Abstract
Overfishing is a messy and contested term often associated with problems of numbers of people, particularly poor people, and something inherent in the nature of fisheries themselves. It has an intuitive appeal, implying something wrong and something that needs to be done. Although often grounded in science, when overfishing appears in policy debates in the Mekong its definition is rarely stated and the lack of evidence is readily acknowledged. Overfishing is one of a number of potential threats to the Mekong fisheries and there is a risk in overplaying the significance of overfishing, such that policy debates are limited and courses of action narrowed. In the face of current debates about fisheries in the context of water resource management, this article places the storyline of overfishing under closer scrutiny and seeks a more rigorous and nuanced assessment of threats and responses, less constrained by the confines of debates on "overfishing."
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 285-301 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Society and Natural Resources |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Keywords
- Fisheries
- Mekong
- Narratives
- Overfishing
- Policy