Abstract

Fisheries management is evolving globally into the management of ecosystems, including the human element, within the jurisdiction of the fisheries management authorities. Yet, fisheries management plans in the region often fail to take into account the critical role that communication has in optimising authorities’ achievement of fisheries’ goals. An argument advanced to justify this has been that authorities do not have adequate human or financial resources to factor in communication planning into their overall fisheries management plans. However, in borrowing from communicative planning theory, I will show that fisheries management plans are in and of themselves communicative planning activities and thus should be closely aligned to a communications strategy. I will use this paper to suggest that the development of communications strategies and plans might actually save fisheries authorities money on transaction costs – that is, the costs of protecting rights and policing and enforcing agreements; and I will illustrate through reference to the ongoing development of the Common Fisheries Policy & Regime (CFP&R) how communicative planning initiatives concentrate on consensus building between different interest groups and, through that process, can influence public policy and action.

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