Fisheries are supposed to be for the benefit of society, producing food, providing livelihoods and enabling cultural continuity. Biological productivity goals for fish stocks operationalised through Harvest Control Rules (HCRs) are central to contemporary fisheries management. While fisheries policies often state socio‐economic objectives, such as enhancing the livelihoods of coastal communities, those are rarely, if ever, inc...

Attention to human dimensions of capture fisheries involves understanding how harms and benefits are experienced and distributed among different groups or people. Yet, not all harms are well understood or adequately addressed. There is a general (mis)conception that gender‐based violence (GBV) is not of relevance for fisheries management or a topic within the remit of practitioners. Through a global review of capture fisheries...

The USD6 billion Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) tuna fisheries produce over half the world's tuna and are important for coastal countries. Tuna fisheries policy, management and research currently focus on fisheries resources and industrial fishing on offshore vessels with all male crews, although women, as much as men, are employed in tuna processing and trading in domestic, informal and export value chains. We apply...

Concern over illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has led to a number of policy, trade and surveillance measures. While much attention has been given to the impact of IUU regulation on industrial fleets, recognition of the distinct impacts on small‐scale fisheries is conspicuously lacking from the policy and research debate. In this paper, we outline three ways in which the application of IUU discourse and regulat...

Small‐scale fisheries are subject to various governing institutions operating at different levels with different objectives. At the same time, small‐scale fisheries increasingly form part of domestic and international market chains, with consequent effects for marine environments and livelihoods of the fishery‐dependent. Yet there remains a need to better understand how small‐scale fisheries market chains interact with the ran...

The principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development and Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management require that fisheries be managed for social as well as environmental and economic objectives. Comprehensive assessments of the success of fisheries in achieving all three objectives are, however, rare. There are three main barriers to achieving integrated assessments of fisheries. Firstly, disciplinary divides can be considered “to...