Colective subjects in the search of fishing sustainability: histories of a traditional fisherman’s community, V region, Chile

Abstract

At international and local level the fishing captures have been enormously increased during the last decades, generating the collapse of several fisheries. The traditional fishermen’s community testimonies in the Chilean 5th region, are concrete examples of this process. It was argued that these crises were caused by the “Tragedy of the Commons” and that it was necessary to establish Individual Tranferable Quota (CIT) to secure the ownership rights. The national version with the 19.713 Law, was the privatization of the fishing activity access by a “Maximum Capture Limit by Owner” (Límite Máximo de captura por Armador, LMCA) to the industrial sector and later, with the law 19.849, the “Artisanal Extraction Regime” (Régimen Artesanal de Extracción, RAE) to the traditional one. The mentioned laws expires in 2012 and the traditional fishermen should have a significant role in determining the new fishing management. Depending their subsistence on the marine ecosystems, they have true interest in the sustainability of fishing control.