Casting a net to better understand fisheries management: An affiliation network analysis of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission

Natural resource governance, and fisheries management in particular, includes multiple governmental jurisdictions and stakeholders. For many fisheries, however, an understanding of the numbers of organizations involved in management and the relationships among those organizations remains lacking. Using an email survey, we investigated the affiliation network of formal and informal relationships of Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) policy and decision makers (i.e., organizations involved in the management of Laurentian Great Lakes fisheries). The 63 respondents identified 1516 relationships with 149 organizations which provide numerous opportunities for groups to share resources and information. Important organizational roles that can be identified through network analysis include the coordinating role of the GLFC׳s staff and connections through stakeholder representatives. Informal relationships are an important aspect of the affiliation network with more than one-third of all relationships identified as informal relationships and 16 organizations identified only through informal relationships. Identification of affiliation networks could be a useful tool for understanding the connection between diverse stakeholder organizations and natural resource managers.