ABSTRACT
So far in this volume, we have heard the voices of human actors and their engagement with the sea (see for example the last section). Our discussion of water worlds, then, are almost always human centred. But what of other actors at sea, the non-humans that often dwell below the surface? This chapter shifts the focus to the more-than-human world of the sea, focusing in particular on the role of non-humans in practices of fisheries management. Sea fisheries management has been increasingly characterized by a shift from government – the regulation of fisheries by sovereign states and international governments – to governance, whereby an increasing heterogeneity of state and non-state actors work together in the development and implementation of regulations. The constitution of such governance structures takes many forms, with non-governmental and for-profit institutions playing roles of varying importance. In spite of this increasingly – or ostensibly – inclusive approach, fisheries regulation and the debate that surrounds it remain, in many ways, relentlessly anthropocentric.
