ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that extraction—a key concern in critical resource geography—is always a more-than-human endeavor. Extraction, as we commonly think about it, prioritizes the agency of humans. However, as a conceptual orientation, a more-than-human framework is a generative one that attunes us to the different and differentiated material consequences of extraction. As an example of how the management of fisheries extraction changes relationships within the more-than-human, I examine the effects of Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) on the bluefin tuna fishery in Australia. ITQs led, in an indirect way, to the establishment of bluefin tuna farming as a way to maximize quota. This revolutionized the fishing sector as fishers become farmers and ushered in different more-than-human relationships. I argue that a more-than-human framework of extraction can help account for how material relationships are formed and reformed, as it also attends to the web of environmental connections between humans and nonhumans.