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As it is well accepted in scientific, policy, and public arenas, despite some successes global fisheries management has generally failed to achieve the biological, ecological, and socio-economic objectives of marine resource exploitation. The underlying problems leading to this failure have been reflected in the evolving nature of fisheries management and research.

The overexploitation of marine resources in the northern Hemisphere started after the Second World War. The main management measures in vogue at the time were largely technical, such as mesh size, minimum fish size limits, closed areas, and seasons. The impact of these measures was limited, overwhelmed by an increasing fleet size (both local and distant) and unresolved access to resources. From the mid-1950s to the 1990s, fisheries research and management developed along the idea that resources were deterministically predictable and thus …