Report Examines Threat of “Roving Bandits” to Local Fisheries
Contact: Bob Steneck (207) 563-3146 ext 233; Jim Wilson (207) 581-4368; David Munson (207) 581-3777
ORONO, Maine – A recent study published in the journal Science by UMaine researchers and others has identified a growing threat to the health of local fisheries across Maine and around the world: the so-called “roving bandits” of the seas.
The designation “roving bandits,” first used by economist Mancur Olson, is used to describe long-distance harvesters and market forces that take advantage of resources in open fisheries that they have no local connection with and therefore no incentive to conserve. UMaine co-authors Bob Steneck and Jim Wilson have described the negative affect roving bandits continue to have on local fisheries resources and the health of marine environments in the paper, which they co-wrote with 13 other authors from Canada, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the U.S.
The report examines how open-access fisheries are affected by a phenomenon known as the “tragedy of the commons,” in which freely accessible resources are depleted by unbridled competition. Steneck, Wilson, and their colleagues argue that roving bandits not only lack the incentive to conserve marine resources due to a lack of investment in the long-term health of local marine systems, but also that the detrimental effects of their activities continue to increase as harvest and transportation technologies improve.
Steneck sees Maine’s urchin fishery as an excellent example of the economic and ecological damage that can be caused by a lack of local controls in the face of distant market demands.
“Sea urchins, sea cucumber, and elvers have all been boom and bust marine fisheries in Maine over the past decade – responding to strong Asian markets. The sea urchin fishery became a socio-economic and ecological tsunami that extirpated the world’s sea urchin stocks. Maine was just a small island in the way,” Steneck said. “The sea urchin fishery in Maine resulted in one of the largest ecosystem-scale changes in a coastal zone attributable to a single fishery. The ripple effects are seen throughout Maine’s 3,000-mile coastline. Those changes were evident a decade ago and will be with us long after the stock has collapsed. Maine’s 1,500 sea urchin harvesters are almost all out of business now.”
In addition to examining the economic effects roving banditry can have on a broad range of fisheries, the report points out ecological effects that can devastate the long-term health of entire marine ecosystems.
The report also suggests a number of changes in fisheries management practices that could help to alleviate the negative effects roving bandits have on local economies and ecosystems, and points out some critical changes that need to be made to local, national and international policy in order to help ensure the future health of the world’s fisheries.
“Sustainability is job security for fishing communities. We need to take a longer view in how we manage our marine resources lest we again become seduced by short-term profits driven by global markets offering top dollar to overfish our resource and degrade our ecosystem,” Steneck said. “On the bright side, our home-grown Maine lobster fishery is an excellent example of how local harvesters can develop a conservation ethic to preserve their resource for future harvests and for future generations of lobstermen.”