How Sustainable Utilisation Shapes and Limits Fisheries Management in New Zealand

Research PaperThis paper examines the constitution of 'sustainable management' within the context of the New Zealand marine environment. Firstly this paper examines the difference between 'sustainable ecosystems' and 'sustainable utilisation'. The distinction is important if we are to make sense of the different ways in which various stakeholders (fishers, fisheries companies, scientists, fisheries managers and environmental groups) use 'sustainability' in the management of New Zealand's marine environment. We go on to examine how contestation results in sustainable management becoming a form of governmentality. We propose that such contestation transforms stakeholders into subjects whose everyday practices and relationships are influenced by seemingly incommensurable understandings of the lexicon that surrounds sustainable management. We conclude that this governmentality promotes a simplified understanding of a manageable fishery, and constrains the potential for ecosystems-based management in the marine environment