Risk in Fisheries Management: From Rule-Based to Function-Based Management in Norway?

Great efforts have been made in order to manage the fisheries more sustainably, but so far, most of these efforts have failed. This is putting the welfare of current and future generations at risk. The fishing fleets have catching capacity that well exceeds the rate at which ecosystems can produce fish, and thus many fish stocks are being overexploited. One of the objectives of the Norwegian government is to manage the fisheries in accordance with sustainable development. Sustainable development and risk management are frameworks with some mutual qualities. In the Norwegian petroleum industry, risk management of Health- Safety and Environment (HSE) is based on functional or goal-oriented regulations. Functional regulations focus on the result without describing in detail how it may be attained, e.g. an acceptable safety level at a petroleum installation. This paper discusses the possibility of transferring experience and knowledge of risk management and functional regulations from the Norwegian petroleum industry into the Norwegian fisheries management in order to increase sustainability in the fishing fleet. An important research question is the connection between an acceptable sustainability level in the fisheries, and transforming the fisheries regulations into functional regulations based on management objectives.