Management approaches and tools to empower fishing communities

Fisheries provide an important cornerstone to coastal economies and heritage. There is a desire from across fishers, industry, stakeholders, managers and academia that these resources are managed sustainably taking into account stock resilience and persistence for future generations, conservation of ecosystems and the sustainability and equity of livelihoods and culture. This project will co-develop whole-system management frameworks to manage these resources in an equitable and sustainable way. The PhD will integrate research and understanding across the transdisciplinary themes of; co-development; the legal and legislative framework; the tools and technology required for implementation and enforcement; and modelling of outcomes across the environment, economic and social landscape. Outputs from the project will provide important evidence and knowledge for fisheries management across the UK with opportunity to directly influence the currently fast-moving UK fisheries policy landscape.
This PhD aims to provide co-management scenarios and solutions for inshore fisheries through the in-depth understanding of the needs, conflicts and values of actors in the system. It will also map out the legislative landscape identify evidence, data needs and investigate technology solutions to break down barriers to implementation. Potential management scenarios will be modelled using Cardigan Bay in Wales.
Project specific training will include; Personal sea survival, fisheries assessment methods, Law and social science research methods, GDPR course, Annual Welsh Scallop survey (RV Prince Madog), ethics for surveys, internship with Welsh Government, mentoring from Seafish socio-economics team and Welsh Fisherman's Association.