Fishing effort allocation and fishermen's decision making process in a multi-species small-scale fishery: Analysis of the conch and lobster fishery in Turks and Caicos Islands

In this paper we analyze the fishing effort allocation of fishermen in the artisanal fisheries of the Turks and Caicos islands (British West Indies). These fishermen use a free-diving technique to simultaneously exploit the l ocal stocks of queen conch and spiny lobster Using an integrated framework combining a set of analytical tools within a multi-disciplinary holistic ap proach, we attempt to identify the biological, economic, and social mechani sms which govern the fishermen's effort allocation between the two targeted stocks The analysis shows that the seasonal dynamics of the whole system a re essentially dictated by the very remunerative lobster fishery. Although this result tends to espouse the predictions of classical economic theory, a closer analysis reveals that the economic rationality approach does not e ntirely explain the observed fishermen behavior. Information from a series of socio-anthropological surveys shows that the fishermen's decision making is further influenced by collective and individual constraints related to the specific diving abilities required to operate in the two fisheries and by the socio-hisrorico-cultural environment within which the fishing commun ity has been evolving over the last century.