Fishery Co-Management and Social Innovation: The Case of Red Sea Urchin Fishing (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) in Baja California

Abstract

River fishing is a complex activity because of the many stakeholders involved in it and the multiple factors that keep it in an uncertain condition. However, there are an increasing number ofdocumented casesshowing how social innovation processes, both organizational and institutional, contribute to strengthening fishery management systems. This article has two central objectives: a) to visualize and prove the importance of bottom-up social innovation processesbased on the traditional ecological knowledge of fishermen and divers, and b) to contribute to the analysis of these processes from a theoretical-analytical framework emphasizing the social and cultural dimension of fishery management. The analysis has been constructed from the perspective of from social-ecological systems and social innovation, emphasizing the cultural dimension through qualitative methodology, specifically the ethnographical method. It was found that local ecological knowledge and customary institutional development are crucial to a social innovation system (sea urchin transplantation) in commercial red sea urchin fishing . This analysis is important because it emphasizes the role of organized fishermen and divers in the management of their fisheries. The article concludes that this bottom-up social innovation process contributes to regional fishing sustainability.