Fill the Gap between Law and Governance

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) clearly address the difference as well as recognize the correlations among seventeen sustainable development dimensions. The SDGs also play an important role for the international community to pay attention to our future living. Taking oceans for instance, they are the biggest ecosystems on our planet, and their health are essential to our survival. In terms of conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resource under SDG 14, several targets were agreed upon by the UN member States to help guide decision-making with regard to oceans, such as conserving marine and coastal areas in agreement with international and national laws and using the latest scientific information. This article mainly focuses on the matters of conserving and managing international fishery resources. It also addresses the issues between international law and global governance with perspectives on the implementation of SDG 14. This article concludes that in order to effectively implement international fishery laws and to reach the targets that SDGs have postulated, eliminating the commercial benefits might be the necessary consideration in filling the gap between international fishery law and fishery governance.

Analysis on the Development Trend of Marine Fishery Governance

Marine fishery is an important part of China’s economic development. Marine fishery is not only related to the development of marine economy, but also the marine ecological environment. It is very important to promote the competitiveness of marine fisheries, protect marine ecology, and explore the sustainable development of marine fisheries. In this regard, this article analyzes the development trend of marine fisheries, analyzes the current problems in marine fishery governance, and explores effective countermeasures for the development of marine fishery governance, hoping to provide some ideas for promoting marine fishery governance and enhancing the benefits of marine fishery development.

Governance and Power Dynamics in a Small-Scale Hilsa Shad (Tenualosa ilisha) Fishery: A Case Study from Bangladesh

This paper considers the hilsa shad (Tenualosa ilisha) fishery of southern Bangladesh as a case study regarding governance and power dynamics at play in a small-scale fishery, and the relevance of these for the sustainable management of coastal fisheries. Qualitative methods, involving in-depth individual interviews (n = 128) and focus group discussions (n = 8) with key stakeholders in the hilsa fishery, were used to capture multiple perspectives on governance from those in different positions in the relative power structures studied, while facilitating insightful discussions and reflections. The analysis here is based on a power cube framework along three power dimensions (levels, spaces, and forms) in Bangladesh’s hilsa fishery. The study displays an imbalance in the present hilsa governance structure, with some stakeholders exercising more power than others, sidelining small-scale fishers, and encouraging increasing illegal fishing levels that ultimately harm both the fisheries and those dependent on them. To overcome this, we propose a co-management system that can play a vital role in equalizing power asymmetry among hilsa fishery stakeholders and ensure effective hilsa fishery governance. Our results suggest that recognizing analyzed power dynamics has substantial implications for the planning and implementation of such co-management and the long-term sustainability of the hilsa fishery.

Trust and Influence in the Gulf of Mexico’s Fishery Public Management Network

Sustainable fishery management is a complex multi-sectoral challenge requiring substantial interagency coordination, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. While scholars of public management network theory and natural resource management have identified trust as one of the key ideational network properties that facilitates such interaction, relatively few studies have operationalized and measured the multiple dimensions of trust and their influence on collaboration. This article presents the results of an exploratory study examining the Gulf of Mexico fishery management network comprised of more than 30 stakeholder organizations. Using an empirically validated survey instrument, the distribution of four types of trust, three gradations of influence, and the degree of formality and informality in actor communications were assessed across the fishery public management network. The analysis reveals generally low levels of interorganizational procedural trust and a high degree of network fragmentation along the international border. Civil servants based at U.S. organizations reported nearly no interactions with Mexican agencies, and vice versa. Rational (calculative) trust was the most important in bringing about reported change in other organizations, while dispositional distrust and affinitive (relational) trust also had significant effects. The results suggest that, although transactional interorganizational relationships prevail in Gulf of Mexico fishery governance, well-developed professional relationships contribute meaningfully to the reported success of public fishery network management and warrants further policy attention in order to help ensure sustainability.