Abstract
Research on fishery fleet dynamics and fisher behavior often rely on rational economic assumptions to explain decision-making processes based on cost and income expectations as an input to management strategies. However, understanding the complexity of small-scale fisheries, which are defined by their importance as a source of income, employment, food security, and cultural traditions, requires the use of emerging systemic thinking concepts to face the challenges involved in their management. In this study, fishing effort dynamics and two types of diver behavior are analyzed within the multispecies fishery at Playa Lagarto, Costa Rica. We sought to answer whether or not the allocation of fishing operations that defines fishing effort responds to only the rational economic theory or to other dynamics related to the fishery’s social and ecological systems. Also, given different dive methods, tactics, and factors that define catch variability, fisher behavior drivers were explored. A combination of surveys, interviews, and a participatory diagnostic approach were used to collect data during fishing trips. Although some target species were common to both dive methods, differences in the spatial and temporal allocation of fishing effort were evident due to different fishing tactics. When facing environmental constraints, social interactions fostered cooperative tactics in order to maintain or even increase their catches. Given these results, a set of recommendations were outlined that could improve sustainability and strengthen the socio-ecological resilience of the fishery.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acott T, Urquhart J (2014) Sense of place and socio-cultural values in fishing communities along the English Channel. In: Urquhart J, Acott TG, Symes D, Zhao M (eds) Social issues in sustainable fisheries management, MARE publication series, vol 9. Springer, London, pp 257–277
Allison E, Ellis F (2001) The livelihoods approach and management of small-scale fisheries. Mar Policy 25(2):377–388
Andrew N, Béné C, Hall S, Allison E, Heck S, Ratner B (2007) Diagnosis and management of small-scale fisheries in developing countries. Fish Fish 8:227–240
Arceo P, Seijo J (1991) Fishing effort analysis of the small-scale spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) fleet of the Yucatan shelf, FAO fisheries report 431. FAO, Rome, pp 59–74
Béné C, Tewfik A (2001) Fishing effort allocation and fishermen’s decision making process in a multi-species small-scale fishery: analysis of the conch and lobster fishery in Turks and Caicos Islands. Hum Ecol 29:157–186
Busilacchi S, Russ G, Williams A, Sutton S, Begg G (2013) The role of subsistence fishing in the hybrid economy of an indigenous community. Mar Policy 37:183–191
Cinner J, Folke C, Daw T, Hicks C (2011) Responding to change: using scenarios to understand how socioeconomic factors may influence amplifying or dampening exploitation feedbacks among Tanzanian fishers. Glob Environ Change 21:7–12
Daw T (2008) Spatial distribution of effort by artisanal fishers: exploring economic factors affecting the lobster fisheries of the Corn Islands, Nicaragua. Fish Res 90:17–25
Eales J, Wilen J (1986) An examination of fishing location choice in the pink shrimp fishery. Mar Resour Econ 2:331–351
Eriksson H, de la Torre-Castro M, Olsson P (2012) Mobility, expansion and management of a multi-species scuba diving fishery in East Africa. PLoS ONE 7(4):e35504. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0035504
Folke C, Hahn T, Olsson P, Norberg J (2005) Adaptive governance of social–ecological systems. Annu Rev Environ Resour 30:441–473
Fulton E, Smith A, Smith D, van Putten I (2011) Human behaviour: the key source of uncertainty in fisheries management. Fish Fish 12:2–17
Garibaldi A, Turner N (2004) Cultural keystone species: implications for ecological conservation and restoration. Ecol Soc 9(3):1
Hunt L, Sutton S, Arlinghaus R (2013) Illustrating the critical role of human dimensions research for understanding and managing recreational fisheries within a social-ecological system framework. Fish Manag Ecol 20:111–124
Katsanevakis S, Maravelias C, Vassilopoulou V, Haralabous J (2010) Boat seines in Greece: Landings profiles and identification of potential métiers. Scientia Marina 74:65–76
Kittinger J, Finkbeiner E, Ban N, Broad K, Carr MH, Cinner JE, Gelcich S, Cornwell ML, Koehn JZ, Basurto X, Fujita R, Caldwell MR, Crowder LB (2013) Emerging frontiers in social–ecological systems research for sustainability of small-scale fisheries. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 5:352–357
Kronen M (2004) Fishing for fortunes? A socio-economic assessment of Tonga’s artisanal fisheries. Fish Res 70:121–134
Lester S, Halpern BS, Grorud-Colvert K, Lubchenco J, Ruttenberg BI, Gaines SD, Airamé S, Warner RR (2005) Biological effects within no-take marine reserves: a global synthesis. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 384:33–46
Levin SA (1999) Fragile dominion: complexity and the commons. Perseus Books, Reading
Lewis D, Bell SD, Fay J, Bothi KL, Gatere L, Kabila M, Mukamba M, Matokwani E, Mushimbalume M, Moraru CI, Lehmann J, Lassoie J, Wolfe D, Lee DR, Buck L, Travis AJ (2011) Community markets for conservation (COMACO) links biodiversity conservation with sustainable improvements in livelihoods and food production. Proc Natl Acad Sci 108:13957–13962
Lopes P (2011) Decision-making processes by small-scale fishermen on the southeast coast of Brazil. Fish Manag Ecol 18:400–410
Maunder M, Punt A (2004) Standardizing catch and effort data: a review of recent approaches. Fish Res 70:141–159
McClanahan T, Allison EH, Cinner JE (2015) Managing fisheries for human and food security. Fish Fish 14(3):1467–2979
Murase H, Nagashima H, Yonezaki S, Matsukura R, Kitakado T (2009) Application of a generalized additive model (GAM) to reveal relationships between environmental factors and distributions of pelagic fish and krill: a case study in Sendai Bay, Japan. ICES J Mar Sci 66:1417–1424
Naranjo M (2010) Caracterización de los sistemas operacionales, modalidades y artes de pesca utilizados para la captura de la langosta Panulirus gracilis (Streets, 1871) en Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Revmar 2:73–82
Naranjo M (2011) Biología pesquera de la langosta Panulirus gracilis (Streets, 1871) en Playa Lagarto, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Revista de Biolología Tropical 59:619–633
Naranjo M (2014) Análisis espacio-temporal de las operaciones de pesca de las pesquerías artesanales bento-demersales en Playa Lagarto, Costa Rica (doctoral dissertation). Centro de Estudios Avanzados del IPN. CINVESTAV, México
Naranjo-Madrigal H, van Putten I, Norman-López A (2015) Understanding socio-ecological drivers of spatial allocation choice in a multispecies artisanal fishery: a Bayesian network modeling approach. Mar Policy 62:102–115
Ommer R, Perry R, Murray G, Neis B (2012) Social–ecological dynamism, knowledge, and sustainable coastal marine fisheries. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 4(3):316–322
Österblom H, Merrie A, Metian M, Boonstra WJ, Blenckner T, Watson JR, Rykaczewski RR, Ota Y, Sarmiento JL, Christensen V, Schlüter M, Birnbaum S, Gustafsson BG, Humborg C, Mörth C, Müller-Karulis B, Tomczak MT, Troell M, Folke C (2013) Modelling social-ecological scenarios in marine systems. BioScience 63:735–744
Plagányi EE, van Putten I, Hutton T, Deng RA, Dennis D, Pascoe S, Skewes T, Campbell RA (2013) Integrating indigenous livelihood and lifestyle objectives in managing a natural resource. Proc Natl Acad Sci 110:3639–3644
R Development Core Team (2015) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. In: R foundation for statistical computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. Accessed 16 Mar 2016
Riolo F (2006) A geographic information system for fisheries management in American Samoa. Environ Model Softw 21:1025–1041
Ríos-Lara V, Salas S, Javier B, Ayora P (2007) Distribution patterns of spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) at Alacranes reef, Yucatan: spatial analysis and inference of preferential habitat. Fish Res 87:35–45
Salas S, Gaertner D (2004) The behavioural dynamics of fishers: management implications. Fish Fish 5:153–167
Salas S, Sumaila U, Pitcher T (2004) Short-term decisions of small-scale fishers selecting alternative target species: a choice model. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 61:374–383
Shester G (2010) Explaining catch variation among Baja California lobster fishers through spatial analysis of trap-placement decisions. Bull Mar Sci 86:479–498
Stevenson T, Brian NT, Dierking J (2011) Fisher behaviour influences catch productivity and selectivity in West Hawaii’s aquarium fishery. ICES J Mar Sci 68:813–822
Tengberg A, Fredholm S, Eliasson I, Knez I, Saltzman K, Wetterberg O (2012) Cultural ecosystem services provided by landscapes: assessment of heritage values and identity. Ecosyst Serv 2:14–26
Walker B, Salt D (2006) Resilience thinking. Island Press, Washington D.C
Warton D, Wright S, Wang Y (2012) Distance-based multivariate analyses confound location and dispersion effects. Methods Ecol Evol 3:89–101
Wilson J (2006) Matching social and ecological systems in complex ocean fisheries. Ecol Soc 11(1):9
Wood S (2006) Generalized additive models: an introduction with R. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton
Zar JH (1996) Biostatistical analysis. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River
Zuur F, Leno E, Walker N, Saveliev A, Smith G (2009) Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. Springer, New York
Acknowledgments
We thank the fishers of Playa Lagarto who made this study possible. We also thank the local seafood buyers and all of those who collaborated in this study in one way or another. We warmly thank Ingrid van Putten at CSIRO for her remarkable editing work and valuable comments on the manuscript. We have received helpful reviews from Silvia Salas in early versions of this paper. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their constructive comments. This study forms part of the doctoral thesis of the first author at CINVESTAV U. Mérida. Financial support from ALNA S.A and CONACYT is acknowledged by the first author.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendices
Appendices
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Naranjo-Madrigal, H., Bystrom, A.B. (2019). Analyzing Fishing Effort Dynamics in a Multispecies Artisanal Fishery in Costa Rica: Social and Ecological System Linkages. In: Salas, S., Barragán-Paladines, M., Chuenpagdee, R. (eds) Viability and Sustainability of Small-Scale Fisheries in Latin America and The Caribbean. MARE Publication Series, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76078-0_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76078-0_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76077-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76078-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)