Thesis (Ph. D.)--Murdoch University, 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 23, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 342-357).

Fishermen's and managers' perceptions of fishery issues are an important factor to consider when studying conflicts between the two groups. According to theories of conflict management, differences in perceptions may cause situations to be characterized by misunderstanding and mistrust, and may add to the difficulties in managing the conflict. A questionnaire was developed to determine whether there were differences in perceptions between fishermen and managers. Both groups responded to the same questions. Questions were included to determine each individual's involvement in the decision making process and to test the hypothesis that fishermen and managers who are involved in the decision-making process have perceptions that are less polarized. A total of 47 commercial salmon fishermen, who fish primarily out of Oregon ports were interviewed. A total of 36 managers, who were either members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, Salmon Technical Team, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, or non-agency managers, responded to the questionnaire. Most fishermen were interviewed in person and most managers were interviewed over the telephone. Chi-square analyses were used to measure the differences in the responses of fishermen and managers, as well as the responses of decision-makers and non-decision-makers. The results support the hypothesis that fishermen and managers have different perceptions on certain issues. However, the hypothesis that decision-makers have more similar perceptions than non-decision makers was not strongly supported. / Graduation date: 1994

Thesis (M.M.S.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Restricted until June 2002. Bibliography: leaves 43-44.

Thesis (M.M.S.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 61-66.

Diss. Amsterdam : University, 2009. / DVD title: If you do good : beach seine fishing in Ghana.

Commercial fishers are employed in one of the most dangerous jobs in Canada. Additionally, they tend both not to report work injuries and to deny and trivialize risks their job entails. This study focuses on fishers' subjective interpretation of their work environment. Its purposes were to examine fishers' attributed causes of accidents and to derive implications for prevention education. The researcher employed a qualitative methodology and interviewed 12 professional fishers who worked on the British Columbia coast. The interviews focused on fishers' descriptions of accidents and their attributed causes. Attribution theory was operationalized to provide a conceptual framework through which to analyze the 12 transcripts. The researcher transcribed the interviews, then highlighted and analyzed excerpts depicting the fishers' attributed causes of accidents. Three strategies were employed to examine the trustworthiness of the researcher's judgements regarding the transcripts and final interpretation of the data. The strategies were: use of a research partner (consistency), conducting a participant review (credibility), and comparison with another study (triangulation). The participants of this study attributed multiple causes to a given accident and their explanations were complex. The study found 22 categories of causes of accidents. The attributed causes from 9 of the 12 participants were distributed in all quadrants of attributions on the orienting framework (external/stable, external/unstable, internal/stable and internal/unstable). Five or more participants attributed the following as causes in their accidents: Economic Pressures, Luck or Fate, Weather Conditions Expected, Fatigue, and Stress. This study's results suggest that the techno-rational approach of existing traditional training programs, that concentrate on causes located mainly in the external/stable quadrant, does not concur with fishers' attributed causes of accidents. The study indicates that prevention education program content should be broadened to address the full spectrum of fishers' attributed causes of accidents. Through the utilization of fishers' attributed causes of accidents, prevention education programs could assist fishers to focus on their perceptions of occupational hazards and risks, and address questions of past risk taking and future risk assessment. From these insights fishers can review what can be done to control or eliminate a particular risk.

Stocking trout to create successful sport fisheries is an irresistible lure to fisheries managers and sport anglers alike, but the implicit assumptions behind this simple process have seldom been questioned or assessed. Using common fisheries monitoring techniques, combined with social surveys, at nine Alberta lakes, I quantified three main assumptions behind put-and-take stocking. Surprisingly, 1) stocking high densities of Rainbow Trout created very low-density populations; 2) these populations supported mediocre fisheries; 3) these mediocre fisheries, if above a threshold catch rate, attracted very large numbers of satisfied anglers. Based on these findings, the stocking density and the direct cost of stocking were reduced by 80% at three experimental lakes. No major decreases in fishing quality, angler participation, or angler satisfaction were observed. I suggest refinements in the stocking process focus on determining how to provide adequate numbers of trout to create a basic level of satisfaction with the fishing experience.

The intergenerational continuity of knowledge has become a concern as small-scale societies worldwide balance the challenges of adapting to environmental change associated with globalization while retaining continuity in their ways of life. This dissertation examines the intergenerational continuity of environmental knowledge through the conceptual lens of an Ethnoecology of Practice framework (EofP) developed to guide this research. Integrating insights from political ecology, social wellbeing and adaptive learning, the EofP provides theoretical and methodological tools based on practice theory to examine the knowledge of small-scale societies. Based on fieldwork in the community of Ponta Negra (Atlantic Forest Coast, Brazil), this dissertation uses a qualitative case study strategy of inquiry guided by a phenomenological worldview. Methods included participant observation, semi-structured interviews covering livelihoods, life histories and marine and terrestrial knowledge themes, document review and a census. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the perception of marine and terrestrial natural resources by tracing their social life from harvesting grounds to exchange and consumption sites. Chapters 6 and 9 analyse historical and contemporary adaptation to environmental change. While Chapter 6 describes the adoption of the pound net fishery, Chapter 9 illustrates contemporary modes of learning associated with natural resource harvesting and presents the processes associated with production of new knowledge through the example of local participation in the tourism economy. Chapter 7 examines local perspectives on livelihood transition from a social wellbeing perspective and highlights factors underlying the continuity of natural resource harvesting practice in Ponta Negra. Chapter 8 discusses how the term Caiçara, as used in biodiversity conservation and tourism development discourses, circumscribes the relation between coastal people and their local environments to a subsistence economy, denying their current economic engagements as well as their desires and aspirations. This dissertation contributes to ethnobiological understandings of the intergenerational continuity of knowledge by providing a framework and grounding evidence that demonstrates how knowledge is generated through context-specific practice attuned to dynamic environments that leads to individual innovation. It provides a theoretical contribution to our understanding of framing and creating processes inherent to human-in environment relations that lead to fluidity in ways of life over time.

Ecology has been devoted to defining the content of a species’ environment. Defining the extent, or size, of a species’ environment is also pivotal to elucidating species-habitat relationships. More than a home range, this extent integrates an individual’s lifetime experiences with resources, competition, and predators. I theorised that a species’ habitat extent is identifiable from its characteristic spatial scale of habitat selection, which in turn is predicted by body size. I reviewed scale-dependent mammalian habitat selection studies and found that a characteristic scale was typically not identified, but identifiable. Of several ecological predictors tested, only body mass was a significant predictor of the relative size of a species’ characteristic habitat selection scale. Tests of existing data are confounded by differing approaches, so I empirically tested the scale-body mass hypothesis using a standardised survey of 12 sympatric terrestrial mammal species from the Canadian Rocky Mountains. For each species, support for habitat models varied across 20 scales tested. For six species, I found a characteristic selection scale, which was best predicted by species body mass in a quadratic relationship. Occurrence of large and small species was explained by habitat measured at large scales, whereas medium- sized species were explained by habitat measured at small scales. The relationship between body size and habitat selection scale is congruent with the textural-discontinuity hypothesis, and implies species’ evolutionary adaptation to landscape heterogeneity as the driver of scale-dependent habitat selection. I applied this principle to examine wolverine habitat selection, and found that anthropogenic fragmentation of the landscape influences that species’ occurrence in space at large spatial scales. Finally, I contended that the prevailing paradigm equating habitats to resources omits interspecific interactions that are key predictors of a species’ occurrences. I examined habitat selection of martens and fishers in terrestrial environments, and sea otters in marine coastal environments, and tested whether the presence of heterospecifics could explain spatial occurrence beyond landscape structure and resources. In both cases, the presence of heterospecifics explained species occurrence beyond simple resource selection. Interspecific interactions are key drivers of a species’ distribution in space; this is the spatial expression of the concepts of fundamental and realized niches. Body size interacts with landscape structure to determine the scale of a species’ response to its environment, and within this habitat extent, interspecific interactions affect the species’ pattern of occurrence and distribution. / Graduate

This thesis presents a case study conducted in 1994 concerning the effects of fishery management regulations on the Native village of Old Harbor, Alaska. Access to the traditional livelihood of harvesting marine resources has profound implications for the sustainability of the economy of Alaska's rural Native villages. The institution of the limited entry system in 1975 caused the transfer of commercial salmon fishing rights away from some Native fishermen and a reduction in local fishing jobs. Although the alternatives may have had similar or worse effects on the village, limited entry is perceived as a major cause of economic and social dysfunction. One of many factors that has integrated remote villages into the global market economy, it has exacerbated the uneven distribution of wealth in the community and contributed to a growing gulf between fishing as a business and a lifestyle.