Net Values

"Net Values offers an important and timely account of competing values around fishing and conservation. In contrast to many studies of conservation, the book is able to move easily between the perspectives of the Mexican fishing community, environmentalists, government officials, and other stakeholders. In the end, we come to understand the complexities of these issues. But perhaps more importantly, as the author focuses on values and decision making by all parties, we see what works, what doesn’t, and why. The book is hopeful in this regard as it does suggest ways beyond the current competing interests towards more equitable and sustainable practices, even if they are not yet realized in the case of the Lorento Bay National Park."—Jamon A. Halvaksz, author of Gardens of Gold: Place-Making in Papua New Guinea

"Drawing on two decades of interactions with a small Mexican fishing village, Peterson details the multiple challenges facing today’s artisanal fishing families as tourist development, environmental concerns, and the economic precarity of changing and declining fisheries resources shake up their families, households, and livelihoods. Her narrative demonstrates the complex social and cultural contexts in which commercial fishing families maneuver around fisheries policy and engage alternative opportunity to create and sustain value."—David Griffith, author of The Cultural Value of Work: Livelihoods and Migration in the World’s Economies