Co-management and communities in the Barents Sea fisheries

There have recently been several calls for "thicker descriptions" of how co -management systems work, taking into account the embeddedness of such syst ems in more general social relations. In this article, the relations betwee n co-management systems, various types of fishing communities, and complian ce in the Barents Sea fisheries are discussed. Functional communities in No rthwestern Russia and Norway, as well as the seafaring community constitute d by all "those at sea," all contribute to compliance. Moreover, the co-man agement perspective ought to direct more attention toward specifying condit ions under which such arrangements work, since there is no contradiction be tween this and an increased focus on human collectives.