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Fishery management is increasingly moving towards ecosystem-based approaches that integrate ecological and human dimensions of fisheries. Studies on the human dimensions (HD) of fisheries have increased in recent years. A gap, however, remains between the nature of available information and the information needed by fishery managers. Our paper addresses this gap for the Great Lakes fisheries. We explicitly explored information needs of fishery managers to better reconcile the supply and demand of HD information. Our study finds that managers need HD information in particular to demonstrate the achievements of management goals and to address management issues. In addition, understanding the purpose and timing of information is important in order to provide timely and relevant information as fishery managers identify distinct information needs for planning, decision-making, and evaluation of management. Fishery managers in our study were particularly interested in direct and indirect economic values of the fisheries as well as values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of users. Interviewed managers were not only interested in the status quo of these factors but also wanted to understand what influences and shapes them. In addition, fishery managers would like to understand the contribution of fisheries to ecosystem services in the basin including cultural values. Our interviews did not detect interest in information on long-term HD trends or the explicit need for interdisciplinary studies. Such information, however, would be critical to understand and predict changes in the human dimensions of the fisheries and to develop management strategies to cope with these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two nations, eight states, the province of Ontario, two U.S. intertribal authorities, and the binational Great Lakes Fishery Commission all play a role in managing the Great Lakes fishery. No overarching institution has the authority to compel cross-border cooperation. Rather, the fishery agencies adhere to A Joint Strategic Plan for Management of Great Lakes Fisheries, a voluntary, multi-jurisdictional agreement signed in 1981. This article provides a brief overview of the roles and responsibilities of the management jurisdictions and describes how the Joint Strategic Plan helps agencies cooperate across jurisdictional boundaries. The plan relies on four strategies - consensus, accountability, information sharing, and ecosystem management - to foster cooperation, and to operationalize collective action on both lake and technical committees. The plan is a model for multi-jurisdictional cooperation in a politically fragmented region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission, recognizing the importance of social impacts on Great Lakes fisheries and the shortage of information on “human dimensions,” launched a new research theme. It seeks to fill knowledge gaps in the areas of legal and institutional frameworks governing fisheries, constructing effective processes that better inform management decision making, and the role and impact of stakeholder involvement in Great Lakes fisheries management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fishery management is increasingly moving toward management that accounts for environmental and social dimensions. Such an approach requires the integration of natural and social science information into planning and decision-making processes. The actual integration of social science information, however, remains limited in many policy and decision-making processes within fisheries. Our study provides insights into factors that influence the intention to use social science information among fishery managers and the actual integration of such information into fishery management. Based on interviews with fishery managers in the Great Lakes, we find that the lack of social science expertise in fishery management agencies leads to multiple negative beliefs and attitudes, and subsequently a low intention to use social science information in decision-making processes. At the same time, the paper finds that more expertise in decision-making tools and basing social science on equal footing with natural sciences within fishery management institutions appears critical to advance the actual integration of social science information in fishery management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]