Integration or separation? The future of the English small-scale coastal fishery

The decline of inshore or small-scale coastal fisheries (SSCF) in many countries across the world has been well-documented in major studies published during the last 10 years. Researchers report decreasing stocks of marketable fish, inadequate fish quota allocations, and virtual exclusion from fisheries management decision-making bodies. The situation in England is a case in point, where many SSCF are subject to these pressures to the point that their livelihoods are threatened. A recent initiative sponsored by an industry agency to safeguard the position of the inshore sector aims to protect SSCF in England from decline and possible extinction by integrating it into the mainstream fishing industry and ensuring its representation on a proposed co-management body which would share decision-making between industry and government. However, drawing on the literature, archival documents, newspaper articles, and personal communications, we conclude that integrating all parts of the fleet together and setting up shared co-management arrangements is not a guarantee of SSCF survival because integration would tie SSCF down to the agenda of the large-scale fisheries (LSF) sector with no certainty that the special needs of SSCF would be met if they conflicted with the interests of LSF. Instead, our findings lead us to recommend forging a separatist path for SSCF, recognising its distinctive identity as an inshore fishery closely connected with coastal communities. We propose, therefore, two independent fisheries each with its own mode of management: SSCF governed by a regime of community quotas and exclusive spatial access to inshore waters; and LSF governed by a regime of individual transferable quotas (ITQs).