Institutional Structure, National Power, and Knowledge in the International Governance of Fisheries

Abstract

Governing international fisheries seems, from a managerial perspective, as if it should be straightforward. Scientists tell governments how much can sustainably be fished, and governments use that advice to generate quotas. But, as everyone who reads this journal likely already knows, the relationship is never that simple. The three books reviewed here taken collectively offer different takes on why this is the case and, more broadly, on the relationships among states, scientists, and organizations, both intergovernmental and nongovernmental, involved in the international regulation of fisheries. The books cover different ground. One focuses on regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), another on a certification process run by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a private organization. The third is only partly about fisheries; it looks at European Union (EU) policy toward the oceans more generally. The fisheries the books look at are both international and domestic. The thread that connects all three is discussion of international fisheries. Leandra Gonçalves, in Regional Fisheries Management Organizations: The Interplay between Governance and Science, looks at the ways in which the institutional design of the science components within RFMOs affects the willingness of member governments of RFMOs both to accept the veracity of