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ABSTRACT Participation by stakeholders in fisheries management has become widely accepted. It is held that it increases both the effectiveness and the legitimacy of management. Many empirical studies of fisheries management, however, have found that political struggles over the profits from fishing drive management decisions. The present paper looks to sociological debates about agency, structure, and embeddedness for guidance in theorizing about the social dimensions of fisheries management in a way that considers both the need for participation and the political economy of the fishery. It argues that focusing on the effect that economic and political structures have on communications between stakeholder groups is one way to link participation and political economy, and we present the management of the Nile perch on Lake Victoria in Tanzania as a case study. The paper evaluates potentials for participatory management by asking how changes in economic and political realities affect stakeholders'claims about the resource, create social distances that affect communications, and privilege particular claims and perspectives. The paper concludes that management measures are undercut when they ignore the needs of groups excluded from the resource. Effective management of the Nile perch fishery is possible, but would require changes in the approaches of the responsible agencies.

The UNCOVER project 'Understanding the mechanisms of stock recovery' has produced a rational scientific basis for developing Long-Term Management Plans (LTMPs) and recovery strategies for 11 of the ecologically and socioeconomically most important fish stocks/fisheries in the Norwegian and Barents Seas (Northeast Arctic cod, Norwegian spring-spawning herring, Barents Sea capelin), the North Sea (North Sea cod, Autumn spawning herring, North Sea plaice), the Baltic Sea (Eastern Baltic cod, Baltic sprat) and the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Peninsula (Northern hake, Southern hake, Bay of Biscay anchovy). UNCOVER's objectives were to identify changes experienced during stock depletion/collapses, to understand prospects for recovery, to enhance the scientific understanding of the mechanisms of fish stock/fishery recovery, and to formulate recommendations how best to implement LTMPs/recovery plans. This UNCOVER report is aimed at a knowledgeable readership comprising, in particular, scientists, scientific advisors and administrators/managers in the fishery and environmental fields. The report provides an overview of the project's aims and scope, approaches and methodologies, and detailed documentation of the deliverables and results which places these in relation to current and emerging challenges, constraints and opportunities. UNCOVER emphasizes that it is essential to set 'realistic' long-term objectives and strategies for achieving successful LTMPs/recovery plans. It is recommended that such plans ideally should include: 1) Consideration of stock-regulating environmental processes; 2) Incorporation of fisheries effects on stock structure and reproductive potential; 3) Consideration of changes in habitat dynamics due to global change; 4) Incorporation of biological multispecies interactions; 5) Incorporation of technical multispecies interactions and mixed-fisheries issues; 6) Integration of economically optimized harvesting; 7) Exploration of the socio-economic implications and political constraints from the implementation of existing and alternative recovery plans; 8) Investigations on the acceptance of the plans by stakeholders and specifically incentives for compliance by the fishery; 9) Agreements with and among stakeholders. UNCOVER has provided imperative policy support underpinning the following fundamental areas: a) Evolution of the Common Fisheries Policy with respect to several aims of the 'Green Paper'; b) Contributing to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive with respect to fish stocks/communities; c) Furthering the aims of the 2002 Johannesburg Declaration of the World Summit on Sustainable Development regarding achieving Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) for depleted fish stocks. This has been done by contributing to LTMPs/recovery plans for fish stocks/fisheries, demonstrating how to shift from scientific advice based on limit reference points towards setting and attaining targets such as MSY, and furthering ecosystem-based management through incorporating multispecies, environmental and habitat, climate variability/change, and human dimensions into these plans.