Territorialisation processes in fisheries management

The fishing sector faces three big challenges: preservation of resources, resource management and control mechanisms, and competitiveness of the economic fishing sector and its social and territorial effects. Fisheries legislation searches for the principles of good governability; it aims at contributing to responsible fishing; and it wants to be considered compatible with a long-term global exploitation system of resources. In short, it tries to guarantee the long-term viability of the fishing sector. Access to fishing resources and the processes to adapt fishing capacities to the potentialities of stocks constitute the maximum priority with regard to fisheries regulation. However, its implementation underlines the emergence of several trends: the discrimination of some fishing fleets and the territorialisation of some fisheries. This paper deals with the consequences of this territorialisation, analysing the implementation of Regional Fisheries Organisations, as well as their formation and performances.