Portal:GIFS/Intro

Fishing communities along the Channel and southern North Sea are facing challenges and changes at a time of strict regulation and measures to address the ‘crisis’ in fisheries. GIFS is major a project co-funded by the Interreg IVa 2 Seas programme (the GIFS project will be undertaken from December 2011 to September 2014)and aims to understand the socio-economic and cultural importance of inshore fishing to better inform fisheries policy, coastal regeneration strategies and sustainable community development by:

• Identifying best practice in coastal zone governance and marine fishing
• Exploring the social and cultural values of fishing places and communities
• Valuing the economic benefits of inshore fishing
• Understanding grassroots perspectives on inshore fishing through the ‘voice’ of communities
• Creating a ‘snapshot’ of fishing life at the start of the 21st century