Development and Testing of a Fisheries Indicator Framework with Application to Analyzing the Distribution of Benefits with an Atlantic Canadian Fishing Community

Project 1.1 of the Canadian Fisheries Research Network (CFRN) is developing a draft fisheries evaluation framework. The goal of the framework (which has been developed in collaboration with members from industry, government and academia) is to provide the Canadian management regime with a set of metrics which will enable the regime to manage Canada’s fisheries holistically: where all aspects (ecological, social, economic and institutional) of fisheries systems are considered. The metrics (i.e. indicators) found within the draft framework have been anticipated from Canadian and international policy objectives. Specifically, there is an objective (found within the policies) that aims to measure how socioeconomic benefits are distributed within fishing communities. The purpose of this thesis will be to: a) examine the indicators developed within the objective and compare them against socioeconomic indicators found within the literature and b) test a subset of the aggregated indicators on three fisheries located on Grand Manan, NB. The selected indictors will be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. Secondary to the main focus of this research, historical timelines of past management strategies will be overlain on the quantitative time series for each selected indicator for each fishery.