A Human Dimensions Portrait of Fisheries in the Pacific Islands Region: What We Know and Where We Need to Go

Fishery managers and Council members/staff in the Pacific Islands Region consistently state that the socio-cultural background of the peoples of the Islands, including the intimate relationship they have with marine resources, make the area unique from a management perspective. Therefore, we hypothesized that the Council and others would be actively supporting, through funding and other means, human dimensions research pursuant to the 20 or so federal fisheries in the Region. To partially test this hypothesis, we conducted a literature review and semi-structured interviews of scientists, managers, and fishermen in the Region. Our results indicate that the stated uniqueness of the Pacific Islands has not translated into a rigorous, managerially-relevant research agenda