Partnerships for a Common Purpose: Cooperative Fisheries Research and Management

Impacts: Making a Difference from Working Cooperatively-Social, Cultural, and Economic Impacts

Andrew Day

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569858.ch16

• It is more enlightening to ask the individuals involved in a project than to assume that you understand what is motivating them. In fact, understanding what motivates each partner, establishing a common intention, and revisiting these in the face of challenges are key elements of successful collaboration.
• Collaboration is heavily influenced by its political, cultural, economic, and ecological context.
• Good fishermen are good scientists. Good scientists are good fishermen.

Fishermen, or their associations, are increasingly expected to share more management costs. Many are looking for ways of doing this cost effectively by partnering with academic scientists, developing more cooperative working relationships with government scientists, or hiring a scientist/consultant to work for their association. In all these cases, some fishermen, or their association representatives, are looking to have more say in the science.

Scientists may have more success getting funding if they can show partnerships. Some believe that cooperative relationships have a better chance of producing innovative methods and outcomes that will result in marketable products or models.

If a scientist is spending fishermen’s funding on science, and reporting to them, they may be more cooperative in the application of the funds.

Fishermen, or their association representatives, might be interested in new, innovative approaches that reflect their theories or knowledge. If they do not believe the past or current approach is effective, they may look for others who will incorporate their knowledge or ideas.

Some scientists believe that the more cooperative and close the working relationship with fishermen, the greater likelihood that their research results will be more innovative, practical, understood, and accepted.

Some fishermen and scientists believe in cooperation and value it in and of itself or are motivated to cooperate because they enjoy working in groups, learning from others, testing theories in a practical setting, and so forth.