ISSUES POSITION PAPER

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Anita Maurstad
Norwegian College of Fisheries Science
University of Tromso
Dept of Social Science and Marketing
Tromso, Norway

 

Issues Position Paper for 'Eco-Knowledge Working Seminar'

 

Dear organizers and participants

For my 'Issues Position Paper' I use a shortened version of an article to be published in a book edited by Barbara Neis and Larry Felt, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. Johns. The title of the book is not set yet, but my article bears the name: 'Trapped in biology' - an interdisciplinary attempt to present fishers' knowledge. The article deals with my main concerns regarding science's new interest in fishers' knowledge. Based on my own participation in an interdisciplinary approach to collecting and presenting fishers' knowledge of the local marine environment in northern Norway, I discuss how this approach may result in a narrowly defined scientific construction of fishers' knowledge. I particularly focus on how this scientific construction is influenced by the scientists' perceptions of what is interesting, perceptions that are informed by the sciences' relations to the established fisheries management. I believe these concerns should be dealt with methodologically, but I am not sure they can be fully resolved by research designs. I look forward to upcoming discussions at the workshop.

 

Introduction

After 100 years of development of scientific knowledge on fisheries management, many fish stocks are severely overexploited, and an evolving literature argues that fishers' knowledge should have a more central position in management1 . The benefits of doing so are mainly twofold: Fisher's knowledge of the local marine environment is seen as means to improve and complement the traditional knowledge base of fisheries management. Secondly, it is seen to increase the legitimacy of resource management institutions.

These prospects have been the point of departure for a research project in northern Norway involving four important parties: Fishers, a biologist, a social scientist and the existing fisheries management establishment. During 1994-1996, we, the researchers, collected fishers' knowledge in the northernmost county of Norway, Finnmark. The interdisciplinary approach to interviewing fishers was seen as necessary at the outset. Both questions and perceptions of answers are filtered through the lens provided by our scientific knowledge. Joining the forces of the two disciplines, we could enhance our possibilities of collecting, understanding and presenting this knowledge. Joining forces, however, implied negotiating a common approach to understanding fishers' knowledge. In the following I will discuss how this approach was informed by various interests and how these interests influenced what we came to present as fishers' knowledge. At the outset our focus was broad. It was guided by the interests of our respective disciplines, as well as interests formed by our experiences from former fishing activity. As the project developed, its scope was narrowed. This change could be explained by practical reasons. The project was pretentious, and time constraints did not allow us to find answers to all our questions. I argue however, that this is not the most interesting, nor the most important reason for the narrowing of scope. Rather, I will show how the change in focus was informed by the relationship between our disciplines and the existing fisheries management establishment.

 

Collecting fishers' knowledge

The fishing villages in Northern Norway are small and scattered along the coast. Some village hold five fishers, others hold 20, and very few are larger. Some places the distances between the local waters are far, other places one finds five villages within a range of 150 km. We started in a village at the very border of Russia, and drove westwards, aiming at interviewing two or three fishers in every village, dependent on the amount of fishers using the local waters. We obtained information on who to interview partly through the public records and partly through talking with the local fishing administrators. We picked informants that differed with respect to age, activity and vessel type. Having made a list of informants we wanted to talk with, we phoned them and asked for interviews the following day. Most interviews took place in fishers homes. Some were seated in fishers' cottages or on board their vessels at the dock.

Our initial focus was broad. On the one hand we searched for knowledge on local stock biology. On the other we had the question of what 'fishers' knowledge' was, and particularly how it was founded in the performance of the fishery. We thought that the best starting point was to question local activity and local biology, but simultaneously follow what fishers saw as important as well as how they reached these conclusions. By a somewhat open, unstructured focus, we would try to situate the project's particular interest in local stock biology in a broader frame and understand the social embeddedness of the biological information.

The first interviews went fine. We were immediately surprised by all the information we obtained in our interviews with coastal fishers of Finnmark. The talks on local amounts of resources centered on their presence in time and space, as well as the fishing pressure they were exposed to regarding number and type of boats and fishing time. We drew the information onto maps. A color-set of pencils had been purchased to separate between the different species. The color-set contained six colors. We found it was not enough - the local waters contained so many different resources. None of them was unknown to us, but we had not prepared for the detailed knowledge fishers had on the presence and behavior of various commercial and non-commercial fish resources.

We also started the process of learning what kind of knowledge system we were meeting. We saw how fishers gained their knowledge partly through experimenting, and partly through talking with other fishers. We saw that the experimental strategies differed between fishers, and so did their expression of what was knowledge. We met 'masters' and we met 'apprentices' in the sense that some were reckoned as knowledgeable, and others were not. We were to learn more about these and other social aspects of the fishery, but first we had to deal with some murky clouds appearing in our own relationship.

After each interview we were normally excited and thrilled by the ways things were running. One day, however, we found ourselves arguing. The biologist, Jan H. Sundet, complained that the interviews were not structured enough. We were interested in far too much, and we would never get through our list of informants if we were to go on like this. I liked our style, I found the many aspects interesting, and I thought absence of structure was a way to avoid guiding fishers to our scientifically biased want for certain answers. Sundet found that the unstructured form of the interviews gave little room for the biology he was interested in. Having recently come from an interview where the fisher had made many interesting comments about how the institutions for management worked, as well as how the relations to other fishers influenced his decisions in fishing, I did not see his complaint as relevant. I had been unable to follow up on the fisher's talk, since Sundet asked too many questions, I thought, on conventional biology.

Another matter was how to talk with fishers. I was trained to question all my assumptions. I asked fishers to explain things further by posing questions to which I thought I had answers, wanting them to express their own views. On many such occasions, Sundet would answer me - presenting the correct scientific answer. I was furious. I had not traveled 700 km to interview him! One time I took the discussion further during the interview: 'But how do we know this for sure - couldn't there be other explanations?' Sundet, being equally annoyed by my repeatedly asking what seamed to him to be stupid questions, answered: 'Some things are true'.

How to perform interdisciplinary work was a dimension we continuously had to deal with. We had a standing discussion on what we should do, and as time went by we were to gain multiple experiences on what we were doing. At that time however, we saw this first discussion as critical. It could imply that our interdisciplinary work was a wrong approach. The setting of the interview did not provide enough space for our two different professional perspectives on what was fishers' knowledge. We reconsidered our approach. We decided to be clearer as to what information we wanted, as well as how to gain it. We decided to go on with interviews because we did not have time for longer stays in each community. We also decided to set a more structured focus on local biology and local activity. From following what fishers saw as important, we decided to define the importance ourselves to a stronger degree. We stopped questioning how fishers obtained their knowledge. We no longer searched for what fishers' knowledge was, but decided to narrow our focus to fish' presence in time and space in local waters, as well as the fishing pressure this fish was exposed to.

We still saw the interdisciplinary dimension as fruitful. Acknowledging the difference in perspectives, we also tried to improve our cooperative performance. We structured the professional space we had with regard to dividing the time of the interview between us. To remind us of this during the interview, we developed signals for 'ok, your turn'. A kick in the leg meant 'shut up - this I want to follow'. With our new understanding of the necessity for professional space, this worked - although it did give some bruises.

We proceeded doing interviews together, the way we now knew was wise: Being polite, giving each other space - and sometimes fighting over it. We continuously discussed interpersonal and interprofessional aspects of our collaboration. At one point we found that the concentration on biology was too dominant, and discussed other communicative ways of dealing with this. We found that if the interview started with biology, the conversation would concentrate on it for the whole interview. Starting off with characteristics of the social world was a better approach. So we did. And went on.

At some point in time we found ourselves switching roles. While I was asking about fish biology, Sundet was dealing with the social characteristics. Amused by this, we saw our development from the initial problems as a success.

A factor adding to our success was that we were well received by fishers. After some initial skepticism, fishers appreciated that we, the scientists, came to talk with them. They gave many examples of encounters with 'ignorant experts' - referring to academically trained persons who saw themselves as knowledgeable, but who, for lack of knowledge regarding the fishery, could only give poor advice. It was strange to sit there and be one of these experts, but obviously not reckoned as one. The fact that we talked a northern dialect of Norwegian could be one explanation for not being regarded as such. The people of the North have for long suffered from a complex of being inferior to the South, and after revitalization in the 70s, the pendulum has now turned. To many Northerners it is the people from the South, and especially the experts, who are regarded as lacking the proper knowledge (Eidheim 1993). Our experience from former fishing activities also contributed to our success. We were regarded as knowledgeable in more than our scientific training.

We also saw our change in focus as successful. From that of the open, somewhat agnostic perspective towards fishers' knowledge, our project was now concentrated around two aspects - local biology and local activity. We no longer had the learning process of fishers as a main focus. Neither did we try to grasp the holistic nature of the fishery - how the fisher's activity related to other members of the household's activities, how technological choices and political aspects interfered, in short its broader framing. But we got a lot of information from fishers. Some filled in and enhanced the existing scientific knowledge on biological processes, like the stories on local migratory patterns of different species of fish. Other information was completely different from what Norwegian biologists previously have dealt with, like talks of 'motherfish', the influence of moon phases on the fishery, and how fish started to eat stones before they sat off to leave the local waters. At the outset of interviewing fishers we had been very interested in such talk, but now, having structured our approach, there was not much time to follow up on these aspects - they became 'curiosities'. We did get some stories, but in stead of exploring these, we centered the talks on local presence of fish and fishers - we sought information on local biology as well as local activity.

 

Writing fishers' knowledge

In our first joint publication (Maurstad and Sundet 1994) we talked of our project as a success. The occasion was a meeting in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Research on the cod, as well as other commercial resources in the North Atlantic, is organized through ICES, and Sundet's colleagues from the whole of the North Atlantic region were there. We presented a paper stating the importance of fishers' knowledge - focusing on the detailed biological knowledge the interviews had revealed. One concern though, was how to present it. We had drawn fishers' information on maps during the interviews. Publicizing these maps meant that fishers' oral knowledge would be in print, and we were hesitant to reveal this information. Fishers had told us of their fishing places, and in printing these locations on paper, we would reveal secrets. To avoid this, we exemplified our findings by presenting the biological information on a map of an anonymous fjord.

We discussed the problem of rights to fishers' information at the ICES meeting. Later we took the discussions further. We took them to seminars with colleagues, and we discussed it with fishers. We were given various reasons for not to worry. Some colleagues, both biologists and social scientists, said that this knowledge was too important not to publicize. The fight for rights in the coastal zone is increasing, and mapping the local fishery was a good way of documenting the ongoing activity. Others, among them fishers, stated that most knowledge of local fishing places was common to local inhabitants, and that which were not, we could avoid printing. To both arguments I protested on the grounds that knowledge was common within a cultural setting. Foreign travel agencies did not know the code of conduct, and this could imply future problems concerning property rights to local fishing places.

As time went by, I started to feel that my fear was exaggerated. My opposition towards publicizing diminished. I was fascinated with all the information we had received and my agenda changed: I realized that convincing my scientific colleagues of the value of fishers' knowledge would not be difficult. Scholars in the field already agreed to the necessity and usefulness of understanding fishers' knowledge. Besides, convincing more social scientists would result in little extra power for the cause - integrating fishers' knowledge into management. It was the biologists who had the 'red phone' to the conventional procedures of management. My line was never installed, and I had to use messengers to get my mail through. Using the biological knowledge of fishers and mailing it through Sundet was a smart way of convincing other biologists and management people, I thought. Mapping the knowledge of fishers was a particularly convincing approach. It would be a representation of fishers' knowledge that they very well could relate to. As Latour (1990) states, it would be a good 'immutable mobile' - a symbolic representation which was viable through time and space. It would be represented on paper forever, and be a valid proof of fishers' important knowledge.

In our next publication (Maurstad and Sundet 1998), discussions of the problem of the written imprint of fishers' knowledge were absent. We presented a map containing information about fishing places. It was not very detailed with regard to particular fishing spots, but I do not think this was the most important reason for the absence of discussions on publicizing. Rather, it was of such importance that it could not stay in our notebooks. It revealed 44 spawning places for coastal cod in the county of Finnmark 2. Previous scientific knowledge had anticipated the existence of 5 or 6 local stocks. Our results showed that this number was severely underestimated. Assuming that each stock has its own spawning site3 , 44 recorded spawning sites imply 44 different stocks. Our presentation of the 44 local spawning places for cod was a strong indicator of sub-groups of coastal cod and it had important management implications. Today the annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC) of cod is set on the basis of biological investigations of one stock of cod. From a biological point of view, the 44 spawning places indicate 44 stocks, thus 44 management regimes. And, since our investigations only counted Finnmark County, there would probably be many more local stocks to find, as our project developed to reach further south on the coast of Norway. Our project did not only generate interesting biological information. It was a real proof of the value of interviewing fishers. Finding the 44 spawning grounds through traditional scientific research would have been extremely costly.

 

Scientific construction of fishers' knowledge

Starting out from the idea of gaining a broad understanding of fishers' knowledge, we narrowed this focus as our project developed. We lost track of the relevance of situating fishers' knowledge in a social frame. I see this development as a result of a social scientist's and a biologist's negotiation of, not only what is fishers' knowledge, but also a future place for fishers' knowledge in fisheries management institutions. Our focus in the project, both initial and refined, is linked to our definition of 'allies', their interests and powers (Callon 1986). I found it hard to explain the management relevance of the questions and topics I were interested in. They were interesting for social scientists. I could deal with these issues and head towards a career in social science, but what strength would that have in convincing the established fisheries management that fishers knowledge should have a more central position? Social science is interesting to social scientists, but not necessarily to managers. Writing for social scientists is writing for another audience than the one who need be convinced. Rather than following the social scientific aspects I saw as interesting, I conformed to what the established fisheries management, with biology at the lead, wanted: Strict information on local biology.

The project generated interesting biological information. And as such it shows the value of talking with fishers. It generated a lot of information that was not known to the biologists. I came to see this information as useful for more purposes than understanding nature: Showing that fishers knew more than biologists on certain issues might convince Sundet's colleagues and management representatives into being 'allies'. The evidence could not be overlooked. Rather than putting effort into understanding the complexity of fishers' knowledge, it was best to leave this to other researchers, or later projects. The change was regrettable in that there were many social aspects we could not follow. But, in making 'allies' I saw no other option.

Fishers seemed to appreciate our focus. We were well received by them. They gave us biological information, and many advocated that they appreciated the fact that scientists asked them about local conditions. Perhaps many of our informants would agree to the way Bill Broderick expressed it at a workshop at St.John's, Newfoundland. Integrating fishers' knowledge into management was the topic of the workshop, and Bill Broderick, Inshore Vice-President of Fish, Food and Allied Workers, Newfoundland, stated that he was glad that it was finally recognized that fishers were "the Ph.D.s of the fishing grounds." My worry is that he is wrong here. When we, the researchers decide, not only what is interesting, but specifically what of fishers' biological information which is interesting, I would say that fishers are not the Ph.D.s, they are the research assistants of the fishing grounds. In light of the underlying goal of projects like ours, we must then ask: Will placing fishers as research assistants for the biologists have the effect of leading to better management?

I see the growing interest in fishers' knowledge as triggered by the existing resource management regime's failure to reach its goal of sustainable resource use. 'Fishers' knowledge' is expected to improve fisheries management, and the question is how this knowledge may contribute to our understanding of management of resources. If science is right, we should pursue fishers' biological knowledge. This will improve science and thus management. But what if science is wrong? What if our search for better management implies solutions sought beyond natural science? Holm (1996) stresses that the basic assumption for modern management regimes is that predictions are possible - that knowledge about human, as well as environmental impacts can be calculated. Continuing strengthening the existing system of management, as we do when regarding the solution as more biological information, indicates a belief in its success. But Holm criticizes this idea, and he asks: What if these assumptions do not hold? What if predictions are not possible? A regime with less omnipotent managers, low intensity in investments and large safety margins, would be better off dealing with such prospects, argues Holm. Wilson et al., (1994) take a similar approach. In criticizing the insecurity following traditional stock assessment, they advocate that focus should be set on how the fishery is performed; where, when and how people fish, as opposed to today's scientific focus on how many fish swim in the sea. By this we could learn more relevant information as to how to manage the fisheries.

The consequence of what these authors discuss, is a change in focus of what is fishers' knowledge from that of questions relevant for today's stock assessment procedures. It implies a focus on performance, on social aspects of the fishery. We thought we could deal with both the social and the biological in our project. We wanted biological information, but we wanted to situate the biological information in a social frame. The biologist was not able to do this on his own and worse: Neither was I, the social scientist. In retrospect, I see our belief in the task as naive. We could very well obtain information on biological and social aspects of the fishery. We learned about 44 local stocks of cod. We learned about code of conduct in fishing this cod. Fishers' knowledge is interdisciplinary. They know where the fish is and how it performs locally, but they also know of code of conduct. Customary law, practiced by fishers, is embedded in practice rather in formal juridical procedures. Their implicity and contextuality makes up a very different property rights system which is not recognized in Norwegian law and to a large extent ignored by scientists (Brantenberg forthcoming, Maurstad 1995, 1997). These biological and juridical aspects can be detected when studying the fishery. The problem is however, how to bring this information further, to the management bodies. The fishery management establishment is segmented and the experts in law and biology sit in different offices. Which of these doors do we knock to present the fact that fishers biological information is embedded in a informal system of law? There is no section that can handle any attempt to integrate knowledge on code of conduct with knowledge on local biology.

But it is important. Not only for understanding this knowledge, but for not distorting fishers' system of knowledge. Mapping fish' presence in time and space in local waters may influence fishers' rights systems. Fishing places means different things to the fisher and the researcher. For the latter fishing places represent hard data telling of an objective truth about the world. The fisher depends on this truth, but access to it is subject to an intricate system of rules of the road. A book with detailed maps might very well change these rules. We have copyrights of the content of the articles we write. What are fishers left with when we have written their story - the promises of science?

On the other hand one must question the power that such maps have for influencing the truths of the biological discipline. The data on 44 local stocks of cod are not easily available to biologists since they are published in a social scientific character. How could they be translated into biology? How many fishers need to describe a spawning ground before the ICES will acknowledge such qualitative information as relevant? I could follow up and ask: How many fishers need to suggest the influence of the moon, or the importance of motherfish, or other aspects that so far is not a part of traditional biological resource management knowledge, before ICES will suggest a research program investigating it further? And if they do, will they ever, with the existing scientific tools, be able to investigate these matters?

 

Conclusions

Setting focus on aspects defined by natural science as relevant, we deal with an excerpt of fishers' knowledge. Validating fishers' knowledge in ICES' institutions may lead to new truths, but most probably truths that support the existing scientific knowledge. A consequence of following the existing track is that there is a danger that instead of learning from fishers on how to manage resources, we teach them more about what is proper knowledge. Fishers have learned from science what is relevant, ever since science started manifesting itself. They have tried to speak the proper language, but when they name certain biological connections, scientists can easily dismiss this knowledge with reference to wrong facts, ridiculing the fishers' knowledge (Eythórsson 1996). Now, after interviewing them for a slice of their knowledge, they know more about the stock assessment knowledge, and can start to comply - if they want to be taken seriously, by the serious people. By this we do not get in touch with any new knowledge system. We only follow the path we know. So the paradox is that instead of opening up how fishers' knowledge can be relevant to management - in a way we are not aware of yet - we are in danger of lessening the opportunities of ever finding answers beyond the scientific we already know - on how to manage resources.

It is also a question of power. With science at the lead, and fishers as research assistants, fishers may be left with a weaker position than had they not had a place within the present management regime. If fishers are invited inside the management agencies on the grounds of acceptance of a small part of their knowledge, I think science's position as the truthful producer of knowledge might be strengthened further, and it may monopolize the search for, or creation of truths.

As should be clear by now, I see many obstacles to integrating fishers' knowledge into management practices. I do not reject the idea, though. Rather, we should continue, and learn from experiences so far on how to go about. I have been critical to many aspects of our work, but I have also discussed how our joint forces are fruitful. Our interdisciplinary work has taught us an important lesson of what we extract from fishers' knowledge, and that we have work to do in understanding our own knowledge systems as much as those of fishers'. As such, I see our project as fruitful. I became 'trapped in biology', but my interests in what we were doing increased during the project. At the same time as I was studying fishers' knowledge, I was studying our own. Through reflecting on how we managed our various interests through the project period, it was possible to see the more systemic aspects of interaction between social sciences, biology and fishers' system of knowledge, and how these interests are formed by the very institutions we are to present the knowledge for.

Unidisciplinary work would not have given these lessons. They would however, give time to develop specific professional aspects fuller. But unidisciplinary projects have limitations. I have criticized a strictly biological approach to translating fishers' knowledge into science. I am also critical to a strictly social scientific. Sundet is right in the outburst I referred to earlier: 'Some things are true'. As a social scientist with a constructionist perspective on the world this fact is hard to grasp. But as Johannes (1993) also points to, social scientists often know too little biology to deal with the biological information that fishers hold. Thus, I think the prosperous way to understanding fishers' knowledge and improving fisheries management lie in interdisciplinary work. But integrating fishers knowledge into management on the premises of existing management procedures may prove to leave the concept of fishers' knowledge little chance as a resource for understanding how to deal with management of fish and fishers. In interdisciplinary work on gathering fishers' knowledge, the dilemma is that the focus of social science seems to be of lesser relevance than that of biology. I see it as necessary that social scientists partake in this project, but carefulness should guide our future participation as social scientists. We are in danger of becoming the useful idiots - helping the biologists in drawing out aspects that they can use for their social construction of nature. My worry is that the meeting we help to arrange between fishers and scientists, will lead to the strengthening of science's position in management, this time justified by knowing it all - having incorporated fisher's knowledge. I think the most important lesson from our project is that we have just begun to explore how fishers' knowledge is a resource when it comes to improving management regimes.

 

REFERENCES:

Berkes, Fikret (ed.) (1989) Common Property Resources: Ecology and Community-based Sustainable Development. London, Belhaven Press.

 

Brantenberg, Terje (forthcoming) Samisk sedvane og norsk rett. In Ivar Bjørklund: Samisk ressursforvaltning og rettighetsutvikling. Ad Notam Gyldendal, Norway.

 

Callon, Michel (1986) Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. pp. 196-223 in J. Law (ed.): Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? Sociological Review Monograph 32. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

 

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Eythórsson, Einar (1996) «Men han tager som regel feil». Kunnskap og modernitet i den 'gamle' hvalfangstdebatten i Nord-Norge. Heimen bind 33;289-300.

 

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Maurstad, Anita and Jan H. Sundet (1994) Improving the link between science and management: Drawing upon local fishers' experience. Paper prepared for the 82nd International Council for Exploration og the Sea, 1994 Annual Science Conference, St.John's, Newfoundland, Canada, 22-30 September.

 

Maurstad, Anita and Jan H. Sundet (1998) The Invisible Cod: Fishermen's and Scientist's Knowledge. pp. in Svein Jentoft (ed): Commons in Cold Climate: Reindeer Pastoralism and Coastal Fisheries. Casterton Hall: Parthenon Publishing. (Forthcoming).

 

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Wilson, J.A., J.M. Acheson, M. Metcalfe, and P. Kleban (1994) Chaos, complexity and community management of fisheries. Marine Policy. 18 (4) 291-305.

 

NOTES

1. Freeman and Carbyn (1988), Pinkerton (1989), Berkes (1989), Jentoft (1989), Smith (1991), Neis (1992), Neis et al., forthcoming, Inglis (1993), Dyer and McGoodwin (1994), Wilson et al., (1994), Pinkerton and Weinstein (1995).

2. In ten of these sites there were no spawning today. According to the fishermen, these local spawning grounds were heavily fished upon by Danish seines in the 1960s - and early 1970s to such a degree that the spawning stocks disappeared.

3. A fish stock is normally connected with one particular area where the mature part of the stock migrates annually in order to spawn. One could question whether one stock may have several spawning sites, but no such evidence is revealed from the tagging experiments in these areas (Jakobsen 1987, Eliassen et al., 1993).