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Ocean sustainability for all requires deeper behavioural research

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Behavioural science can enhance ocean sustainability by providing insights into illegal fishing. Current enforcement criminalizes small-scale fishers and fails to address root causes, letting large-scale illegal fishing off the hook. Efforts to address illegal fishing would benefit from more holistic behavioural research.

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Fig. 1: Major drivers of illegal fishing, potential policy responses and ways to support small-scale fishers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Oceana for the financial support which made this work possible. The authors gratefully acknowledge that they live and work on the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecotrust Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Dyhia Belhabib

  2. Shackleton Research Trust, Palm Beach, FL, USA

    Dyhia Belhabib

  3. Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, USA

    Philippe Le Billon

  4. The Peopled Seas Initiative, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Nathan J. Bennett

  5. People and the Ocean Specialist Group, Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland

    Nathan J. Bennett

Authors
  1. Dyhia Belhabib
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  2. Philippe Le Billon
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  3. Nathan J. Bennett
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dyhia Belhabib.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review information

Nature Human Behaviour thanks Brock Bergseth, Jessica Ford and Mary Mackay for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Belhabib, D., Le Billon, P. & Bennett, N.J. Ocean sustainability for all requires deeper behavioural research. Nat Hum Behav 6, 6–8 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01256-9

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