Viability Of Small-scale Fisheries Research Articles

Understanding change, complexities, and governability challenges in small-scale fisheries: a case study of Limbe, Cameroon, Central Africa.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40152-023-00296-3.

The Aftermath of Hurricane María on Puerto Rican Small-Scale Fisheries

In September 2017, Hurricane María hit the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico threatening the economic and social viability of small-scale fisheries. This study describes the main results of a rapid socio-economic assessment of the storm’s impacts one year after it made landfall. María caused commercial landings to fall by 20% owing to the loss of productive assets, extended power outages, and the loss of customers. Most of the fishing activity recovered when electric service became widely available, particularly in the metropolitan area. The small-scale fisheries lost $17.8 million, excluding post-harvest impacts. Damaged fishing capital (vessel, engine, gear) and shoreside infrastructure accounted for 51% of the losses and forgone fishing revenue for the remaining 49%. The east coast was the hardest hit accounting for 48% of the domestic landing losses. Traps, handlines, and commercial diving suffered the most losses. Fishers reported losing 70% of their traps and having to dive in deeper waters for queen conch. Other than switching landing and marketing sites, few fishers changed their fishing and fishing-related practices probably because these were tuned to local ecological conditions and occupational multiplicity strategies. The study also found that bonding and bridging social capital contributed to the recovery of fishers’ livelihoods.

Transforming the governance of small-scale fisheries

Despite their contribution to employment, food security, poverty eradication, and community well-being, small-scale fisheries often find themselves in a disadvantageous position globally relative to large-scale fisheries and other industries competing for marine space, resources, and government attention. By and large, small-scale fisheries are marginalized in every sense of the word: culturally, socially, economically, geographically, legally, and politically. Their unfavorable status is frequently perceived to be both a cause and effect of overfishing, unsustainable fishing practices, and governance failure; thus, their potential to modernize while participating in and delivering on sustainable development goals is less than optimal. Given that the majority of the world’s fisheries are small-scale, it is imperative that major changes take place in the conditions that determine the predicament of small-scale fisheries. For these reasons, in 2014, FAO member states endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines), with the aim of encouraging states and civil society organizations to take steps to bring about the changes needed to improve the sustainability and viability of small-scale fisheries. The SSF Guidelines call for broad and complex governance interventions; however, as much as they can help create transformation within small-scale fisheries, governance systems themselves must also be transformed before real change can take place. Based on the analysis of 34 case studies of small-scale fisheries’ governance around the world, our synthesis reveals that small-scale fisheries’ governance is indeed undergoing different types of transformation and can take place in all governing modes. Further, these transformations occur at the operational, institutional, and the meta-levels of governance, which, from the perspective of the SSF Guidelines, is encouraging.