The nature of Nature: conflict and consensus in fisheries management

Abstract

Using the example of the New England Regional Fishenes Management Council and its attempts tu manage the fisheries in its area, this paper argues that disferences in the way Nature "operates" constitutes a major source of divisiveness between, on the one hand, those members (and other managers in, say, government) who use linear modeling systems and, on the other hand, the majority of those in the commercial fishing sector who, intuitively, have cast nature in those non-linear terms currently being explored in the Chaos paradigm. Since these two different models have not been explicitly addressed, there is a history of members on each side accusing those on the other of bargaining in poor faith and lacking an adequate understanding of the resource. The thesis of the paper is that making explicit these underlying cognitive modes would provide more "common ground" for addressing management problems in such co-management arenas as the fishery management councils and elsewhere.