Overfishing, uncertainty, and ocean governance : Lord Perry's question revisited

\Why does overfishing persist in the face of regulation?\" This question the subject of intense interest and discussion has no easy or palatable answer. While trawling over old ground this thesis hopefully offers new insights and adds weight to important arguments advanced by other writers. I argue here that overfishing a fundamental cause of the crisis facing our oceans is the result of the failure of our fishing management agencies (ultimately our politicians and communities) to embrace a small suite of powerful tools (more correctly strategic approaches) which have been developed to account for uncertainty. Broad success in managing fisheries to achieve sustainability goals will (I argue) only come if these tools are enthusiastically applied. Moreover I suggest that this will not happen until organisational cultures within fishery management agencies undergo a major shift. In my view the only way this shift will occur is for asset-based biodiversity conservation rather than resource exploitation to be placed at the centre of ocean governance. This thesis examines these issues in the context of case studies covering regional national and provincial (State) fishery management agencies. With the exception of the case study of a regional fishery (the southern ocean krill fishery) all case studies are drawn from Australian experiences. Commercial and recreational fisheries are considered. The central recommendation of the thesis is that fishery management agencies worldwide should be replaced by biodiversity asset management agencies. While recognising that many factors affect biodiversity assets (some well outside the control of current fishery agencies) such a strategy would mesh with the increasing acceptance of integrated coastal zone management and in general the need for integrated and precautionary management of natural resources."