Geographies of the Sea: Negotiating Human–Fish Interactions in the Waterscapes of Colombia’s Pacific Coast

Abstract

The realities of many coastal dwellers have been shaped by their interactions with fish and water along the world’s waterscapes. However, human and cultural geographers have largely overlooked how waterscapes influence coastal people’s behaviors and social interactions. Studies of geographies of the sea have acknowledged the importance of human–nonhuman interactions in the context of fluid ocean spaces and political economies. Critically engaging capitalist, industrialized perspectives of oceans, our article contributes to this literature to study how Afro-descendant small-scale fishers in the Gulf of Tribugá respond to intensifying neoliberal fishing regimes in Colombia’s Pacific coast. We do so by examining how fishers negotiate diverse representations of fish and how these influence their behaviors and practices over time and space. We bring the sea to the center of inquiry to investigate how the sociomaterial character of fish intersects with political, economic, and cultural forces and how they influence perceptions, access, and use of oceans. We argue that the scarcity induced by industrial fisheries overexploitation has changed people’s access to and control over fish and enabled biodiversity conservation discourses to marketize and transform fishing practices. This process has added value to fish through the creation of marine protected areas and the rebranding of fish in terms of traceability and “valued-added” sustainability. In this context, however, we highlight how fishers and their practices have endured through situated institutional practices despite being wrapped up in the complex power dynamics that have marginalized Afro-descendant people in Colombia since colonial times. Key Words: assemblage, Colombia, geographies of the sea, institutions, neoliberalism.