Who Can Be Trusted to Manage the Fish? A Study Comparing Trust between Stakeholders

This paper investigates trust among stakeholders in fisheries management. We asked the general public, environmental bureaucrats, and recreational and commercial fishers whether they believed the other stakeholders have sufficient knowledge to have an opinion regarding fisheries management issues in a choice experiment they themselves had just been exposed to. We found that the general public and recreational fishers tend to trust bureaucrats, while bureaucrats distrust the general public. The commercial fishers deviate from the others with a high level of trust in own knowledge and low trust in all other stakeholders. The implications of low trust among stakeholders in fisheries are discussed.