Cracking the challenges of incentivizing avoidance of unwanted catch

Effective tools, techniques, and strategies to improve commercial fish catches frequently seem to be overlooked or unused. The mixed success of two major approaches to avoiding or reducing unwanted catches, voluntary or mandatory use of more selective gear, and spatiotemporal shifts of effort based on resource distributions, inspired the call for this themed article set (TS). This TS sought to promote deeper consideration of these outcomes by encouraging research to investigate what is required to make alternative, more selective gear, and spatiotemporal avoidance more attractive to fishers. Of the eighteen articles in the TS, seven investigated the behaviour of fishers and applied existing or novel models to deepen understanding of motivations and incentives to change; little overlap among theories was found, and more and deeper consideration of this topic is needed. Five considered aspects of spatiotemporal avoidance; five described technical or other measures. Creative ideas on these topics continue to arise, but understanding of the motivations of fishers to initiate and maintain cooperative behaviours is still rudimentary. One used good, bad, and ugly experiences with policy implementers to promote governance research to crack open the understanding of interactions between policy implementers and policy advisors, and to identify changes needed to facilitate bottom-up initiatives.

Automated summary

Effective tools, techniques, and strategies to improve commercial fish catches are often overlooked or unused. This themed article set aimed to promote deeper consideration of alternative gear and spatiotemporal avoidance by encouraging research on fishers' motivations and incentives to change. However, further research is needed as little overlap among theories was found and understanding of fishers' motivations is still rudimentary. Creative ideas on these topics continue to emerge.