GIS in Fisheries Management

Fisheries managers are increasingly confronted by an array of problems, and it is clear that most of these concern matters where there are variable disparities in the spatial domain. Given this spatio-temporal perspective, then the use of GIS would appear to offer a viable management solution. This paper reviews the basic challenges to the use of GIS in a mobile marine milieu, and notes that many of these challenges are based as much on confronting the human, fisheries-based organisational structures as with problem solving in the difficult physical environment. A brief examination is made of areas within fisheries in which GIS is currently being employed. Most attention is given to describing the practical challenges to GIS adoption for fisheries management, and to discussing and illustrating how these challenges might be overcome. The conclusion outlines some of the ways in which GIS is likely to be adopted in the near future for the improvement of fisheries per se.

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