Marie Lesueur

Fisheries Diversification: A Case Study of French and English Fishers in the Channel

In response to the increasing difficulties faced in the marine fishing industry, the concept of multifunctionality (as previously observed in agriculture) is emerging through a diversification of activities. Fishers may resort to alternative practices in order to sustain their activity by calling on new ways to interact with the environment, institutional players, scientists, local stakeholders and customers. This chapter outlines the preliminary findings of a study of fisheries diversification activities among English and French fishers in the Channel. A multi-method research approach is adopted consisting of an inventory of existing activities, and a survey of stakeholders in the Channel fishery. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to determine the relative importance that stakeholders attribute to constraints upon diversification. The results show that a range of fishing-related activities are currently practised in the Channel, although their scale and scope suggest that at present this is a minority activity undertaken mainly by inshore fishers. Stakeholders identified economic viability and administrative obstacles as the main constraints upon diversification in both France and England, although lack of opportunities was also perceived to be a key factor for English fishers.