The importance of emotional intelligence to fisheries management

There is a growing awareness that fisheries management is really about people management. It is about influencing the people who utilize and impact on the fisheries resources to behave in a particular way. It is also about utilizing the experiences of those people to inform and transform the fisheries management process, so that the goals of fisheries management maybe reached in a more efficient and cost effective manner. As a result of this understanding, fisheries management is evolving into a discipline that is paying more attention to participatory management of fisheries resources by placing increasing emphasis on utilizing fisher's knowledge. It is no longer accepted that Government officials or scientists have all the answers. Other persons need to be involved if we are to find workable solutions to our problems. If the above premise is true, then it is time that fisheries managers move away from relying solely on their technical skills and pay more attention to improving their people skills. This paper explores a relatively new concept, that of "emotional intelligence" and demonstrates that by improving our abilities to relate to people (that is our emotional competencies) we can indeed become more effective fisheries managers.