Artisanal Communities Research Articles

Effect of Traditional Textile Techniques on Modern Fashion Design in Nigeria

Purpose: The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of traditional textile techniques on modern fashion design in Nigeria. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Traditional textile techniques in Nigeria, such as adire (tie-dye), akwete weaving, and aso-oke fabric, have significantly influenced modern fashion design. These indigenous methods, known for their intricate patterns and vibrant colors, are increasingly incorporated into contemporary fashion by Nigerian designers. The use of traditional techniques adds cultural depth and authenticity, appealing to both local and international audiences. Modern designers blend these age-old methods with contemporary styles, creating innovative and unique fashion pieces that reflect Nigeria’s rich heritage. This fusion has not only revitalized traditional craftsmanship but also positioned Nigeria as a global hub for Afrocentric fashion. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Cultural identity theory, sustainable fashion theory & brand equity theory may be used to anchor future studies on the effect of traditional textile techniques on modern fashion design in Nigeria. Fashion designers should collaborate with local artisans who specialize in traditional textile techniques. Policymakers should develop initiatives that support artisanal communities involved in traditional textile production.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as Occupational Empowerment Needs of Artisan for Community Development in Imo State

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become a potential tool for empowering individuals for social, economic and political transformation globally. Artisans need to be advanced in ICT especially in developing nations like Nigeria where artisan are dramatically underrepresented in the ICT field. This paper examines the profound influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on artisanal communities in Imo State. It specifically focuses on how ICT serves as a catalyst for both occupational empowerment and community development. The study delves into the distinctive requirements of artisans, exploring how interventions in ICT can effectively address these needs. This includes enhancing skill sets, providing access to markets, and ensuring financial sustainability. Through a comprehensive analysis of the current situation in Imo State, the paper proposes strategic initiatives. These initiatives are designed to harness the full potential of ICT, creating a positive impact on artisans and, consequently, contributing to overall community development. The amalgamation of perspectives presented in this paper aims to offer valuable insights for policymakers, community leaders, and stakeholders. The goal is to assist them in developing targeted strategies that optimize ICT for the holistic empowerment of artisans, fostering sustainable socio-economic growth in the region. Artisans are bedrock of manpower at rural economy, paying this role effectively for rural community development in this 21st century needed adequate empowerment in which ICTs is prerequisite. ICT gives artisans a lot of chances by fostering an environment that supports their professional empowerment and sense of self-actualization.

Gendered Labor in the Artisanal Industry: Uncovering the lives, histories, and conditions of women and artisans in India and Guatemala

This research paper offers an analysis of gendered labor and its effects on the female artisanal industry in India and Guatemala. In this study I examine the meaning of gendered labor and how historical and socio-cultural influences impact gendered labor in these artisanal communities. My research revolves around three primary areas of focus: grassroots movements, government policies, and fiscal measures that support female artisans. I conclude with the importance of preserving traditional artisanal communities for employment purposes and for future generations. I advocate for the advancement and empowerment of women artisans and aim to delve into the complex interplay between gender, labor, and traditional craftsmanship in diverse cultural contexts, while citing real life case studies and examples.

Women's entrepreneurial resistance to the COVID-19 pandemic inside handloom family enterprises: a case study of West Bengal, India

PurposeIn light of the COVID-19 pandemic's economic effects, this paper focuses on how home-based women artisans running their family businesses plan their operations to function in the “new normal” environment. The paper emphasises the adaptability and reorientation of business strategies displayed by women entrepreneurs in response to the changing work environment. The paper argues that the women's sense of agency after years of running the family business enables them to bargain and offer passive resistance to the family's power, with the latter aiming to curtail their entrepreneurial gains as the men return to their homes after losing their jobs with the onset of the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe research draws from a qualitative study that was conducted employing field surveys and in-depth interviews with the women entrepreneurs in four important handloom clusters in Nadia, West Bengal (India) in 2022. The empirical evidence is gathered from five months of extensive ethnographic study with 66 home-based women entrepreneurs belonging to 26 handloom family enterprises. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews and the following narrative analysis have been used to comprehend the complex and dynamic conception of female entrepreneurship and women's agency to pivot business strategies during the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsAs a result of the abrupt suspension of the textile industry and the partial or total closure of the traditional and contemporary markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic, women from family handloom enterprises are taking steps to strengthen their entrepreneurial resistance. Although women entrepreneurs had spent years running the family business in the absence of their husbands, the pandemic exacerbated the deep-seated gender disparities within the family when social norms threatened to undo the hard-won progress made by them. However, their sense of agency enables them to plan well and resist the patriarchal onslaught with a variety of potentials, utilising tools of active and/or passive resistance within an environment of concrete limits and oppressions.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature on women's entrepreneurial capacity by focusing on how the COVID-19 crisis and changing market demands enable gendered reactions in family enterprises. While men, back home after losing their jobs, choose to strengthen their individual identities and power positions by trying to retain control over the family business, women contribute to collective actions for enhancing the resilience of the community by pivoting their business strategies and implementing new ideas to suit new market conditions. Women thus play a central role in fostering social cohesion, helping build and maintain relationships, promoting empathy, and creating a sense of belonging, which strengthen community bonds and cooperation. The paper shows how women's entrepreneurial resilience and responsibility provide an important basis for organizing sustainable collective action for the survival of the artisanal community during crisis situations.

Generational change in ceramic handicraft activity: Proposals for sustainable local and cultural development

The contribution refers to the generational change in the pottery handicraft activity of a rural community, the effect of this on the local and cultural development of the community, under a qualitative approach with application of the ethnographic method of interpretative character, applying techniques such as: life history, structured interview and observation. The information collected was processed in the software Atlas. Ti. The results show that young people have little knowledge about the process of making clay handicrafts, which is why they show little interest, since the knowledge has not been transmitted to them from an early age. In addition, the absence of schools or workshops that teach handicrafts aggravates the current situation. Traditions create a deep connection with roots, family and cultural values, which are necessary to persevere their identity and cultural heritage. The main activity to generate income is the production of handicrafts; however, the intermediaries that buy them do so at low cost, directly affecting the community. The problem lies in the lack of marketing channels, updated means of transportation and the absence of national and international web platforms to make the products visible. It is concluded that the deterioration in the generational replacement in the artisanal community over the years is attributed to the fact that young people do not perceive artisanal activity as a "business"; they choose to migrate to other cities, looking for new job offers and the possibility of obtaining professional training in other areas.

Gender and satisfaction of basic psychological needs: an exploratory study of pottery crafts in Latin America

Purpose: This paper analyzes the relationship between gender and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs in the artisanal pottery sector in Latin America. Methodological design: We surveyed 195 owners/managers of small family businesses operating in artisanal communities in three Latin American countries: Mexico, Honduras, and Colombia. We used structural equation modeling to offer evidence of factorial invariance of the measurement instrument across genders. Results: We found that women artisans seem to be more satisfied than men in meeting their need for autonomy and competence, revealing an important benefit of artisanal activity. No significant difference was found in relation to the fulfillment of the need for relatedness. Research limitations: The limitations of this research are derived from the sampling method, which was mainly driven by practical, financial, and logistical restrictions rather than by theoretical criteria. Nonresponse bias may have also affected our results. Findings: It is important for the artisanal sector to find motivational factors that contribute to the continuity and development of the sector.

Creuseurs avec Bêche ou sans Bêche : Comprendre le travail des enfants et ses conséquences dans les mines d'or à Luhihi

This article analyzes child labor in the Luhihi mining site and provides a typology of the activities they engage in, as well as the motivations behind their rush towards the mining resources. The results of this article are based on a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews, observation, and group discussions. Since 2020, many inexperienced children have decided to engage in gold mining activities in Luhihi, partly due to the context in which the gold deposit was discovered, which made their strong presence possible in the mining site. In addition, the mine has emerged as a palliative for the idleness that most children have found themselves in due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On the mining site, children engage in various activities. Some are directly involved in the mining supply chain as diggers with a shovel, while others are involved in mining craft activities without a shovel. However, their level of remuneration does not match the services they provide to the artisanal community. Furthermore, they are exposed to diseases and other forms of physical and moral consequences. The mine constitutes a new socialization environment for these children and a new space for education. However, despite the presence of a permanent framework and the multiple initiatives already undertaken by the actors, the evacuation of children from the Luhihi mining site raises questions about the conditions for the applicability of such a process, its effectiveness, and its sustainability.

When the ‘Asset’ Is Livelihood: Making Heritage with the Maritime Practitioners of Bagamoyo, Tanzania

This paper examines the dilemmas, obligations and opportunities faced by heritage professionals in elaborating cultural ‘assets’ among the breadwinning practices of contemporary, artisanal communities. It takes as its case study the authors’ Bahari Yetu, Urithi Wetu (‘Our Ocean, Our Heritage’) project and its engagement with maritime practitioners in and around the town of Bagamoyo, Tanzania. The article identifies Bagamoyo’s contemporary maritime scene as meriting heritage recognition on a global level, yet sitting entirely outside the country’s legal and political conception of heritage. Moreover, it acknowledges that ‘heritage’ as founded on the livelihood-earning activities of the community’s practitioners, such as boatbuilders, fishers and mariners. These often operate at subsistence level, yet are subject to transformative economic, social and environmental forces, as well as government agencies with no heritage remit. Drawing upon and reporting their co-creative engagements and activities with the Bagamoyo community, the authors argue for a non-reifying and people-centred approach to ‘living’ heritage situations such as that of maritime Bagamoyo, in which the tools of heritage engagement are deployed to amplify the concerns of the practitioner community to a wider audience.

Crafting Enlightenment: Artisanal Histories and Transnational Networks. Edited by Lauren R. Cannady and Jennifer Ferng

This wide-ranging volume of essays brings together ten substantial pieces of research on the realm of the ‘artisanal’ in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Several pieces focus on France, but each is paired with another examination and these pairings take in the Ottoman Empire, India, Spanish-colonial Mexico, China, colonial Virginia, and the goldfields of Australia. The editors have made a strong effort to order the materials in terms of fruitful juxtapositions and parallels; each of five pairs of pieces also has a reflective essay by a further noted scholar (although, as is sometimes the case with such endeavours, some of these are in practice little more than summaries of the preceding substantive pieces). The editors’ Introduction lays out some of the practical and theoretical challenges of engaging with the ‘artisanal’ in a historical and transnational context: the slippery nature, then and now, of the status of craft versus art, of rational reflection versus (imagined) static tradition; and the implicit and explicit Eurocentric biases of narratives around the movement between these conceptions. The essays themselves are the real strength of the collection, and it is pleasing to see them well illustrated, with seventy-six plates overall, most in full colour, allowing for a visual grasp of the objects under discussion. A short review cannot effectively summarize the wide range of topics on display, but there is much here to appreciate. The French chapters are perhaps among the most academically conventional, largely focusing on prestige projects (the language of sovereignty in the gardens of Versailles; interior design in speculative building; the social and cultural aspirations of the early Enlightenment Société des arts), although Valérie Nègre’s contribution on the subversively ‘useless’ writings of an eighteenth-century artisan carpenter is an intriguing sidelight on such approaches (p. 328). A piece on Ottoman urban festivals is particularly lavishly illustrated, and relates the participation of craft guilds in official processions to the methods of representing them in visual records of such events, and to the stylistic shifts of Ottoman art at an East–West crossroads. A piece on Mughal jasmine bowers and artisanal horticulture offers intriguing (though, due to the book’s organization, only implicit) contrasts and parallels with the consideration of Versailles. Dorothy Ko’s chapter on the near-thousand-year history of porcelain production at Jingdezhen, and the incorporation of material production techniques into folkloric stories amongst the different artisanal communities there, is remarkable. Dennis Carr’s piece introduces a particularly striking object, a Mexican eighteenth-century bookcase-desk that is both a metaphorical map of the bringing together of European and Asian decorative techniques, and a literal map of the estate for which it was made. Neil Kamil offers a tour de force over almost fifty pages that takes us from the mention of cane chairs in the journal of a Huguenot exile in 1715 to a global history of the rattan that formed such objects, interwoven with almost dizzying insights into the cultural worlds of exiles, traders, and workers who made, sold, and valued them.

Burden of malaria in children under five and caregivers\u2019 health-seeking behaviour for malaria-related symptoms in artisanal mining communities in Ghana

BackgroundArtisanal mining creates enabling breeding ground for the vector of malaria parasites. There is paucity of data on the effects of artisanal mining on malaria. This study assessed burden of malaria and caregivers’ health-seeking behaviour for children under five in artisanal mining communities in East Akim District in Ghana.MethodsA cross-sectional study involving caregivers and their children under five was conducted in three artisanal mining communities in the East Akim District in Ghana. Caregivers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Finger prick blood samples were collected and analysed for haemoglobin concentration using a rapid diagnostic test, and thick and thin blood smears were analysed to confirm the presence of malaria parasites.ResultsOf the 372 children under 5 years included in the study, 197 (53.1%) were male, with a mean age (± SD) of 23.0 ± 12.7 months. The proportion of children with malaria (Plasmodium falciparum and P. malariae) was 98.1% and 1.9%, respectively, whilst the proportion with anaemia (Hb < 11.0 g/dl) was 39.5% (n = 147). Almost all caregivers were female (98.9%), and 28.6% (n = 106) did not have access to any malaria control information. Caregivers associated malaria infection with mosquito bites (68.3%, n = 254) and poor sanitation (21.2%, n = 79). Malaria in children under five was significantly associated with anaemia (OR 11.07, 95% CI 6.59–18.68, n = 111/160, 69.4%; P < 0.0001), residing close to stagnant water (≤ 25 m) from an artisanal mining site (AOR 2.91, 95% CI 1.47–5.76, P = 0.002) and caregiver age younger than 30 years (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.208–0.917, n = 162, 43.55%, P = 0.001).ConclusionsThere is a high burden of malaria and anaemia among children under five in artisanal mining communities of the East Akim District, and far higher than in non-artisanal mining sites. Interventions are needed to effectively regulate mining activities in these communities, and strengthen malaria control and health education campaigns to curtail the high malaria burden and improve health-seeking behaviour.Graphical abstract

Quantitative validation of a sediment trap attached to the bottom of a fishing trawl for Polychaete sampling

Trawling is an important method for world fisheries production and it is the main source of livelihood of many artisanal communities along the Brazilian coast. Trawling is considered a high-impact modality deeply altering the seafloor and affecting the structure and composition of benthic communities, which are considered the bedrock of the marine food chain. Tests were run using a sediment trap attached to a trawl for collecting and analysing Polychaete samples. The aim of this work was to verify whether the samples collected in this trap can be treated quantitatively. A sampling experiment was conducted to compare samples obtained with the trap and three Van Veen grab samplers with apertures of 0.026 m2 0.035 m2 and 0.05 m2. The number indicators of abundance, taxonomic richness and Shannon diversity index were used to compare the samplers. The samplers were also compared using the Bray–Curtis similarity measure in taxonomic composition and accumulation curves for taxa. Linear and mixed models were applied to compare the numerical indicators and PERMANOVA was used to compare the similarities. The sediment trap attached to a trawl was more similar to the grab sampler with the smallest (S) aperture (0.026 m 2). The mean values of abundance and richness were lower than the other samplers. The sediment trap attached to a trawl proved a good sampler for diversity and evenness. Results show that the quantitative efficiency of the trawl mounted trap is different from the quantitative efficiency of the other samplers.

An Artisanal History of Kalam?

The dyed, painted, and printed cotton of the Coromandel Coast from South East India are popularly known as Kalamkari, kalam meaning a pen and kari indicating to handwork. The waqai or news reports of the Golconda court from the 1670s mention this term, which is perhaps one of the early archival records of the usage of kalamkari in Deccan. A bamboo pen with a thick grip made of cotton and cotton threads is used for making the painted textiles. While the term “kalam” is generally employed to indicate both painted and printed textile, scholarly studies have not clarified how the pen is crucial in printed textile making. During my fieldwork, I found wooden block makers in the Bandar region of Andhra Pradesh, on the Coromandel Coast, use the term kalam to specify the iron engraving tools for block carving. The artisanal usage of this term expands the meaning of kalam beyond a pen and suggests how artisanal understanding of the histories of practice can offer fresh perspectives on material culture histories and the interconnections between painted and printed textile making. Furthermore, the term is also used by the Bidri metalware artisans from the Deccan region to denote the iron engraving tools for carving, which suggests that dyed textile making in the Coromandel region is also connected to other craft activities in Deccan. This case study, focused on the term kalam, calls for better integration of artisanal insights into the scholarly studies on textiles and material culture. In my paper, I explore the etymological roots of the term kalam in literary works, and its use and transformation as a tool, among the textile practitioners and other artisanal communities in the Deccan and Coromandel regions.

The Contested Commons: The Failure of EU Fisheries Policy and Governance in the Mediterranean and the Crisis Enveloping the Small-Scale Fisheries of Malta

This paper highlights how multi-scalar interstitial policy failings of the EU fisheries policy can directly trigger policy gaps in fisheries management at the expense of artisanal communities, leading to further expansion opportunities for industrial fishing and triggering instability and marginalisation of traditional fishing communities. In order to contextualize and demonstrate this complexity, we explore a detailed scenario of the Maltese waters to show how the development of a national policy portfolio post-EU accession has destabilized long-existing functional fishing governance mechanisms and now pose a direct challenge to the sustainable management of the marine socio-ecological system. Using a mixed-method approach to investigate the partially obscured social, economic and political dynamics which drive marine policy, we demonstrate how the coastal fisheries have become subject to multiple-use competition arising primarily from a burgeoning recreational fishing sector that has benefited from ‘access-enabling policies’, and is, to a great extent uninhibited by fish conservation regulations. Our findings demonstrate how a deeper understanding of the socio-political ramifications of policy processes is necessary to improve the governance and management of contested and congested open-access fisheries.

Status of fisheries law compliance in some fish landing sites in two local government areas of Rivers state, Nigeria

Illegal and overfishing are major threat to fisheries resource sustainability in Nigeria. The study determined social characteristics of fishers, level of awareness of the law and level of enforcement of fisheries law. A simple random sampling technique using 320 questionnaires was adopted to select the sampled population from four artisanal riverine communities along New Calabar River and Bonny Estuaries in Rivers State namely Station 1 (Nembe waterside), Station 2 (Mgbuosimini), Station 3 (Isaka-Bundu) and Station 4 (Borokiri-Rex-Lawson waterside). Respondents were identified through household listing. The level of education of fishers indicated that most of the sampled fishers were educated. From the respondents, only 1.56% was aware of the law. There was very high level of non-compliance to the 76 mm mesh size requirement; Nembe waterside, had 83.00%, Mgbuosimini had 76.00%, Isaka-Bundu had 80.00% and Borikiri Rex-Lawson Waterside had 85.00% mesh sizes less than 76 mm requirement. This indicated a violation of the mesh size requirement due to ignorance on the part of fishers and open access to the marine resources. Fishers agreed that the law should be reviewed. Therefore, the study recommends that there should be programmes to increase awareness of review of the provisions and enforcement of the law. Key Words : Factors, influencing, Fisheries Law, compliance, landing sites

Artisan fishers’ perception of climate change and disasters in coastal Bangladesh

Climate change is affecting fishing communities across Bangladesh. While work has been undertaken to investigate the nature of these impacts, understanding how fishers perceive climate change at a local level, especially within developing countries, is crucial. This paper presents the results of a three-year study of the contextual determinants and dimensions of artisanal fishing community perceptions about climate change in coastal Bangladesh. Results of this study indicate that geographic characteristics, socio-economic status, worldviews, tradition, observations and disaster experiences are important determinants for shaping fishers’ perceptions about climate change. Fishers also demonstrate a long-standing tradition of risk adaptation strategies, but do not link them to climate change. We argue that these perceptions provide ideas for how to form appropriate climate responses at local levels not only in Bangladesh but other developing countries.

Avaliação da atividade pesqueira numa comunidade de pescadores artesanais no Espírito Santo, Brasil

Evaluation of fisheries activity in an artisanal community in the Espirito Santo State, Brazil. The fishing industry in the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil, assumes an important socioeconomic role. In this context, the com- munity of Pedra D'Agua, municipality of Sao Mateus, presents itself with high degree of dependence (income and supply) regarding production and marketing from artisanal fishing. The aim of this work is to analyze the current development of the activity, namely fishing dynamics and local production chain. It was necessary for both to identify the characteristics of the fishing activities, stakeholders, draw up maps of fishing areas and a SWOT matrix analysis. Community members of this value chain of Pedra D'Agua needed better management structures and fishing activities support together with the extension of niches that are not yet explored (such as the cultivation of sea bass). In the analysis of scenarios was found that the practices of planning and control are ineffective ensuring local development (e.g. misuse of natural resources, predatory fishing and the absence of adequate marketing practices and unstructured supply chains). The analysis of fishing areas and zones of influence shows that the production chain value of Pedra D'Agua has great potential and strengths and that fishermen knowledge must

POPULATION DYNAMICS OF Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Lac�pede, 1803) IN LOWER CROSS RIVER, NIGERIA

Silver catfish Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Lacepede, 1803) constitutes the main fishery offering diversified livelihood to the artisanal communities in southeast Nigeria and has been heavily fished over time without attempts at conservation. This study was conducted to estimate the current population parameters needed for its rational exploitation. Estimates of growth and mortality of catfish in the Lower Cross River, Nigeria, were obtained from length-frequency data of 6637 individuals collected on monthly basis from November 2011 to October 2012. The estimated von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) parameters were: asymptotic length L∞ = 120.23 cm total length, growth coefficient K = 1.50 year-1 and age at zero length, t0 = 0.0 years. The amplitude of growth oscillations C = 0.75, winter point WP = 0.50 or 1 July and growth performance index, φ = 4.336. The rates for natural, fishing and total mortalities were: M =1.58, F = 2.55 and Z = 4.31 per year, respectively. This study reveals growth overfishing and threat of extinction of C. nigrodigitatus in the Lower Cross River system characterized by heavy fishing pressure on the length group 34.5 - 94.5 cm TL, reduced life span from 5 to 2 years, change from a slow growth pattern typical of siluroids to a fast one with current exploitation rate, Ecur (F /Z) = 0.62, about 15.8% higher than the allowable maximum exploitation rate, Emax = 0.522. In order to restore ecosystem health, a community-based multisectoral stakeholder consortium invested with limited equity and access for exploiting the fishery in tandem with its bio-ecological dynamics should be encouraged. Other policy instruments such as periodic prohibition of fishing, controlled pricing and public education are recommended for the sustainability and conservation of the fisheries.

Productivity and the poor? Political economy of village pond fishery in the Indo-Gangetic Basin

India’s 2.25 million ha of village tanks were for centuries loosely managed as multiple-use common property resources, including for fishing by artisanal fisher-folk, the lowest in the social hierarchy. During the 1970s and after, the aquaculture productivity revolution created a vibrant new political economy by increasing manyfold the value of fishing rights in these tanks. This productivity boom was expected to improve the lot of poor artisanal fisher communities. But has this happened? This study across the Indo-Gangetic Basin suggests increasing elite capture of these community-owned resources. Capital, technology and muscle power have determined who benefits; artisanal fishers have none of these.

Artisanal gold mining at the margins of mineral resource governance: a case from Tanzania

This article discusses the character of mineral resource governance at the margins of the state in Tanzania and the way artisanal gold miners are incorporated into mineral sector transformation. The landscape of mineral resource exploitation has changed dramatically over the past 20 years: processes of economic liberalisation have heralded massive foreign investment in large-scale gold mining, while also stimulating artisanal activities. Against this background, the article shows how artisanal gold miners are affected by contradictory processes: some have become integrated with state institutions and legal processes, while others, the large majority, are either further excluded or incorporated in ways that exacerbate insecurity and exploitation, underpinned by socio-economic inequalities. These processes are compounded by the actions of large-scale and medium-scale gold mining companies and by poor local governance. It is open to debate whether this will bring improved integration and welfare for artisanal mining communities or new forms of exclusion, although evidence suggests the latter.

SIZE‐SELECTIVE HARVESTING ALTERS LIFE HISTORIES OF A TEMPERATE SEX‐CHANGING FISH

Selective mortality, whether caused naturally by predation or through the influence of harvest practices, initiates changes within populations when individuals possessing certain heritable traits have increased fitness. Theory predicts that increased mortality rates will select for changes in a number of different life history characteristics. For example, fishing often targets larger individuals and has been shown repeatedly to alter population size structure and growth rates, and the timing of maturation. For sex-changing species, selective fishing practices can affect additional traits such as the mature population sex ratio and the timing of sexual transformation. Using historical comparisons, we examined the effects of exploitation on life history characteristics of California sheephead, Semicossyphus pulcher, a temperate protogynous (female-male sex changer) labrid that inhabits nearshore rocky environments from central California, USA, to southern Baja California, Mexico. Recreational fishing intensified and an unregulated commercial live-fish fishery developed rapidly in southern California between the historical and current studies. Collections of S. pulcher from three locations (Bahia Tortugas, Catalina Island, and San Nicolas Island) in 1998 were compared with data collected 20-30 years previously to ascertain fishery-induced changes in life history traits. At Bahia Tortugas, where fishing by the artisanal community remained light and annual survivorship stayed high, we observed no changes in size structure or shifts in the timing of maturation or the timing of sex change. In contrast, where recreational (Catalina) and commercial (San Nicolas) fishing intensified and annual survivorship correspondingly declined, males and females shifted significantly to smaller body sizes, females matured earlier and changed sex into males at both smaller sizes and younger ages and appeared to have a reduced maximum lifespan. Mature sex ratios (female:male) increased at San Nicolas, despite a twofold reduction in the mean time spent as a mature female. Proper fisheries management requires measures to prevent sex ratio skew, sperm limitation, and reproductive failure because populations of sequential hermaphrodites are more sensitive to size-selective harvest than separate-sex species. This is especially true for S. pulcher, where different segments of the fishery (commercial vs. recreational) selectively target distinct sizes and therefore sexes in different locations.