Decentralization and local participatory arrangement are essential for successful fisheries governance. In EU member states, the persistent gap between macro-scale management systems and diverse conditions of local small-scale fisheries obscures the actual attributes and contexts of local fishing communities. This study empirically showcases a parallel process in Lesvos, Greece, whereby administrative decentralization at a higher level in the 2010′s accompanied the centralization and further restructuring of fisheries governance at a lower level. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 18 villages supplemented by spatial analysis of the demographic trends and an audit of the official records. In contrast to the socially rooted population concentration, local fishers and their villages in Lesvos are dispersed across the island, isolated from one another. Under such disparity, local fishers had formed fishery clubs (FCs) as mutual aid organizations since 1980s. Survey results revealed that FCs had multitrack development routes depending on their local situation. The geographical proximity of the villages and the spontaneity of fishers’ decisions had fostered representativeness and a sense of community among local FC members. However, national-scale administrative decentralization conjunctly has led to an island-wide FC consolidation that replaced all local FCs with a singular large-scale one. Both advantages and disadvantages of fisheries governance under a large-scale FC were perceived by local fishers. To avoid precariousness in such a changing situation, a lesson from Lesvos is to deliberate on the local contexts of fishers’ communities to secure their presence in a renewed governance system that may become more complicated rather than simply decentralized.

权力下放和地方参与性安排对于成功的渔业治理至关重要。在欧盟成员国，宏观管理系统与当地小规模渔业多样化条件之间的持续差距掩盖了当地渔业社区的实际属性和背景。本研究实证展示了希腊莱斯沃斯岛的一个平行过程，即 2010 年更高级别的行政分权伴随着较低级别的渔业治理的集中和进一步重组。在 18 个村庄进行了半结构式访谈，并辅以人口趋势的空间分析和官方记录的审计。与社会根深蒂固的人口集中相反，莱斯沃斯岛的当地渔民和他们的村庄分散在整个岛屿上，彼此隔离。在这种差距下，当地渔民自 1980 年代起成立了渔业俱乐部（FCs）作为互助组织。调查结果显示，FC 具有多轨发展路线，视其当地情况而定。村庄的地理邻近性和渔民决定的自发性培养了当地 FC 成员的代表性和社区意识。然而，全国范围的行政分权导致了全岛范围的 FC 合并，用一个单一的大型 FC 取代了所有地方 FC。当地渔民对大型 FC 下渔业治理的优势和劣势都有所了解。为了避免在这种不断变化的情况下不稳定，