Local Level Stakeholder Initiative: North Norwegian Municipalities' Reaction to Changes in Fisheries Management

Suggested Bibliographic Reference: Challenging New Frontiers in the Global Seafood Sector: Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 11-15, 2016. Compiled by Stefani J. Evers and Ann L. Shriver. International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis, 2016.Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.The industry owned trawlers land-lock obligation, originally intended to ensure both greater seasonal distribution of raw material as well as settlement in coastal communities, functions poorly and is being put under pressure. This is due to national and global trends in economics and politics, technological change and changing market conditions. Because of this, the industrial trawler concept is torn between its role as a raw material supplier with a social responsibility, and its role as a profitable actor on a competitive global arena. Municipalities have obtained a key role by intervening in what is regarded as a closed system made up by private industry actors, a state administrative apparatus and shifting policy strategies. In this paper, we examine industry owned trawlers land lock obligations through a theoretical framework including industrial policy analysis and municipal innovation theory. We show how changes in regulations concerning the trawler land-lock obligations have made appeals to the judicial system unsuccessful as an effort to ensure that the catch is landed according to the original intentions. However, innovative measures in individual municipalities has produced local results, mainly in the form of economic compensations for missed raw material landings. This has also led to the proliferation of strategies among municipalities in similar situations. In this way, local authorities may contribute to the removal of a regulatory failure underpinning an outdated industrial concept