Turning the tide: towards community-based fishery management in Canada's Maritimes

Abstract

This paper describes a unique nongovernmental initiative, Turning the Tide: Communities Managing Fisheries Together, that is supporting community fishery approaches in Canada’s Maritime provinces and helping to build linkages between native and non-native participants in the fishery. The initiative has been motivated by the desire of participants for community-based fishery management and, in particular, the recent opportunity for aboriginal First Nations to enter the commercial fishery on a community basis. The paper describes the role played in Turning the Tide by three types of activities: 1) workshops, networking, and capacity-building; 2) exchange visits; and 3) development of resource materials. Finally, the paper discusses the need for grassroots initiatives such as this to be complemented by governmental policy and logistic support for community-based management.