Fisheries along the Eastern Black Sea Coast of Turkey: Informal Resource Management in Small-scale Fishing in the Shadow of a Dominant Capitalist Fishery Available to Purchase

Since the 1950s the Turkish Black Sea fisheries have been developing at a rapid pace. An important sector of small-scale fishing has evolved, parallel with the growth in the dominant capital intensive and technologically advanced fishing fleet. This article will illuminate relationships between the recent historic developments of the fisheries and the present management systems, especially as pertains to small-scale fishing. While lacking a historical tradition and legitimization, there have nevertheless evolved some forms of informal regulation in certain kinds of small-scale fishing during the last 20-30 years. This situation gives a unique opportunity to study which factors are decisive in producing the system. At one level, the informal regulations in small-scale fishing can be regarded as a self-contained system. On the other hand, the technological and economic discrepancy between small-scale fishing and capitalistic fishing is paralleled by a social and cultural closeness that limits the scope of these regulations. In a situation with increasing resource crises, small-boat fishermen's ability to secure a livelihood is threatened by possible limitations on their present levy to regulate access to marine resources in an informal way among themselves.