Author(s)

Abdullah Hilal Al-Balushi¹, Shekar Bose², Anesh Govender³

¹Oman Animal and Plant Genetic Resources Center, The Research Council, Muscat, Oman.
²Department of Natural Resource Economics, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.
³Department of Marine Science and Fisheries, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman.

This paper exemplifies a primary step towards eliciting primary and secondary stakeholders’ views on management issues pertaining to kingfish fishery in Oman, and potential options for effective management of the fishery using questionnaire surveys and focus group interviews. There was consensus from stakeholder groups which included fishers, fishery managers, and fishery scientists that the current stock condition is not biologically sustainable. It is found that fishing effort control and technical measures are preferred to catch control by both groups. The role of mass media and the traditional institution in communicating fisheries issues are found to be relatively minor. Although the overall rating on the comprehensiveness of the proposed plan is promising, there are significant differences between the two groups with regard to legislative arrangements (χ² = 24.793, p-value = 0.000), management goals (χ² = 16.206, p-value = 0.001), operational objectives (χ² = 19.884, p-value = 0.000), performance indicators (χ² = 15.524, p-value = 0.001), and measures (χ² = 13.483, p-value = 0.004). Policy implications of the key findings are discussed in both national and regional contexts. Management authorities can use these findings to design an appropriate plan of actions for achieving sustainability in this fishery.

Sustainability, Kingfish Fishery, Stakeholder Views, Management Arrangements, Oman

Al-Balushi, A. , Bose, S. and Govender, A. (2016) Stakeholders’ Views on Management Arrangements: A Case of Kingfish Fishery in the Sultanate of Oman. Natural Resources, 7, 251-264. doi: 10.4236/nr.2016.75022.