The Organization of Traditional Inshore Fishery Management Systems in the Pacific

Although traditional systems of fisheries rights have been documented for coastal waters and estuarine areas on all continents for most localities, the tenurial relationship of small-scale fishermen to resource areas and resources is not well known. Indeed, only relatively recently has it been realized that “sea tenure”, or the way in which fishermen perceive, define, delimit, “own”, and defend their rights to inshore fishing grounds, exists at all (Emmerson 1980; Acheson 1981; Ruddle and Akimichi 1984b; Durrenberger and Palsson 1987). Such concepts range from the quasiownership of specific localized sites by individuals, families, clans, or other small social groups, to complex state legal systems.