Perceptions of Risk and Adaptive Capacity of Commercial Fisheries Across the United States.

Murphy, Robert¹, Bradley Harris¹, Jonathan Grabowski², Sarah Gibbs³, Steven Scyphers³, ¹Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, AK, ²Northeastern University, Nahant, MA, ³University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL

Changes in environmental conditions, regulations, the economy, and socio-political settings can have significant consequences on fishermen. However, the impacts of these changes are not comparable across fisheries, so how we assess impacts and apply proactive and retroactive remedies needs to be fine-tuned for each fishery. For example, there can be differences in the degree of fishery consolidation, the propensity for fishermen to own their boats, and the types of management strategies used, such that fisheries often have different pressures exerted on them. Here, we have implemented comparative social assessments in five key fisheries across the U.S. to understand their adaptive capacity to various perturbations. The five fisheries investigated are the Bering Sea Pollock Catcher-Processor, Central Gulf of Alaska Trawl, Alaskan Directed Halibut, Northeast Multispecies Groundfish, and Atlantic Sea Scallop fisheries. To date, we have conducted a public document search and have held focus groups with each fishery to generate a summary of the recent risks perceived by fishery stakeholders. Additionally, we have launched online surveys to a representative sample of participants in each fishery to evaluate their risk perceptions, adaptive capacity, and social capital. This presentation will include an overview of survey results to date including a deeper dive into an example fishery. Specifically, we will explore possible predictors of adaptive capacity, such as social capital, fishermen attributes (i.e., experience), and socioeconomic characteristics. Collectively, the perceived risks and predictors of adaptive capacity across these fisheries will provide a novel perspective on how changes in social-ecological systems affect disparate fisheries.