La recherche scientifique face à la pêche artisanale = Research and small-scale fisheries

The penaeid prawn resources occuring off French Guyana are biogeographically part of the large homogenous populations of the northern coast of South America from Northern Brazil, French Guyana, Surinam and Guyana. The exploitation of this multi-species prawn stock, started in 1959, yielded a so-called "equilibrium annual yield" of 12000 to 15000 tonnes. The setting up of exclusive fishing zones and national regulations ten years later led to a sedentarisation of the fleet and the gradual introduction of fishery licensing systems. Theunusual political status of French Guyana (as part of France and the E.E.C.) leads to differences in the way this resource is exploited, compared to neighbouring countries. A description is provided of the increasing research support given to management of the fishery over the last 30 years. This includes :exploratory cruises and scientific surveys, overall modelling on a regional and local basis, tentative introduction of hydroclimate variability in the fishery management, multispecies and multigear analytic modelling, macroeconomicanalysis, and finally analytic bioeconomic simulation as an attemps to provide objective answers to fishery licensing policy of the French Authorities. (Résumé d'auteur