A Practitioner’s Handbook for Fisheries Social Impact Assessment.

Abstract

As United States fisheries managers develop and modify fisheries management plans that set catch limits for the Nation’s commercially important fish stocks, the importance of including and weighing the social impacts associated with changes in management has gained increasing attention. In recognition of the potential for social impacts, social impact assessments have been made a requirement of the overall environmental impact assessment process under the National Environmental Policy Act. To date, there has not been a standardized way of conducting and presenting a fisheries social impact assessment (SIA). In addition, there is a need for a template that incorporates existing data streams and identifies potential new sources of information while being applicable to a wide range of fisheries management decisions. The objective of this Handbook is to provide technical advice for NOAA Fisheries and fishery management councils to streamline the SIA process while fully capturing relevant social impacts. The Handbook provides a primer on SIA in fisheries, the purpose of an SIA, key elements that should be included in SIAs, and common types of social impacts associated with particular management measures. It also reviews the legal requirements for conducting SIAs and provides a set of best practices and analytical tools for conducting SIAs. In addition, it describes the relationship of this Handbook to NMFS Guidance for Social Impact Assessment.