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Stakeholder: Consumers. A journal article entitled "Turning ocean garbage into products Consumers’ evaluations of products made of recycled ocean plastic" in Journal of Cleaner Production, 2018.

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Stakeholder: Consumers. A journal article entitled "Turning ocean garbage into products Consumers’ evaluations of products made of recycled ocean plastic" in Journal of Cleaner Production, 2018.

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products made of recycled ocean plastic

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Stakeholder: World Governments A journal article entitled "Are climate change perceptions related with plastic policy support? Effects of climate change skepticism, guilt, and efficacy on the acceptance of the plastic tax." Published in: PLoS ONE,12/29/2025.

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Stakeholder: World Governments A journal article entitled "Are climate change perceptions related with plastic policy support? Effects of climate change skepticism, guilt, and efficacy on the acceptance of the plastic tax." Published in: PLoS ONE,12/29/2025.

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Stakeholder: Coastal Fishers A 2022 article in Oceanographic magazine entitled "Overwhelmed by Plastic"

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Stakeholder: Coastal Fishers A 2022 article in Oceanographic magazine entitled "Overwhelmed by Plastic"

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We pulled up in the van, walked down to the beach and met the head of the local fishers who sat with us and offered us drinks whilst we spoke about the dire situation on the beaches. After meeting the local fishers and hearing their stories we walked around taking in the scale of the rubbish - we knew it would be bad, but we weren't expecting three feet of extra coastline, comprising of matted nets and discarded ropes. My crew and I were all wearing armoured wellington boots. It felt odd walking on a beach in such industrial footwear, but there was broken glass, burning nappies, plastic and bags wrapping around our thick ankles as we walked on the 'sand' and through the water.

Children were running around and playing football on the rotting piles. They must have been somewhere between six and nine years old and I suddenly realised that they had never know this as a clean beach - the rubbish had been completely normal for their entire lives. As I was walking up the beach with my team, one of the children cut his foot on glass whilst running after the ball barefoot. That memory is burnt into my mind, the child clutching his bleeding foot surrounded by rubbish and burning plastic. Children should be able to play on the beach without any worry of injuring themselves.

I wasn't hit by a smell the same way I had been whilst photographing scavengers on the rubbish dumps. The air here was different, it was fresh and with the scent of recently caught fish emanating from the boats and nets. This made it more frustrating to match the visuals with all my other senses.

We consistently felt the crunch of rubbish, bones and plastic under our feet where we should have been hearing sifting grains of sand. The waves rushed up to our feet, only to pull back and deposit plastic bags on our boots. The lines holding the boats to the shore covered in dripping plastic bags. It is one of the world's most beautiful places, almost totally ruined by plastic and rubbish.

Out at sea, the situation is just as bad for the fishermen - much of their catch is plastic. They told me that their nets need mending a lot due to the plastic weighing down the machinery and cutting the nylon. At the different beaches the fishers tended to catch different species depending on how far their boats could travel, the main catches tend to be Lemuru and Petek. Their catches have got smaller and smaller over the past ten years. The fishing community has seen the standard of life drop as the catches have reduced but as the catches aren't weighed or recorded, it wasn't possible to get figures. Some of the most common bits of rubbish in the ocean is fishing paraphernalia that has swept in from all around the world, because when a net is ruined or a rope becomes useless it is then often thrown overboard - ending up in other nets or washing up as debris on the coast.

we weren't expecting three feet of extra coastline, comprising of matted nets and discarded ropes.

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Overwhelmed by plastic: How pollution is impacting Indonesian fishers - Oceanographic

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Photographer Tom Barnes shares his experiences of meeting the Nelayan, the fishers of Indonesia, and encountering the extreme pollution on their beaches.

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Stakeholder: Corporations (who use plastics) A 2025 website published by Nestle entitled "What is Nestlé doing to tackle packaging waste?"

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Stakeholder: Corporations (who use plastics) A 2025 website published by Nestle entitled "What is Nestlé doing to tackle packaging waste?"

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A website page from the American Chemistry Council (2025) entitled "The Chemistry of Plastics."

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A website page from the American Chemistry Council (2025) entitled "The Chemistry of Plastics."

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Welcome to the New & Improved AmericanChemistry.com

Plastics are in products we use every day that help keep us safe. They are in bicycle helmets, child safety seats, and automotive airbags that protect us and the cell phones that connect us. Plastics also help keep the foods we eat and serve to our families safer and fresher than ever before.

Strong, lightweight plastics enable us to live better while contributing to sustainability in many ways-all of which stem from plastics' ability to help us do more with less.

Plastics help us protect the environment by reducing waste, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and saving energy at home, at work, and on the road. Plastic packaging helps to dramatically extend the shelf life of fresh foods and beverages while allowing us to ship more product with less packaging material-reducing both food and packaging waste.

Plastic insulation, sealants, and other building products are making our homes significantly more energy efficient, while reducing costs for heating and cooling. And lightweight plastics in cars can dramatically increase miles per gallon, saving drivers money at the pump.

Plastics not only help doctors save lives, they protect our loved ones at home, on the road, on the job and at play. And these advanced materials are helping make health care more affordable.

17.5 Billion pounds of waste potentially diverted from landfills annually as result of announced investments in advanced recycling since 2017

10% Reduction in vehicle weight can result in a 6% - 8% increase in that vehicle's fuel economy, according to the Department of Energy.

Explore Chemistries Critical to Plastics

Stay up-to-date and engaged with the latest industry-related news.

Chemistry in Everyday Products

Related Policies & Regulations

5 Actions Congress Can Take to Accelerate A Circular Economy

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Plastics are in products we use every day that help keep us safe. They are in bicycle helmets, child safety seats, and automotive airbags that protect us and the cell phones that connect us. Plastics also help keep the foods we eat and serve to our families safer and fresher than ever before.

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A USA Today News Article from 2019 entitled "Killer whale Lulu found with extreme levels of PCBs, may be 'the most contaminated on planet."

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A USA Today News Article from 2019 entitled "Killer whale Lulu found with extreme levels of PCBs, may be 'the most contaminated on planet."

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A killer whale found dead on the Scottish island of Tiree had one of the highest levels of PCB pollution ever recorded, scientists say.

Lulu, well known to researchers as one of the last surviving whales in the waters around Britain, died after becoming entangled in fishing rope in January 2016. The Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme and the University of Aberdeen conducted an in-depth investigation of Lulu's carcass and were shocked by the findings. The headline on its website called the killer whale the "most contaminated on the planet."

Veterinary pathologist Andrew Brownlow said studies have shown that killer whale populations can have very high levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB).

"The levels in this case are some of the highest we've ever seen," he said. "We know Lulu died from becoming entangled, but, given what is known about the toxic effects of PCBs, we have to consider (the contamination) could have been affecting her health and reproductive fitness."
Read more: 41 humpback whale deaths in Atlantic force fed probe Why whale and boat collisions may be more common than we thought SeaWorld's final baby killer whale is born at Texas park
Analysis of Lulu's blubber revealed PCB concentrations 100 times higher than the accepted toxicity threshold for marine mammals, the stranding scheme reports. High PCB levels are linked to poor health, impaired immune function, increased susceptibility to cancers and infertility.

Once PCBs get into the marine environment, they accumulate through food chains and are difficult if not impossible to remove, Brownlow said.

The investigation revealed that Lulu was at least 20 years old but apparently never reproduced, despite being much older than the average age for maturity in killer whales. Brownlow called Lulu's apparent infertility an ominous warning and said it is "increasingly likely that this small group will eventually go extinct." Lulu lived in a pod of about eight whales.

PCBs were banned in the U.S. in 1979. From the 1920s until their ban, an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were made for things such as microscope oils, electrical insulators, capacitors, and electric appliances such as television sets or refrigerators, the U.S. National Ocean Service says. PCBs were also sprayed on dirt roads to keep the dust down. Traces of PCBs have been detected in people and animals around the world.

Lulu's skeleton is preserved at National Museums Scotland. The stranding scheme was set up in 1992 to analyze and report data for all marine mammals, marine turtle and basking shark stranding.

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Killer whale Lulu found with extreme levels of PCBs, may be 'the most contaminated on planet'

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A killer whale found dead on the Scottish island of Tiree had one of the highest levels of PCB pollution ever recorded, scientists say.

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A 2019 New York Times News Article from the Business Section entitled "Starbucks to Stop Using Disposable Plastic Straws by 2020"

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A 2019 New York Times News Article from the Business Section entitled "Starbucks to Stop Using Disposable Plastic Straws by 2020"

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Starbucks will stop using disposable plastic straws by 2020, eliminating more than one billion straws a year, the retailer announced on Monday.

Instead, Starbucks, which has more than 28,000 stores worldwide, will use recyclable, strawless lids on most of its iced drinks. The Frappuccino is the one exception: It will have a straw made from either paper or compostable plastic.

The plastic straw, a once ubiquitous accessory for frosty summer drinks and sugary sodas, has been falling out of favor in recent years, faced with a growing backlash over its effect on the environment.

In the United States alone, an estimated more than 500 million disposable plastic straws are used every day, according to Eco-Cycle, a nonprofit recycling organization. Although plastic straws are made from polypropylene, a recyclable plastic, most recyclers won't accept them.

"Plastic straws are pretty small and lightweight, so when they're going through the mechanical sorter, they're often lost or diverted," said Sam Athey, a plastics pollution researcher and member of the Plastic Ocean Project, a nonprofit based in Wilmington, N.C., that aims to reduce plastic use.

That means plastic straws get tossed in the garbage, ending up in landfills and polluting the ocean.

It takes "about 200 years for polypropylene plastic straws to break down under normal environmental conditions," Ms. Athey said.

During that time, the plastic becomes brittle and breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, called microplastics, which can be eaten by organisms, she added.

Further complicating matters, when the plastics break down, their surface area to volume ratio increases, Ms. Athey said, "so they have the ability to attract and absorb more pollutants like BPA, which is a known endocrine disrupter."

It is difficult to know how many straws or straw particles end up in the world's waterways and oceans, but plastic straws are one of the most common items found on beaches, according to the Ocean Conservancy, whose volunteers have picked up more than 9 million straws and stirrers from beaches and waterways.

Image

Starbucks has introduced new cold-cup lids that will allow the retailer to stop using disposable plastic straws. The lids are currently in more than 8,000 stores in the United States and Canada and will be found in stores worldwide by 2020. Credit Starbucks

The movement to ban single-use straws has gained traction via the work of nonprofits, lawmakers and online campaigns like Stop Sucking and the Last Plastic Straw, not to mention a graphic 2015 video, viewed on YouTube more than 30 million times, that showed marine biologists pulling a straw out of a sea turtle's nose.

And it shows no sign of slowing down.

In Los Angeles, a Kickstarter campaign to develop "the world's first collapsible, reusable straw" has already drawn $1.9 million in contributions, and a documentary called "Straws," now screening across the country, examines the problems caused by plastic pollution. The theme of this year's Earth Day was ending plastic pollution; one of the goals is to eliminate single-use plastics.

This month, Seattle, the headquarters of Starbucks, became one of the first major cities in the United States to ban single-use plastic straws. Several cities in Florida and California have banned or partially banned the straws, and state officials in California are considering a measure that would prevent restaurants from handing out plastic straws unless requested by a customer. In New York, there have been recent proposals to ban single-use plastic bags statewide, and to outlaw plastic straws at eateries across New York City.

In areas where plastic straws are not already banned or limited, businesses like SeaWorld, McDonald's and Alaska Airlines are taking some measures to reduce their use.

Starbucks earned $22.4 billion in annual revenue last year, making it one of the largest businesses to announce it would eliminate plastic straws.

"By nature, the straw isn't recyclable and the lid is, so we feel this decision is more sustainable and more socially responsible," Chris Milne, director of packaging sourcing for Starbucks, said in a statement.

So far, the new cold-cup lids have debuted in more than 8,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada and will be in stores worldwide by 2020. The retailer's cold drinks have become increasingly important to its bottom line: five years ago, they made up 37 percent of beverage sales; by 2017, it was more than half, Starbucks said in a statement.

The pressure to avoid disposable straws has created a market for reusable straws made of materials like paper, silicone, stainless steel, glass and bamboo. Some of the businesses that have rejected disposable plastic straws opt for a compostable plastic straw. Environmentalists say those straws can be problematic, too. If they are thrown away instead of composted, for example, they won't break down.

But plastic straws were just a small part of the 335 million tons of plastic produced globally in 2016.

Scott DeFife, the vice president of government affairs at the Plastics Industry Association, said his organization encourages designing products in a way that facilitates recovery and recycling. Straws are not to blame; the problem is litter, he said.

"Plastic straws have legitimate and important uses, and banning them gives a false sense of accomplishment, which is more harmful in the long run," he said. "Our goal is to make sure that every product, no matter how small, can be properly recovered."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Starbucks Has Plan to Reduce Pollution, and Change Slurping Forever. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Starbucks to Stop Using Disposable Plastic Straws by 2020

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Starbucks will stop using disposable plastic straws by 2020, eliminating more than one billion straws a year, the retailer announced on Monday. Instead, Starbucks, which has more than 28,000 stores worldwide, will use recyclable, strawless lids on most of its iced drinks.

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A 2024 journal article from Environmental Microbiome entitled "Uncoupled: Investigating the lack of correlation between the transcription of putative plastic-degrading genes in the global ocean microbiome and marine plastic pollution"

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A 2024 journal article from Environmental Microbiome entitled "Uncoupled: Investigating the lack of correlation between the transcription of putative plastic-degrading genes in the global ocean microbiome and marine plastic pollution"

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A 2012 journal article from Polymers, entitled "Plastic Degradation and Its Environmental Implications with Special Reference to Polyethylene Terephthalate"

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A 2012 journal article from Polymers, entitled "Plastic Degradation and Its Environmental Implications with Special Reference to Polyethylene Terephthalate"

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A 2011 journal article from ICES Journal of Marine Science entitled "Fishery-dependent information and the ecosystem approach: what role can fishers and their knowledge play in developing countries?"

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A 2011 journal article from ICES Journal of Marine Science entitled "Fishery-dependent information and the ecosystem approach: what role can fishers and their knowledge play in developing countries?"

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Abstract

Mathew, S. 2011. Fishery-dependent information and the ecosystem approach: what role can fishers and their knowledge play in developing countries? - ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1805-1808.

An ecosystem approach to fishery management is as much a mechanism to deal with the impact of fishing on targeted, associated, and dependent fish stocks, and on the habitat, as it is to deal with the impact of habitat degradation from natural and anthropogenic factors on fishing. In developing countries, often with little institutional capacity for generating timely and reliable information for managing fisheries, effective integration of the knowledge possessed by fishers and their communities regarding, for example, oceanographic, biological, economic, social, and cultural aspects can contribute to an ecosystem approach to fisheries. The challenge is to identify and validate such knowledge and to create policy and legal space to integrate it into management, also drawing upon good practice in industrialized countries. An attempt is made to identify such knowledge, to discuss its salient aspects, and to look at the conditions under which its practical value can be enhanced and integrated into formal fishery-management systems in developing countries.
Introduction

As Johannes (1998) said, "Management should be judged by its fruits, not its roots". This is as true now as it always was.

An ecosystem approach to fishery management focuses on conservation and sustainable use of fishery resources. It deals not only with the impact of fishing on the living resources and the marine habitat, but also addresses human activities other than fishing. The inclusion of ecosystem considerations in fishery management is supposed to contribute to long-term food security and human development ( FAO, 2002). In relation to responsible marine fishing, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution 62/177 (dated 28 February 2008) encourages states to apply the ecosystem approach by 2010, especially to adopt and implement conservation and management measures to address issues such as bycatch, pollution, overfishing, and the design and implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs).

Several countries around the world have reported measures to conserve, manage, and develop fishery resources with due respect for the ecosystem and biodiversity. In all, 77 states, including 39 developing countries, had ratified the UN Fish Stocks Agreement as of 1 June 2010. More than 60 countries have national policies and legislation in place that totally or partially conform to the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries ( FAO, 2009a), formulated in 1995 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN. Both the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the Code are developed within the framework of an ecosystem approach. The Code further recognizes the importance of best scientific evidence, as well as traditional knowledge of resources and their habitat, in making decisions about the conservation and management of fisheries (Article 6.4). The Code, about small-scale fisheries, also highlights the need to investigate and document traditional fishery knowledge and to assess its application to the sustainable conservation, management, and development of fisheries (Article 12.12).

This paper addresses the need for more inclusion of fishers' knowledge in the management of fisheries and ecosystems. This need has long been recognized ( Ruddle, 1994; Silvano and Valbo-Jørgensen, 2008; Hall et al., 2009). There has been some progress in the field (see, e.g. Cinti et al., 2010; Zukowski et al., 2011), but more can be done, especially in developing countries. The views of fishers are too often ignored when they could be involved constructively in the management of their fisheries ( Ruddle, 1994).

Ecosystem considerations in fishery legislation and policy: developing countries

Several developing countries demonstrate ecosystem considerations in their fishery legislation and policies. These include Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia, Tuvalu, South Africa, Senegal, and Mauritius ( http://faolex.fao.org/faolex/faolex.html). Further, in relation to straddling and highly migratory fish stocks, the Report of the UN Secretary-General submitted to the 2010 resumed Review Conference on the UN Fish Stocks Agreement observes that developing states such as Kenya, Mozambique, Chile, and Venezuela have reported the relevance of the ecosystem approaches to the management of their fish stocks ( United Nations, 2010). These examples suggest that many developing countries are aware of the importance of an ecosystem approach to fishery management.

Large gaps exist, however, between the stated objectives of fishery management from an ecosystem approach and the actual implementation of management measures. This has been attributed to lack of capacity and political will ( FAO, 2009a). The 2001 Reykjavík Declaration on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem stated that the majority of developing countries face major challenges in incorporating ecosystem considerations into fishery management. It also noted that the scientific basis for this needed further development, because there was incomplete scientific knowledge of the structure, functioning, components, and properties of the ecosystem, as well as the ecological impact of fishing in developing countries ( FAO, 2002). Scientists should consider drawing upon fishers' knowledge, especially when scientific knowledge about ecosystem functions is insufficient to provide unambiguous answers to the problems of fishery management ( Ruddle and Hickey, 2008).

How can fishers' knowledge benefit fishery management?

Fishers are repositories of unique knowledge, and they need to be involved in the collection and evaluation of their experience and in its application to fishery management ( Johannes and Neis, 2007).

In a seminal paper published in 1978, Robert Johannes demonstrated how, in relation to the reef fisheries of Oceania, many of the conservation measures devised in the west were already used in the tropical Pacific. These included measures such as closed areas and seasons, limited entry to the fishery, fish-size limits, restrictions on taking seabirds or their eggs, and bans on taking turtle eggs or the animals themselves on the beach. The exploitation of seabirds was controlled because they were useful in locating schools of large pelagic fish such as tuna, dolphinfish ( Coryphaena hippurus), and sharks ( Johannes, 1978).

A reservoir of traditional and artisanal-fisher knowledge has been reported from several parts of the world ( Johannes, 1978, 2002; Kurien, 1988). This contains, inter alia, local knowledge about the time and place fish are caught, information on stock structure, spawning grounds and juvenile habitat, catch rate, and details of spatial and other changes in fishing effort and practices. In Australia, for example, the spawning migrations of barramundi ( Lates calcarifer) have been correctly observed by the Aborigines ( Johannes and Neis, 2007). Further, fishers' knowledge is used to identify spawning areas for cod ( Gadus morhua) and haddock ( Melanogrammus aeglefinus) in the Gulf of Maine ( Johannes and Neis, 2007).

Fishers' knowledge is useful in locating spawning aggregations, and so can help in the design of MPAs required by the ecosystem approach to fishery management. Such knowledge can be a unique source of information on changes in local ecosystems, and essential to the scientific understanding of the marine environment ( Johannes and Neis, 2007).

Fishers' knowledge can also reveal the status of fish stocks. It is the only potential source of information in areas fished out. For example, the local extinction of bumphead parrotfish ( Bolbometopon muricatum) in Fiji was recorded based on fisher observations ( Johannes and Neis, 2007). The assertions of tropical sea-turtle hunters that green turtles ( Chelonia mydas) returned to nest on the same beach over many years were dismissed by biologists for a long time until Archie Carr confirmed this behaviour in the 1950s through his turtle-tagging experiments ( Johannes and Neis, 2007). Scientific understanding of the growth rates, longevity, reproductive rates, and nesting frequency of turtles has greatly benefited from fishers' knowledge ( Johannes and Neis, 2007). Relying on fishers' knowledge to determine the status of the fish stocks saves time and expense compared with traditional methods of ecological census.

Some local fishery knowledge, particularly about nearshore reefs, could be largely exclusive to the female domain ( Ruddle and Hickey, 2008), as they often labour nearshore. Fishers' knowledge is not only confined to the biological, ecological, or oceanographic realms; it also includes informal or traditional fishery-management systems that enjoy considerable legitimacy among user groups. Traditional fishers are keen to see their own management schemes being recognized ( ICSF, 2009). Taking account of these systems could be useful in designing effective fishery-management arrangements at national and subnational levels.

Preconditions for fisher knowledge to benefit fisheries management

First, fishing communities need to be recognized as holders of relevant information and knowledge ( FAO, 2009b), which should be recognized as an important component in decision-making ( ICSF, 2010). Fishing communities may be formally empowered to play a major role in the fishery-management process. A good example is the Canadian initiative reported by Murray et al. (2006). Several arrangements of that type have also been reported from the South Pacific ( Adams, 1998).

Second, the customary law and the traditional institutions of fishers that contribute to fishery management need to be recognized properly. In a 2009 workshop on traditional knowledge and its relevance to fishery management, jointly organized by ICSF and the Government of Indonesia, participants from traditional coastal communities sought recognition of their customary law (called adat) in exchange for cooperating with the state in fishery management ( ICSF, 2009).

Third, governments and managers need to guarantee that approaches to the conservation and management of inshore fishery resources will be fair and equitable, developed in consultation with fishers, and within a framework of self-management or co-management (also see Haggan et al., 2007). This situation presupposes that viable organizations representing fishing communities or fishers exist at different levels, before cooperative or collaborative programmes of knowledge-sharing and research ( Hartley and Robertson, 2009) can be explored.

Fourth, scientists need to overcome their reluctance and limited ability to use non-specialist knowledge in combination with or instead of data ( Mackinson and Nottestad, 1998). Earle McCurdy, the President of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers' Union in Newfoundland, reportedly deplored the overdependence of fishery science on mathematical models and its poor reliance on the intuitions and experiences of fishers ( Mackinson and Nottestad, 1998). There were many instances during the Indian fishers' political protests against bottom trawling in the 1980s, when scientists argued against the observations of traditional non-trawl fishers on issues such as spawning time and the likely impact of trawling on bottom habitat ( Kurien and Mathew, 1982). Non-trawl fishers, for example, held the view that some of the commercially important species spawned mainly during the monsoon (June-August), but scientists disagreed and said that these species spawned throughout the year. When the non-trawl fishers expressed fear about the destructive impact of bottom trawling on marine bottom habitat, the scientists allayed these fears and said that wave action repaired the impact ( Kurien and Mathew, 1982). It has been pointed out that most scientists' assume that only data collected in a rigorous scientific fashion can be subject to statistical analysis ( Mackinson and Nottestad, 1998), but what is needed is to develop methods that can make good use of more-qualitative information, help to strengthen the knowledge-base of fishers, and put it on a par with what is considered to be scientific knowledge ( Kurien, 1996). Scientists need to accept that the local environmental knowledge of fishers is valid and can complement the rigorous scientific approach ( Mackinson and Nottestad, 1998), especially at the local level. However, at the population level, it is often the case in developing countries that there is no satisfactory assessment, scientific or otherwise. In these circumstances, fisher knowledge ought to be incorporated with such scientific information as does exist, to study local conditions in the first instance. Building on this cooperation may well lead to better understanding of fish-population and ecosystem dynamics in the long term. It has been observed that local ecological knowledge critical to the recovery of ecosystems often goes unrecorded and that it remains with indigenous, artisanal commercial fishers in many countries ( Johannes and Neis, 2007). Scientists need to make a concerted effort to tap this knowledge and verify its relevance in fishery management. In the context of developing countries, it has been observed that better recognition of this knowledge is a prerequisite for ensuring the participation of local fishing communities in fishery management, especially in data-sharing with scientists and for decision-making ( Kurien, 1996).

Fifth, scientists in government departments need, in exchange for access to the knowledge of small-scale fishing communities, to uphold the principle of reciprocity and render support to the requirements of those communities' livelihoods. The communities may expect to be assisted in seeking justice in relation to the use of natural resources, in situations where the threat originates from large-scale commercial fishing operations, or other competing sectors ( Mathew, 2003). Further, fishery departments at different levels are expected by fishers to defend and secure the livelihood interests of fishing communities. In this context, the integration of fisheries into coastal-area management would be seen as a priority.

Finally, mechanisms need to be established to guarantee that knowledge-sharing will benefit, not harm, the fishers. Knowledge-sharing ought not to lead to redistribution of fishery resources away from knowledge-providers to other fishers who may have greater political clout in influencing fishery-resource allocation decisions. Their knowledge shared with scientists should be used primarily to conserve and manage fish stocks and to protect the habitat for the long-term food security and human development of fishing communities. Conflict-resolution mechanisms need to be employed in situations where the economic interests of fishers are seemingly incompatible with conservation and management. The resulting benefits of improved fishery management ought to be directed more to the fishers and their communities who are providing the valuable information than to others. This presupposes establishing institutional mechanisms for co-management of fishery resources, as well as mechanisms for engaging the same fishers, along with scientists, in cooperative research. It has been shown how fishing-rights owners in Vanuatu willingly sacrificed considerable short-term catch benefits by subscribing to extended moratoria of up to 15 years on fishing for certain species, because they were assured that the benefits of making such a sacrifice would accrue to them directly ( Adams, 1998). Clearly, there is a risk for fishers in accepting such a long-term view, considering that the eventual outcome cannot be guaranteed. The acceptance of such a risk will depend on the degree of trust between the fishers and the authorities, including the scientists who are expected to predict the future.

Integrating fishers' knowledge into fishery-management systems

How do we integrate fishers' knowledge into fishery-management systems? The integration could take several forms. One example is the re-authorized 2007 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which provides for fishers to become involved in cooperative research and management ( http://www.nero.noaa.gov/sfd/MSA_amended_20070112_FINAL.pdf). This joint collection of fishery information is a significant development that needs to be examined by developing countries. Such examples need wider publicity. A second approach may be to make special arrangements in an ecosystem-assessment process, where holders of traditional knowledge can be invited to share their views on specific issues with the scientists ( UNEP and IOC-UNESCO, 2009). This can be done in the form of public hearings, or as part of a co-management system, especially in communities with long fishing traditions. The views of fishers, particularly on the status of fish stocks, spawning grounds, juvenile habitats, prey-predator relationships, changes in local ecosystems, and the impact of salinity and ocean currents on fish stocks, need to be sought. Scientists, however, would need to develop pedagogic tools to engage with fishers in these initiatives.

Another approach may be to employ the service of specialists, especially in the fields of ethnoscience, ethnosociology, and sociobiology, to document fishers' knowledge relevant to fishery management and to present their results at several stages with feedback from the fishing communities, so validating the eventual findings ( UNEP and IOC-UNESCO, 2009). These findings can then be used by scientists. In developing countries, useful capacity in these fields can be promoted through collaborative research, training, and exchange of information at different levels.

In this context, it is necessary to have quality assurance for any knowledge, whether it comes from fishers or from scientists. The coherence of fishers' knowledge with scientific data sources can be checked. When consistency is good, it may be assumed that both sources have a significant role to play in generating assessment conclusions ( UNEP and IOC-UNESCO, 2009). When inconsistencies are found, there should be earnest effort to identify the reasons for the discrepancy. If the scientific data hold up to comparative scrutiny, they need to be given greater weight. Any lack of consensus should be noted explicitly, with different perspectives and interpretations reported along with the implications for management. If traditional knowledge is to be used in an assessment, there need to be clear rules of engagement to explain how any differences between traditional knowledge and scientific data sources will be managed ( UNEP and IOC-UNESCO, 2009).

Fishing communities might consider their knowledge to be proprietary. National policies may be formulated to protect such knowledge as well as the groups and communities holding it. Awareness-building may be necessary to educate fishers about the value of the knowledge they hold. It ought also to be guaranteed that proprietary rights to traditional knowledge will remain with the providers ( UNEP and IOC-UNESCO, 2009).

Acknowledgements

John Kurien, Jackie Sundae, Brian O'Riordan, Chandrika Sharma, Ramya Rajagopalan, N. Venugopalan, and K. G. Kumar are gratefully acknowledged for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The comments of two anonymous referees are also gratefully acknowledged.

References

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Fishery-dependent information and the ecosystem approach: what role can fishers and their knowledge play in developing countries?

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Abstract. Mathew, S. 2011. Fishery-dependent information and the ecosystem approach: what role can fishers and their knowledge play in developing countries

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A 2019 USA Today Science Section Article entitled "Humans have produced 18.2 trillion pounds of plastic since the 50s. That’s equal in size to 1 billion elephants."

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A 2019 USA Today Science Section Article entitled "Humans have produced 18.2 trillion pounds of plastic since the 50s. That’s equal in size to 1 billion elephants."

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Humans have produced 18.2 trillion pounds of plastic since the 50s. That’s equal in size to 1 billion elephants.

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And we’re just getting started: Scientists say that by 2050, another 26.5 trillion pounds will be produced worldwide.

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A 2017 journal article from Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management entitled "Microplastics as contaminants in commercially important seafood species"

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A 2017 journal article from Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management entitled "Microplastics as contaminants in commercially important seafood species"

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A 2019 journal article from Energy Procedia entitled "Study, design and analysis of sustainable alternatives to plastic takeaway cutlery and crockery"

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A 2019 journal article from Energy Procedia entitled "Study, design and analysis of sustainable alternatives to plastic takeaway cutlery and crockery"

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 Stakeholder Matrix Issue: Ocean Example

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Example: Saving the Oceans and Building Consumer Trust