Legitimacy and compliance in Norwegian offshore Fisheries, Postdr.stip.

The issue of compliance has to an increasing extent been recognised as a critical factor in sustainable fisheries management. However, the issue has been little explored empirically, and there is little knowledge on the actual mechanisms of compliance, pa rticularly in offshore fisheries. This project focuses on offshore fishermen's subjective reasons for compliance and the conditions which underly these reasons. The project leader, Stig Gezelius, completed a project on legitimacy and compliance in Norwegi an and Canadian inshore fisheries recently, and this project plans to build further on that study so as to make a comparison with offshore fisheries. Central questions will relate to the extent and form of informal social control and social sanctions in o ffshore fisheries, the role of technology and effects of enterprise organisation. As proper answers to the research question requires deep qualitative data, and such data are extremely scarce in the academic literature in the field, the project will be based on ethnographic fieldwork on offshore fishing vessels. As the topic of the project is sensitive and requires extensive informant protection, principles of informed consent and confidentiality will be followed.