S124 JUAN C. CASTILLA AND MIRIAM FERNANDEZ Ecological Applications Special Issue S124 Ecological Applications, 8(1) Supplement, 1998, pp. S124–S132  1998 by the Ecological Society of America SMALL-SCALE BENTHIC FISHERIES IN CHILE: ON CO-MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF BENTHIC INVERTEBRATES JUAN C. CASTILLA AND MIRIAM FERNANDEZ Estacio ´n Costera de Investigaciones Marinas, Las Cruces Facultad de Ciencias Biolo ´gicas, Pontificia Universidad Cato ´lica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile Abstract. We discuss the issues of sustainable use and management in the Chilean inshore benthic small-scale (artisanal) fisheries. The fishery benefits from two features that make it possible to overcome some of the problems of conventional management. These are: (1) major advances have been made in understanding relevant ecological processes, and (2) this knowledge has been institutionalized in the 1991 Chilean Fishing and Aqua- culture Law (FAL). FAL legalizes the use of community-owned shellfish grounds, so-called ‘‘Management and Exploitation Areas’’ (MEA); this practice is considered to confer quasi- property rights to fishers’ unions. Management plans for these areas have to be approved by the government. This co-management approach solves one of the major problem in many fisheries: overexploitation. In addition, the study of the MEAs could provide useful infor- mation, if they are considered as ‘‘replicates,’’ in evaluating the effect of humanperturbation and different management regimes. We think that by using the different tools provided by the FAL on the spatial arrangement of the small-scale fishery and answering certain key ecological questions, the sustainable use of inshore benthic resources in Chile (e.g., gas- tropods, sea urchins, and algae) via an ecosystem approach can be achieved in the near future. Key words: Chile; co-management; community ownership; ecosystem approach; small-scale fish- ery; sustainable use; invertebrates. INTRODUCTION The problem of variation in catches and overex- ploitation in marine fisheries began to receive scientific attention in the late 1800s (Huxley 1884, Lankester 1884), primarily due to the development of more ef- ficient fishing methods (Smith 1988). On the other hand, natural fluctuation in population abundance ap- pears to be the rule rather than the exception in marine fisheries. Hjort (1914) recognized this factor and iden- tified some of the causes of larval survival and dis- persal. Ever since, this topic has been an important focus of study in fishery science (e.g., Ricker 1954, Beverton and Holt 1957). Major difficulties in under- standing recruitment fluctuation arise because inter- actions among species are unknown, and besides, most marine fish populations are open (Sinclair 1988) and under variable exploitation rate. These arguments can be found in almost all major fisheries (e.g., halibut (Hippolossus stenolepis): Thompson 1950, Burkenroad 1953; Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens): Pauly and Tsukayama 1987; California sardine (Sardina sp.): Sa- ville and Bailey 1980). In many cases, the underlying Manuscript received 20 February 1996; revised 15 Sep- tember 1996; accepted 15 October 1996; final version re- ceived 16 July 1997. For reprints of this Special Issue, see footnote 1, p. S1. problems still remain unresolved, primarily because of the uncertainty associated with recruitment dynamics (Hilborn and Walters 1992). However, little attention has been given to Lankester’s view on species inter- action and ecological processes governing ecosystem functioning (but see Hjort 1914, Burkenroad 1953, Paine 1984). The lack of knowledge about these pro- cesses is a major constraint in understanding the effect of fishing on population dynamics and ecosystem func- tioning (Lubchenco et al. 1991, Hilborn and Walters 1992). Furthermore, there are other issues related to fisheries management that need to be considered: (1) exploited populations are subjected to different histo- ries of intentional human ‘‘perturbations’’ that interfere with long-term ecological processes and (2) those per- turbations are the result of a combination of political, social, and economic factors. Besides, (3) management usually focuses on a single stock with no explicit in- teraction between its predators, competitors, or other environmental variables. In this paper we discuss some of these issues in the context of the small-scale (artisanal) Chilean fishery of invertebrates and the new co-management tool (joint management involving resource users and government; Hanna 1994) known as Management and Exploitation Areas (MEA) recently established in Chile (Castilla 1994). We use the example of an artisanal fisher Union