Blue-green transformations of small-scale fisheries - fishers' perspectives

Description

Small-scale fisheries hold important social and cultural values, and are often believed to offer promising prospects for a sustainable development of fisheries. Yet, their future in Sweden and the global north looks bleak. Numbers of fishers are declining rapidly and vessels are becoming fewer in numbers but bigger in terms of gross tonnage and engine power.

The overall aim of this research project is therefore to investigate if and how small-scale fisheries in the Global North can respond to ecological and regulative changes in order to transition and persist and, by doing so, fulfil their potential to contribute to a larger transition towards a sustainable development of fisheries, as well as the preservation of cultural values and knowledge which often is transferred over generations.

We are currently in the process of empirically assessing already occurring and potential future transitions of Swedish small-scale fisheries, focusing on fishers’ perspectives and the socio-economic consequences their transitions have had for them and the coastal communities they are embedded in. We are further conducting interviews with fisheries’ managers and scientist in order to identify ways forward for small-scale fisheries in the global north. Our research applies methods and theories from both social and natural science.

The results of research will generate a deeper understanding of transitions which are already taking place, as well as knowledge that could contribute to and prepare for future transitions of small-scale fisheries in the Global North. As such, the research will build a crucial knowledge-base for facilitating future fishers’ green-blue transitions, and hopefully their continuation towards increased sustainability.