“Us” and “them”. Fishermen from Gandía and the loss of institutional legitimacy

This paper analyses, using a qualitative methodology, some of the possible causes of the recognised failure of fisheries policy concerning traditional fisheries. Through a case study in a Spanish Mediterranean port (Gandia), it concludes that the basic problem is the lack of legitimacy of political institutions for fishermen. Any attempt to implement an effective fisheries management must recover this legitimacy, by harnessing existing social capital of these communities through the adoption of new models of fisheries co-management and the revaluation of local knowledge.