IIFET 2008 Vietnam Proceedings 1 POSITIONING MARINE FISHERIES IN A CHANGING WORLD

Society has agreed on the goal of sustainable fisheries but achieving the goal is often submerged by more immediate national and international demands causing fisheries to slip down the political agenda or diverting attention to other fisheries issues, e.g., profitability under high fuel prices. Among the problems challenging marine capture fisheries are increasing demands for fish, uncertainty from overfishing and illegal fishing, competition for resources among different fisheries gears and methods, degrading and climate-affected ecosystems, depleted fish stocks, economic rent drains and social hardships. Solutions to these challenges, however, are available for some fisheries. Even when solutions are available, the blockages to the transition to sustainable fisheries are information failures, transition costs, use and non-use conflicts and the capacity to implement and enforce management. This paper discusses how fisheries experts can help make the case for the transition to sustainable fisheries, drawing on suitable tools that can overcome the key blockages. Within governments, fisheries should be subject to a whole-of-government approach, as fisheries ministries do not have access to all the tools to achieve a transition to sustainability. Further, transitions to sustainability are not one-off events- constant adjustments are needed to position fisheries to internal and external changes