We argue that fisheries that are overly dependent on a single
market or supply chain may be susceptible to disruption, even if the
fish stocks in play are healthy (Fig. 3). This dynamic is particularly
evident in the herring and dogfish fisheries, but by no means
unique to them alone. Plaganyi et al. (2014 : 7), describe numerous
examples in the Australian context to illustrate how “greater connectivity” and resilience in a supply chain, in the absence of
economies of scale, might show “a wide range of actors playing
different parts, and encompassing high capacity to shift and adapt
to shock.” Our examples in the Northeast US complement, but
qualify, their analysis, for the sheer number of players in the lobster
fishery, for example, has not helped lack of diversification in the
herring fishery. Working towards resilience in fisheries will require
more concerted efforts on the part of the public and private sectors
to maintain diversified seafood distribution systems and create
new systems where they do not already exist. One successful
example of such efforts may be seen in the lobster fishery where a
multitude of distribution systems at different scales and for various
lobster products have been developed