Introduction: Social and cultural impacts of marine fisheries

The livelihoods and way of life of fishing communities globally are increasingly threatened as they struggle to cope with dwindling fish stocks and an increasing regulatory regime. However, the social and cultural aspects of marine fisheries are often overlooked in fisheries policy and management frameworks that focus on the biological and economic impacts of fishing in their efforts to halt the decline in key stocks. While this is understandable, sustainable fisheries are only likely to be achieved if management approaches integrate environmental, economic and social dimensions. In order to address this, and to explore conceptual and governance issues relating to the management of sustainable marine fisheries, an international conference entitled “It's Not Just About the Fish” was held in London in April 2011. This introductory paper provides a summary of the themes addressed and briefly describes the thirteen papers which comprise this Special Issue of Marine Policy. It is concluded that progress is starting to be made to address the important socio-cultural impacts of marine fishing on coastal communities worldwide. However, the challenge for researchers and policy makers is to work together to develop methodologies that allow the social and cultural values of marine fisheries to be fully accounted for and integrated into fisheries and marine policy.