Achieving resource sustainability in complex social-ecological systems requires employing place-based management mechanisms congruent with the underlying temporal, spatial, and functional dynamics of the system in question. However, matching management to system dynamics can prove extremely challenging, as has been illustrated in Maine’s sea urchin fishery where fishery managers have struggled to resolve management spatial scale mismatch for over two decades. In Maine, the spatial scale of management far exceeds the relevant spatial dynamics of the urchin resource and leaves fine-scale urchin aggregations in a de facto open access state. These conditions facilitated the serial overharvest of urchin aggregations and resulted in the substantial loss of viable urchin habitat as overharvested areas transitioned to kelp-dominated ecosystem states that inhibit urchin recruitment. Although fishery actors contemplated adopting a number of fine-scale management alternatives to enhance social-ecological fit in the fishery, to date, no such alternatives have been employed. We adopted an ethnographic research approach and conducted semi-structured key informant interviews, document analysis of archived meeting minutes, and participant observation at co-management meetings and restoration events to explore these dynamics from the fishery’s incipience to the present. Following data analysis, we employed Ostrom’s social-ecological systems framework as a diagnostic tool to identify the factors that have influenced management spatial fit in the urchin fishery. Research findings suggest that a number of interacting variables, including harvesters’ heterogeneity and conflicting mental models of the SES, low levels of trust and social capital, and changes in the resource system following collapse impeded collective action necessary to support fine-scale management. However, changing leadership characteristics and increasing horizontal collaboration between harvesters and scientists have positively influenced governance outcomes in recent years and provide a window of opportunity to transition towards a more adaptive and collaborative governance arrangement conducive to addressing problems of fit in the urchin fishery.

中文翻译：

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寻求可持续发展：利用Ostrom的SESF探索缅因州海胆渔业的空间适应性

要在复杂的社会生态系统中实现资源的可持续性，就需要采用与相关系统的基本时空，空间和功能动态相适应的基于场所的管理机制。但是，将管理与系统动力学相匹配可能会极具挑战性，缅因州的海胆渔业就证明了这一点，在此海域中，渔业经理们努力解决管理空间规模不匹配问题已有二十多年了。在缅因州，管理的空间规模远远超过了海胆资源的相关空间动态，并使小规模的海胆聚集处于事实上的开放访问状态。这些条件促进了海胆聚集的连续过度收获，并导致过度生存的区域过渡到以海带为主的生态系统状态，从而抑制了海胆的募集，海胆栖息地的大量丧失。尽管渔业行动者考虑采用许多精细的管理替代方案以增强渔业中的社会生态适应性，但迄今为止，还没有采用这种替代方案。我们采用了人种志研究方法，并进行了半结构化关键知情人访谈，存档会议记录的文件分析以及在共同管理会议和恢复活动中的参与者观察，以探讨从渔业初期到现在的这些动态。经过数据分析，我们将Ostrom的社会生态系统框架用作诊断工具，以识别影响海胆渔业管理空间适应性的因素。研究结果表明，许多相互作用的变量，包括收割者的异质性和SES的思维模式冲突，信任和社会资本水平低下以及崩溃后资源系统的变化，阻碍了支持精细管理的集体行动。但是，近年来领导者特征的变化和收割者与科学家之间日益增加的横向合作对治理成果产生了积极影响，并为向适应性更强，协作性的治理安排过渡提供了机会，从而有利于解决海胆渔业的适宜性问题。