In Tuvalu, certain areas are fished by small-scale fishers and others by industrial-scale fishers, and the two area types would be managed separately. On average, the managers chose seven regulatory measures for future management plans of their fisheries. Widely different suites of regulatory

measures were identified and no two managers identified the same suite of measures (Table 3). Measures most commonly Selleck Ku0059436 perceived as essential for the future were minimum size limits, gear restrictions, licensing of exporters and fishers, no-take marine reserves and shortlists of allowable species. In a similar fashion to the nomination of regulatory measures, managers generally chose a diverse suite of actions to apply in managing their fisheries (Table 4). On average, they chose nine management actions to apply. Most of the managers chose to conduct fishery-dependent, fishery-independent

and socio-economic surveys to gain information on their fisheries. Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor All but two of the managers set the support of local governance as a priority. Investment in establishing active management advisory committees, legislation of management regulations and enforcement were viewed as priorities in almost all cases. Most (9 of 13) managers decided that education and communication with stakeholders should be an important part of their fisheries management strategy. Only two managers believed that restocking was

currently needed in their fishery. This study illustrates that financial, technical and human capacity can be severely limited in small-scale fisheries for implementing sophisticated, costly or time-consuming regulatory measures. Similar weak institutional Miconazole capacity exists in sea cucumber fisheries in East Africa and the Indian Ocean [36]. Pacific Island sea cucumber fisheries are a useful example that fishery-specific management solutions are needed because each has a unique mix of governance structure, technical and human resource capacity, prioritisation of management objectives, and health of stocks. Co-management should be advantageous for sea cucumber fisheries but the weak capacity in management institutions currently limits its application. Embracing an EAF will need a new management paradigm, in which decision makers accept much more conservative rates of exploitation to avoid overfishing and conserve vulnerable species. The new paradigm should also internalise monies from export levies and comprise a reorganisation of skills and human resources among management tasks and new regulatory measures that are adapted at regular intervals in light of re-diagnosis of fishery health from simple performance indicators. A broad, yet inconsistent, use of co-management was revealed across Pacific Island sea cucumber fisheries.