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II . Studies Concerning the Acceptability 

 of Fisheries Management Plans 



On the whole, efforts to manage marine fisheries have 

 failed. The basic reason is that proposals to manage fisheries 

 have been so massively opposed by the fishing industries of the 

 United States that legislatures and other Federal and State 

 agencies have not been able to enact viable management plans. 

 This is true even though management would greatly benefit both 

 the stocks of fish and the consumer. If the past is any indi- 

 cator, fisheries management plans under PI 94-265 must be made 

 acceptable enough to the people in the industry that they will 

 not invite such massive opposition that politicians are power- 

 less to act. 



One can, of course, simply ask people how they feel 

 about specific management plans, but the results are not apt to 

 be satisfactory. The answers one is apt to get will be entirely 

 negative. No one likes regulations. Moreover, survey research 

 techniques really tell very little about possible v/ays to amend 

 proposed regulations. In Maine, we have had the experience of 

 amending one fisheries management bill with the fishermen's 

 comments in mind, only to have the new version opposed on still 

 other grounds. The fact is that the reasons that people give for 

 many of their actions are not the real reasons. Moreover, they 

 may not be able to articulate what their real reasons are. 



When people oppose projects concerning planned social 

 change (in this case, fisheries management) there are usually two 



