Putting fisheries management back in places: points of view

Abstract

Except, miraculously, for Jules Verne's, scientific predictions always turn out to be wrong. However, the 3rd Millennium is coming, fisheries resources are going, and it is impossible to resist the urge to take the plunge and make a few predictions about the future of fisheries management, and of the scientific discipline. And no, the "s" at the end of the title is not out of place: I shall suggest that in the future, fisheries management and its associated science will have to deal with "places" far more than they have in the recent past. Indeed, I shall suggest that they will have to return, in many cases, to ancient modes of allocating fisheries resources to local communities, rooted in physical places.