Abstract
Small-scale fisheries have been associated with the subjective well-being of coastal communities through their links with culture, identity, and social cohesion. But although fish catches are usually considered the primary ecosystem service that benefits fishers, little is known about how subjective well-being is influenced by the fishing activity itself. Here, we applied the experience sampling method in two small-scale fisheries in Bangladesh to assess the effects of fishing on fishers’ occurrence of positive and negative affect, two measures of subjective well-being. We found that fishing activities were not directly associated with increased momentary affect and that the frequency of positive affect actually decreased as the fishing trip progressed. Furthermore, although very low catches were associated with less positive affect, the highest frequency of positive affect was achieved with relatively small catches. Our results imply that the benefits provided by small-scale fisheries to the momentary subjective well-being of fishers are not strongly related to the actual catching of fish.
Highlights
MethodsStudy sitesIn Bangladesh, an estimated 86% of marine catch is produced by artisanal fisheries (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2016), highlighting the importance and ubiquity of this sector nationwide
Small-scale fisheries are considered a pillar of socio-economic well-being for millions of people in coastal communities (The World Bank 2012; Teh and Pauly 2018)
Except for preparing to go fishing, fishing activities were not related to more frequent positive affect, even when meeting the conditions for flow
Summary
Study sitesIn Bangladesh, an estimated 86% of marine catch is produced by artisanal fisheries (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2016), highlighting the importance and ubiquity of this sector nationwide. The data collection took place in two different sites, one rural and one urban, to control for the effect of urbanization in the benefits derived from fishing (Lapointe et al 2021). The rural site in this study is Nijhum Dwip (Fig. 1), a remote island created by a sand alluvium accumulation and first colonized by fishermen in the early 1950s. Fishermen in Nijhum Dwip went on fishing trips during 4.2 ± 2.8 days per week, and mostly did one long (5–8 h) fishing trip per day. The Nijhum Dwip smallscale fishery is very risky; fishermen are often caught in monsoon storms with no assistance due to the lack of rescue fleet coverage in the area, according to the key informants, and there is no hospital on the island. Communities depend on money for certain goods and services, and at least one household member typically engages in some form of paid work, but all households are involved in subsistence activities
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