Properties, communities and robustness in the Yucatan sea cucumber trade network

Abstract

Understanding fishery market systems is vital to promoting the efficient development of small-scale fisheries. It can assist in the refocusing of public policy on goals beyond merely maintaining production, which promotes the construction of social capital that favors governance in environmental and/or economic crises. This study is an analysis of the Yucatan (Mexico) sea cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus) trade network examining seven ports; it analyses the social network to describe its structure, the communities within it, the actors and their roles (cooperative fishers, permit holders and traders), and its robustness. The analyzed network is a scale-free type in which 80% of sea cucumber trade actors are related to one of them and control 66% of the entire network transactions. It is a robust network that is resistant to random attacks but is clearly vulnerable to focused attacks. Descriptions are provided of the characteristics of its communities and of its subnetworks in the most important ports. The most relevant actors in system connectivity were identified, and the structural properties of the network were calculated. The results are presented comparatively between the original system and a simulated scenario where the most connected actor is eliminated. This study is an important baseline for later analyses of how the local sea cucumber trade network may respond to internal and external stressors.