SEAwise Report on fisher behaviour submodels

The SEAwise project works to deliver a fully operational tool that will allow fishers, managers, and policy makers to easily apply Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) in their own fisheries. One of the key uncertainties in fisheries science and management can be linked to (our understanding of) fishers behaviour. In this report we describe the project efforts to better understand fishers behaviour by assessing literature, interviews and data to advance towards a better representation of fisher behaviour in our modelling. A better understanding of fisher behaviour is especially needed in the context of change affecting Europe’s marine ecosystems. Change is both related to the natural part of the ecosystem (i.e. climate change) as to the social side of the ecosystem (i.e. building of windparks).

To that aim we present nine different case studies in Europe as examples of how fisher behaviour has been studied and which factors are (or can be) relevant for a better understanding of fisher behaviour. Each case study ends with a table summarising the factors influencing behaviour, the categories within that factor and the (potential) application in modelling as well as the implications for management. The table below summarises the factors found / used in the case studies and the elements (social, cultural, ecological, economic and institutional) to which the relate. A variety of social factors were identified that are promising for use in modelling. A key conclusion is that social data are often context dependant and cannot be copy pasted from one situation to the other and in some case, additional data needs to be collected. The cases also demonstrate that mixed methods approaches and interdisciplinary approaches are key to get in-depth of understanding of fisher behaviour in fisheries science.