Case studies of shellfisheries in Latin America – Argentina.

PARMA, A.M.

Maldonado

Workshop; Impacts of climate, fisheries and governance in Latin American shellfishes; 2011

Small-scale fisheries targeting seabed (“benthic”) resources (“S-fisheries”) conform a category with well defined characteristics. The spatial structure of stocks tends to be mirrored by the dynamics of the fishing process and the geography of fishing communities. The significance of the spatial dimension explains the high diversity of tenure arrangements observed in S-fisheries: from loose access to access privileges based on a quota, a territory or a combination of the two. I discuss a typification of access regimes encountered in artesanal coastal fisheries of Latin America, and show how, in this context,the experience of the scallop fishery of San José Gulf represents one of the few cases in which individual catch quotas are a feasible, enforceable option.