1. Growing populations
2. Poverty
3. Open access nature of the resource
4. A high dependence of fishers on the resource for food and livelihood
5. Sluggish economics
6. High level of unemployment or underemployment
7. Lack of ready alternative and supplemental employment and livelihood opportunities within the fishing community
8. Pressure to find additional fisheries resources
9. Increasing numbers of part-time and seasonal fisheries
10. Lack of management and enforcement
11. Limited transferability of and rigidities in the movement of use-specific capital and labor
12. Lack of credits and markets
13. Government policies that encourage capital investment and exploitation of fish stocks
14. Lack of institutional mechanisms for a coordinated and integrated approach to horizontal economic and community development blending fishery and non-fishery sectors
15. Lack of research and information