Net Values: Social and Economic Impacts of the Oregon Marine Reserves on the Fishing Communities of Garibaldi, Depoe Bay, and Port Orford.
This qualitative research surveyed fishing communities for their perceptions of social and economic impacts caused by displacement from the Oregon Marine Reserves.
It discovered five social and economic impacts each, which were combined to create three critical combined socioeconomic impacts:
Fishermen perceive negative social and economic impacts, but appear more concerned about a lack of positive impacts or the potential for negative future impacts. The study aimed to identify negative social and economic impacts produced by the marine reserves, which it did discover. However, fishermen spoke more often of potential postitive impacts that had not been realized or negative future impacts that believe may occur from the marine reserves.
Fishermen’s priorities of social or economic values are important to consider and complex. An equal number of fishermen prioritized the social and economic values of the profession. Even fishermen who claimed to be economically motivated reported the importance in their social values and some made connections between the two.
Fishermen’s social values contextualize perceived impacts from, and perceptions of, the marine reserves. Fishermen’s values (most commonly Self-Direction and Tradition) can frame social and economic impacts and perceptions in a way that provides simple understandings of them while also exposing more detail. For example, simply, the marine reserves were imposed on fishermen from outside their community and are built from a threat to their foundational value of Self-Direction. In more detail, the shift of fishing effort caused by the marine reserves is also a threat to Self-Direction as it reduces fishermens’ abilities to self-regulate the pressure exerted on fish stocks, avoid conflicts with other fishers over fishing locations, and maintain competitive advantages or compliance with regulations without incurring new costs.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) Marine Reserves Program contracted this research to satisfy their legislative mandates, and I also tailored it to satisfy a need expressed by the research communities for accurate representation. To accomplish this, I pioneered a survey method that allowed fishermen to self-select their social values to ground the framings of their perceptions. I then used interdisciplinary theories from social psychology and cultural anthropology to analyze the data. Finally, I hosted a community member-checking event to validate my findings and gather further insight.
This research produced a solo-authored agency report for ODFW to use in the decadal review of their program, and my master's thesis that includes personal reflections on my embeddedness in the research process and my situatedness in its findings. Additionally, the findings were shared though presentations at the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society annual conferences, with city councils of the surveyed communities, and in conversation with impacted individuals and the policy-makers who represent them. Finally, the research was also used to create targeted outreach to settle confusion and misperceptions about the policy objectives of the Oregon Marine Reserves.
