大分県姫島の沿岸漁業における共同体基盤型管理

沖建網漁業の漁場規制を事例として

抄録

In recent arguments about fisheries management, the community-based approach has attracted more attention. The aim of this paper is to investigate the content and meanings of the fisheries management carried out by a coastal community with various fisheries, and moreover to examine the dynamic aspects of the management, considering changes in the environment and changes in its use. The study area is Himeshima, Oita Prefecture, an island whose economy has been highly dependent on small-scale coastal fisheries. The fishermen there have constituted the 'Gyogyo-kisetsu', a written code of fishing activities, under a fisheries cooperative association.
The case studied in this paper is the fishing ground regulations, that is to say, the spatial restrictions of fishing ground use on the offshore fixed gill net fishery in the Gyogyo-kisetsu. The fishery became popular in the late 1960s and detailed fishing ground regulations have been applied to it as the fixed nets occupy the sea widely.
Examination of the contents of these regulations reveals that they have been constituted and carried out mainly for adjustment between the gill net fishery and other fisheries. The operations of 'weaker' fisheries or conventional fisheries, such as the angling fishery, the longline fishery and the surrounding seine fishery, on important fishing grounds, have been protected by the adjustment. In introducing the modern gill net fishery, it was crucial for the community to develop regulations too enable the coexistence of old and new fisheries and to avoid conflicts. In addition, such adjustment has been sometimes related to the conservation of fishery resources and important fishing grounds.
On the other hand, the environment and the use of the fishing grounds where the gill net fishery is regulated have not remained static but have sometimes undergone big changes up to the present day. Distinct examples are the sharp decrease in sand lance and the decline of some conventional fisheries, influencing the state of fishing ground use.
Despite these changes, each fishing ground regulation on the gill net fishery has been kept in the Gyogyo-kisetsu up to the present day since it was established, even though its actual function or meanings can be somewhat flexible and variable. These facts show that the regulations have been maintained and carried out in an imbalanced relationship with the fishing ground environment or the fishing ground use affected by fluctuations. Examination of such dynamic aspects of the regulations indicates some vagueness or ambiguity inherent in the management carried out in the relationship with an uncertain environment.