Social capital survey in groundfish

Quota allocations to groups of self-selecting permit holders (known as sector allocations) are increasingly being considered as a way to provide fishermen with greater control and flexibility in their fishing businesses while achieving efficiency gains. This new approach, which devolves substantial management responsibilities to groups of fishermen, represents a potential transformation in the relationship among permit holders as well as the relationship between permit holders and fisheries governance structures. A baseline of existing social capital in the groundfish fishery in the Northeast Region was conducted in 2010 by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. This survey, to be conducted twice over the next six years, will follow up on this earlier initiative and will enable researchers to measure the change in the types and strength of relationships
between groundfish permit holders in the Northeast.