Abstract
Debate over how people behave in an open access environment is ongoing in both the social sciences and natural resource management circles. Central to this debate is the question of driving forces behind decisions and behavior toward natural resources within a given area. Using data from an artisanal shrimping community in Ecuador, I demonstrate that behavior in an open access environment, measured in terms of fishing effort, is responsive to both economic and noneconomic factors, the nature of which depends on the temporal scale at which behavior is being measured—hourly, daily, or amount of gear over time. These findings suggest that much of the observed variation between previous studies and corresponding data sets may be a methodological artifact, and the ensuing debates ultimately a result of different methodologies and scales of analyses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acheson, J. M. (1998). Lobster trap limits: A solution to a communal action problem. Human Organization 57(1): 43–52.
Acheson, J. M., and Wilson, J. A. (1996). Order out of chaos: The case for parametric fisheries management. American Anthropologist 98(3): 579–594.
Alcorn, J. B. (1989). Process as resource: The traditional agricultural ideology of Bora and Huastec resource management and its implications for research. In Posey, D. A., and Balee, W. (eds.), Resource Management in Amazonia: Indigenous and Folk Strategies, The New York Botanical Garden, New York: pp. 63–77.
Arriaga-M. L. (1995). The ranger corps. In Robadue, D. (ed. and trans.), Eight Years in Ecuador: The Road to Integrated Coastal Management, Coastal Resources Center, University of Rhode Island, Narragensett, RI: pp. 223–238.
Aswani, S. (1999). Common property models of sea tenure: A case study from the Roviana and Vonavona lagoons, New Georgia, Solomon Islands. Human Ecology 27(3): 417–453.
Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., and Damasio, A. R. (1997). Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy. Science 275: 1293–1295.
Bene, C., and Tewfik, A. (2001). Fishing effort allocation and fishermen's decision making process in a multi-species small-scale fishery: Analysis of the conch and lobster fishery in Turks and Caicos Islands. Human Ecology 29(2): 157–186.
Berkes, F. (1985). The common property resource problem and the creation of limited property rights. Human Ecology 13(2): 187–208.
Berkes, F. (1989). Common Property Resources: Ecology and Community-Based Sustainable Development, Belhaven, London.
Blandin Landivar, C. (1989). Analisis y Estudios Climatologicos en el Ecuador, Instituto Panamerica de Geografia e Historia, Quito, Ecuador.
Bower, B. (1999). The mental butler did it. Science News 156(18): 280–282.
Brainard, A. and McLain, D. R. (1987). Seasonal and inter-annual subsurface temperature variability off Peru, 1952–1984. In Pauly, D., and Tsukayama, I. (eds.), The Peruvian Anchovetta and its Upswelling Ecosystem: Three Decades of Change, Studies and Reviews 15, International Center of Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), Manila, Philippines, pp. 14–45.
Cañadas-C. L. (1983). El mapa bioclimático y ecológico del Ecuador, Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería, Programa Nacional de Regionalización (MAG-PROMAREG), Quito, Ecuador.
Christie, P. and White, A. T. (1997). Trends in development of coastal area management in tropical countries: From central to community orientation. Coastal Management 25: 155–181.
Cordell, J. (1974). The lunar tide fishing cycle in Northeastern Brazil. Ethnology 13: 379–392.
Doeringer, P. B., Moss, P. I., and Terkla, D. G. (1986). The New England Fishing Economy: Jobs, Income, and Kinship, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA.
Douglas, R. (1991). The commons and property rights: Towards a synthesis of demography and ecology, In Andelson, R. (ed.), Commons Without Tragedy: Protecting the Environment From Overpopulation—A New Approach, Shepheard-Walwyn, London, pp. 1–26.
Dubbink, W. and van Vliet, M. (1996). Market regulation versus co-management? Two perspectives on regulating fisheries compared. Marine Policy 6: 499–516.
Durrenberger, E. P. (1997). Fisheries management models: Assumptions and realities or, why shrimpers in Mississippi are not firms. Human Organization 56(2): 158–166.
Dyer, C. L. and McGoodwin, J. R. (1994). Folk Management in the World's Fisheries: Lessons From Modern Fisheries Management, University of Colorado Press, Niwot, CO.
Ellis, C. (1986). Fisher Folk: Two Communities on Chesapeake Bay, The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington.
Forman, S. (1967). Cognition and the catch: The location of fishing spots in a Brazilian coastal village. Ethnology 6: 417–426.
Gaibor, N. (1997). Socio-Economic, Cultural and Political Aspects of the Shrimp Aquaculture Industry in Ecuador: The Shrimp Post-Larvae Fishery Case, Masters thesis, Center for Coastal Resources, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI.
Gilman, E. L. (1997). Community based and multiple purpose protected areas: A model to select and manage protected areas with lessons from the Pacific Islands. Coastal Management 25: 59–91.
Gordon, H. S. (1954). The economic theory of a common property resource: The fishery. Journal of Political Economy 62: 124–142.
Grofman, B. and Pool, J. (1975). Bayesian models for iterated prisoner's dilemma games. General Systems 20: 185–194.
Guest, G. (1999). Global vision and local lives: Policy, participation, and coastal management in Ecuador. Culture and Agriculture 21(1): 1–13.
Hannesson, R. (1993). Bioeconomic Analysis of Fisheries, Halsted Press, New York.
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science 162: 1243–1248.
Henrich, J. (1997). Market incorporation, agricultural change, and sustainability among the Machiguenga Indians of the Peruvian Amazon. Human Ecology 25(2): 319–351.
Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the Wild, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Johannes, R. E. (1978). Traditional marine conservation methods in Oceania and their demise, Annual Review of Ecological Systems 9: 349–364.
Johannes, R. E. (1981). Words of the Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palua District of Micronesia, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Kollock, P. (1998). Social dilemmas: The anatomy of cooperation. Annual Review of Sociology 24: 183–214.
Maurstad, A. (2000). To fish or not to fish: Small-scale fishing and changing regulations of the cod fishery in Northern Norway. Human Organization 59(1): 48–57.
McCay, B. J., and Acheson, J. M. (eds.) (1987). The Question of the Commons, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
McDaniel, J. (1997). Communal fisheries management in the Peruvian Amazon. Human Organization 56(2): 147–152.
McGoodwin, J. R. (1990). Crisis in the World's Fisheries: People, Problems, and Policies, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Meltzoff, S. K., and LiPuma, E. (1986). The social and political economy of coastal zone management: Shrimp mariculture in Ecuador. Coastal Zone Management Journal 14: 349–380.
Merschod, K. (1989). In search of a strategy for coastal zone management in the Third World: Notes from Ecuador. Coastal Management 17: 63–74.
Montaño-Toledo, J. (1997). Historia de las Carreteras: Provincia de Esmeraldas, Ecuador, El Consejo Provincial de Esmeraldas, Esmeraldas, Ecuador.
önal, H. (1996). Optimum management of a hierarchically exploited open access resource: A multi-level optimization approach. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 78: 448–459.
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Phelan, J. L. (1967). The Kingdom of Quito in the Seventeenth Century, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Pinkerton, E. (1989). Co-operative Management of Local Fisheries: New Directions for Improved Management and Community Development, UBC, Vancouver.
Pinkerton, E., and Weinstein, M. (eds.) (1995). Fisheries That Work. A Report to the David Suzuki Foundation, The David Suzuki Foundation, Vancouver, BC.
Pomeroy, R. S. and Berkes, F. (1997). Two to tango: The role of government in fisheries co-management. Marine Policy 5: 465–480.
Preston, R. (1987). Education and migration in Highland Ecuador. Comparative Education 23(2): 191–206.
Quinn, N. (1978). Do Mfantse fish sellers estimate probabilities in their heads? American Ethnologist 5: 206–226.
Ruddle, K. (1994). Local knowledge in the folk management of fisheries and coastal marine environments, In Dyer, C., and McGoodwin, J. (eds.), Folk Management in the World's Fisheries: Lessons for Modern Fisheries Management, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, CO, pp. 161–206.
Ruttan, L. (1998). Closing the commons: Cooperation for gain or restraint? Human Ecology 26(1): 43–66.
Ruttan, L. and Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (1999). Are East Africa pastoralists truly conservationists? Current Anthropology 40(1): 621–652.
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., and Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month old infants. Science 274: 1926–1928.
Sen, S., and Nielsen, J. R. (1996). Fisheries co-management: A comparative analysis. Marine Policy 5: 405–418.
Smith, E. and M. Wishnie (2000). Conservation and subsistence in small-scale societies. Annual Review of Anthropology 29: 493–524.
Stoffle, B. W., Halmo, D. B., Stoffle, R. W., and Burpee, C. G. (1994). Folk management and conservation ethics among small-scale fishers of Buen Hombre, Dominican Republic, In Dyer, C., and McGoodwin, J. (eds.), Folk Management in the World's Fisheries: Lessons From Modern Fisheries, University of Colorado Press, Niwot, pp. 115–138.
Sumaila, U. R. (1999). A review of game-theoretic models of fishing. Marine Policy 23(1): 1–10.
Swap, W. C. (1991). Pschological factors in environmental decision making: Social dilemmas. In Chechile, R., and Carlisle, S. (eds.), Environmental Decision Making: A Multidisciplinary Perspective, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, pp. 14–37.
Teltscher, S. (1994). Small trade and the world economy: Informal vendors in Quito, Ecuador. Economic Geography 70(2): 167–187.
Thomsen, M. (1969). Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle, University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA.
Trawick, P. (2001). Successfully governing the commons: Principles of social organization in an Andean irrigation system. Human Ecology 29(1): 1–29.
Valiela, I. (1995). Marine Ecological Processes, 2nd edn. Springer, New York.
Vignaux, M. (1996). Analysis of vessel movements and strategies using commercial catch and effort data from the New Zealand hoki fishery. Canadian Journal Fisheries Aquatic Sciences 53: 2126–2136.
Warner, G. (1997). Participatory management, popular knowledge, and community empowerment: The case of sea urchin harvesting in the Vieux-Fort area of St. Lucia. Human Ecology 25(1): 29–46.
Westcott, G. (1998). Reforming coastal management to improve community participation and integration in Victoria, Australia. Coastal Management 26: 3–15.
Whitten, N. E. Jr. (1974). Black Frontiersmen: Afro-Hispanic Culture of Ecuador and Columbia, Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guest, G. Fishing Behavior and Decision-Making in an Ecuadorian Community: A Scaled Approach. Human Ecology 31, 611–644 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HUEC.0000005516.70903.18
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HUEC.0000005516.70903.18