Final answer:
The precautionary approach in fisheries includes strategies like abolishing harmful subsidies, creating marine protected areas, and granting access privileges to local communities to ensure sustainable fishing and prevent resource collapse.
Step-by-step explanation:
The precautionary approach to fisheries aims to prevent the unsustainable use of fish stocks and the collapse of ecosystems by applying mindful management practices. To mitigate the overcapitalization of fisheries and prevent collapses such as the western Atlantic cod fishery, several strategies have been proposed. These include abolishing capacity-enhancing subsidies such as tax-free fuel and loan guarantees for boat purchases, which contribute to excessive fishing capacity. The creation of marine protected areas is also advised, alongside designated access privileges for adjacent small-scale fishing communities to regulate and reduce fishing efforts. Such methods are intended to diminish the 'race for fish' and encourage sustainable fishing practices. These measures work against the tragedy of the commons, where a shared resource like a fishery is overexploited as individual fishers lack incentives to conserve the resource.