The Human Dimensions of Sustainable Fisheries Management: Understanding the Importance of Social Impact Assessment in the Development of Limited Access Privilege Programs in Fisheries Management

The intersection of human social systems and fisheries management is a highly complex web of interwoven relationships. The communities that rely on commercial fisheries for social, cultural, and economic support are experiencing increased pressures on their survival as a result of global fisheries decline. While the effects of these pressures have had obvious economic and biological impacts, they have also had profound social effects that are rarely captured or addressed. Government agencies and NGO’s largely responsible for creating fisheries management plans are often not equipped to measure these social costs.

The purpose of this paper is to formulate a social assessment framework for capturing potential changes in the social capital of fishing communities under a limited access privilege program (LAPP). Thorough investigation of the North Carolina snapper-grouper complex and the Mexican Kino Bay fishery were the catalyst for adaptation of the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework presented as a new metric for understanding social transformations in these communities. On a broader level, this paper aims to encourage social science involvement in fisheries management in order to promote a balance between the social and biological components of fisheries management.