Introduction to the Special Feature on rebuilding fisheries and threatened communities

Abstract

In this introductory essay to the Special Feature on rebuilding fisheries and threatened communities, we review the contributions of the researchers whose work is contained in this Special Feature. The essays are reviewed using the lens of the three questions that were posed by the Special Feature editors: Why is rebuilding so challenging? What is the relationship between fishery collapse/degradation and short- and long-term issues for food security, livelihoods, employment, and industrial and community resilience? How can we avoid situations in which the communities and people who may have contributed least to collapses/degradation end up paying the most for rebuilding and, indeed, may no longer be in a position where they can benefit from the results of their necessary sacrifices?

Keywords

• changing industrial structures and organizational and industrial strategies from ocean to plate
• geographic locus of key decision-making about fisheries management
• higher-level governance actions
• marine social-ecological interactions in the form of shifting ecologies