Global fisheries are in crisis, threatening millions of fisher livelihoods worldwide. The way in which we manage these resources has the potential to greatly impact not only fishery health, but livelihood viability. This research aims to understand the socio-economic and resultant livelihood implications of resource management regulations, and how those impacts feedback to influence an individual’s resource use. I hypothesize that impacts are not uniform amongst stakeholder groups and only in identifying the varied impacts and adaptation responses can we begin to move towards developing more effective and legitimate regulations. I use the case of an annual closed fishing season in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, India, to investigate the consequences of this resources use regulation. Using a longitudinal sampling frame, I employ interview, survey techniques and seasonal activities calendars over the course of three seasons to understand how the seasonal ban impacts different stakeholder groups, how individuals adapt or cope with the impacts and how individuals modify their resources use to deal with restrictions. This dissertation is divided into three empirical chapters. The first chapter examines the distributional equity issues that have arisen as a result of the fishing ban. I find that not only is the harvest sector (as anticipated) heavily impacted, but it is also individuals from the non-harvest sectors who lose significantly during this time despite being largely left out of the decision making process. In some cases, those who lose the most are overlooked in government aid provisions. The second chapter examines the ways in which impacted individuals have adapted or coped with significant fluxes in their incomes and expenditures. Using the framework of intersectionality in feminist research I uncover that power, class and sex intersect to influence an individual’s likelihood of employing coping strategies that may threaten their long-term livelihood sustainability. Chapter three investigates how harvest sector individuals adapt their resource-use practices to accommodate the closed fishing season. I find that fishers adapt by shifting effort to unregulated time frames or to boat-types that are allowed to fish during the closed fishing season. These adaptations threaten the efficacy of the fishing ban but highlight the adaptability and ingenuity of resource users. This dissertation contributes to multiple areas of scholarship on natural resource management, refining existing literature by more clearly specifying how policy impacts vary depending on individual resource user characteristics. Response to the marine fisheries crisis is necessary. This research shows that the way in which we respond to this crisis may have both short and long-term consequences not only for fishery health, but for the millions of people world-wide that depend on fish resources for their livelihoods. Without a thorough examination of resource use history, socio-cultural aspects and local innovation and adaptation, the likelihood of unintended consequences arising from a management decision are high. These findings can therefore be used by managers to anticipate the potential consequences of management decisions in order to mitigate for the harms and maximize the benefits.
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