What You See Is Not Always What You Get: Aspect Dominance as a Confounding Factor in the Determination of Fishing Dependent Communities

Many residents of coastal towns believe that they live in communities that are economically dependent upon commercial fishing. However, employment data indicate that fishing is a relatively minor economic component of many of these communities. We apply the concept of aspect dominance from the field of ecology to help explain this discrepancy. In addition we explore other forms of ecological dominance in regard to perceptions of fishing dependence. A key idea is that residents and sometimes researchers confuse forms of ecological dominance with economic dependence. Our study relied upon secondary and key informant data for six Florida coastal communities. In addition, we conducted a random telephone sample with 1,200 residents of these villages to establish their perceptions of the importance of commercial fishing to their communities.