1 Associate Professor of Fisheries Economics, College of Fisheries, Mangalore 575 002.
2 Assistant Professor of Fishery Statistics, College of Fisheries, Mangalore 575 002.
Much of the relevant literature seems to suggest that cooperatives are the best suited form of institutional set-up for the management of fishery resources. The results of the present study on the role of cooperatives in the marine fisheries sector have shown that cooperatives have grown more rapidly in developed fish markets. perhaps because these markets are characterized by capital intensive fishing, centralization of landings, an oligopsonistic market structure and a high degree of market concentration apart from the government support through liberal financial assistance routed through the cooperatives. However, study found that neither was this aspect the mandate of even the developed cooperative societies, nor did the fishers expressed much faith in the ability of the cooperatives to effect rational resource management. It is suggested that such a resource management would be best effected by the community based fishermen's organisations. One difficulty with this approach would be that it would require a thorough change in the existing structure of property rights of the fishery resources.
