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Abstract

BY ITS SHEER length alone - with its ten or so polysyllabic words - the title above should qualify this piece as a technical paper. A short title could also be: "Fisheries as Strategic Resources for Development." In any case, this paper must first establish some working knowledge of certain basic concepts to include the development process, strategic resources, and institutional arrangements. In a nutshell, I hope to demonstrate here that while satisfying the basic human need for food - thereby, contrib- uting immensely to the attainment of the goal of food security at all levels - fisheries assume strategic significance when treated in a broad space-time perspective. Then, we begin to think of fish not just as the commodity we see on our dining table, especially on Fridays, but also - and even more importantly - as a potent geopolitical factor in national development. Likewise, we extend our fishing horizons from the finiteness of inland waters, through the restrictions of coastal and traditional territorial - including archipelagic - fisheries, to the vastness of offshore marine areas under the emerging ocean regime of the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Tapping these poten- tials of our fisheries and other aquatic resources, however, requires a thorough understanding of national and international development processes, as well as strategic thinking on the part of our decision makers, adequate organizational capabilities and appropriate institutional arrangements, and the requisite political wil of our people, especially of our leaders.

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