Appropriation of Marine Resources: from Management to an Ethical Approach to Fisheries Governance

Abstract

The new historical fragility or vulnerability of marine resources and ecosystems, induced by the industrialization process of “fishing down the food webs”, calls for a postmodern governance paradigm aimed at rebuilding the generative capacity of marine ecosystems so as to restore their resilience. In a highly turbulent and bleak context, this daunting task cannot ignore the ethical dimension, defined as the setting in order, the regulation of the human power to act in non-egalitarian and asymmetrical contexts. This process of rearrangement of the modes of use of the res halieutica requires crafting new harmonious relationships with the marine environment, by retailoring the space of the commons. Giving for keeping and the Noun graph suggest a design for a postmodern pathway to healthy fisheries which is particularly well-suited to the Mediterranean Sea.