and no externalities (SE stock)
• Infrastructure not very good (long distances,
  harbours in bad shape, etc.)
• Market is good and the products are highly
  priced. The products are a caviar substitute,
  with a special brand name (Kalix rom). Might be
  sensitive to the present recession.
• Entrepreneurs who are highly innovative. New
  products, new markets, new processing technique
• Highly profitable creates entrepreneurs ?????

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Successful communities (lake Hjälmaren)

• All the year fishery, including ice fishery
• Two main species (pikeperch and crayfish)
• Management system
• Local understanding of the necessity to regulate
  (not self-governing)
• Close cooperation with the scientists (SBF)
• Regulated entry decided by the SBF (No of
  fishermen)
• Minimum size for pikeperch
• Regulated mesh size

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Hjälmaren cont.

• Small community (lt100 persons)
• Stocks in fairly good shape due to the management
  system
• Market is good and highly priced. Pikeperch is
  mainly exported fresh to Continental Europe.
  Crayfish is sold directly to restaurants or used
  in the catering business
• Entrepreneurs who are highly innovative.
  Crayfish is the base for a flourishing visitor
  industry (parties, fishing, bed and breakfast)
• Highly profitable creates entrepreneurs ?????

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Less successful community (Smögen)

• All the year fishery with trawl and passive gears
  (pots)
• Two main species (shrimp and nephrops)
• Management system
• No local understanding of the necessity of the
  management system
• Regulated entry decided by the SBF (No of
  fishermen and vessels)
• Overcapacity, low profitability characterizes a
  failure of the SBF
• Regulated areas (trawling areas)
• TAC for both species decided by the Council (EU)
• Regulated mesh size and grid

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Smögen cont.

• The local community is no longer a fishing
  community
• Small community (54 fishers, 44 vessels of which
  about half is less than 12 meters), halving
  during the last 10 years
• Good infrastructure with auction, harbours, ship
  yards, net producers, etc.
• Stocks in fairly good shape due to the decline of
  cod
• Bad market relations for example shrimp fishery
  during the summer period
• Market is in general good but price is volatile.
  In 2008 the fishermen have themselves made the
  market for nephrops to collapse.
• Few if any entrepreneurs but a visitor industry
  in infancy based on fishery in collaboration with
  the local hotel.

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Generic Conclusions

• Small (IF ANY) recruitment to the coastal fishery
• Bad profitability
• Loss of the pure fishery communities
• Gender perspective
• More opportunities for alternative jobs and
  studies compared to historic situation
• Demonstrated 2 success stories and one no that
  successful