Engaging formal and informal institutions for stewardship of rockfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska

Examining relationships between formal and informal institutions for governing small-scale fisheries may reveal pathways for effectively engaging resource users in management. This study explored formal and informal institutions for management of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska. Forty-three experts (fishers and agency staff) were interviewed about their engagement with rockfish management. We analyzed interactions and gaps between formal and informal management institutions using the Inter-Institutional Gap (IIG) framework. Participation in the State of Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) process, a formal management institution, was viewed by some experts as more effective for enacting regulatory change, compared to informal institutions. However, fishers who were deterred from engaging with the BOF by complex bureaucratic processes tended to favor informal interactions with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) through visits to local offices and communication with port samplers. Formal institutional gaps identified by experts included transparency issues regarding regulatory decisions and/or interpretation, underrepresentation of recreational and subsistence harvesters in the BOF process, complexity of regulations, and bureaucratic barriers to coordination between the Sport and Commercial divisions of ADF&G. Informal institutions of self-governance, such as stewardship actions taken by fishers to reduce bycatch and minimize harm to incidentally caught fish, were identified by fishers and agency staff as important to rockfish fishery sustainability. Communication gaps in rockfish management may also be addressed by strengthening informal institutions that build trust and relationships between fishers and agency staff, such as collaborative research to coproduce knowledge about rockfish ecology.