Small-scale fisheries are essential contributors to the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people all over the world. Small-scale does not equal small-catch: about half of total wild fisheries catch and over 90% of all the world’s fishers and fishworkers participate in the small-scale sector. They also encompass activities throughout the supply chain, including pre-harvest activities like net-making and post-harvest activities like processing and selling. Around 40% of people involved in small-scale fisheries are women. And unlike farming, fisheries are a potential source of fast-cash, playing a key role in buffering unforeseen shocks to people’s livelihoods. Small-scale fisheries are not just a key source of income. Fish accounts for about a third of animal protein intake in developing countries—rising to over 90% in some areas— and this protein is full of fatty acids and other essential nutrients for human health and especially childhood development. Small-scale fisheries also have important linkages to traditional ways of life. Fishing is important to many different cultures in many different ways and, as such, it is difficult to place a monetary value on access to healthy fish stocks across small-scale fishing communities.

While small-scale fisheries are so important to so many, many coastal communities lack access to basic information about the fisheries that they rely upon, including information on fishery management regulations and scientific assessments. This can jeopardize a community’s ability to follow regulations, participate in management and advocate for reforms. In other cases, fishers may lack regular access to information on oceanographic conditions and local weather—a risk to the safety of fishers, particularly due to increasingly intense and erratic weather due to climate change. Lack of transparency in supply chains, including market information, can result in inequitable pricing and exploitative practices. Despite all of these data types being critical to small-scale fisheries and the livelihoods they support, these types of practical information are often inaccessible because it is disaggregated, frequently changing, and there are cultural and technological barriers to access.

Challenge Statement 1:

The SSF sector is highly reliant on verbal communication and knowledge sharing and fishers and fishworkers have deep levels of local ecological knowledge but low levels of literacy. Management practices and programs frequently fail to address this fact; as a result, the knowledge of small-scale fishers and fishworkers are not effectively incorporated into management. However, fishers and fishworkers are well poised to capture and share their experiences and knowledge as many have smart phones and use applications such as WhatsApp to send voice memos.

An audio recording, translating, and sharing platform for use by small-scale fishery community members would allow small-scale fisherfolk to not only build a digital record of knowledge, but by incorporating voice dictation and translation capabilities, these files would help improve the contribution of small-scale fishing communities to management. Such a platform would convert traditional and local ecological knowledge into a format that better enables decision-makers to understand and quantify phenomena such as shifting baselines, species movement and distribution, co-management practices, as well as hyper-local environmental changes. Importantly, it would also increase the ability of the small-scale fisheries sector to directly contribute to the global dialogue on food security and sustainable fisheries, as well as generate a more holistic picture of the diversity of actors involved with small-scale fisheries capture and value chains.

Challenge Statement 2:

Small-scale fishers often lack the necessary technology and tools needed to communicate at sea, however fishers frequently aggregate around specific areas and are often within a few meters of other boats at various times. The ability for fisherfolk to share information with others, via local WiFi networks or Bluetooth connections hosted by smartphones at sea could facilitate the sharing of key information among SSF stakeholders such as on weather, market conditions, fishery management actions such as in-season openings or other rule changes, and personal information such as messages from family members. The result could improve safety at sea, result in better awareness of and compliance with fishery regulations and help to facilitate new business opportunities.

Challenge Statement 3:

SSFs are important contributors to local, national and international markets, but fishers often lack information on market conditions, including which buyers are offering which prices for which species and the cost of inputs such as fuel and ice. In addition, middlemen have asymmetrical power in value chains, distorting price signals, creating a debt cycle and disrupting flow of value to fishers. These conditions create a culture of short-termism in SSFs, making efforts to align incentives towards long-term sustainability difficult.

These conditions often represent supply chains that are rooted in small-scale fishery communities at one end, and a valuable western market at the other, where information flow to and from the fisher is close to non-existent. If the voices of fishers in supply chains could be amplified or a spotlight shone on the challenges they face, perhaps through sharing of prices down the chain or stories from fishermen that reach end consumers, the market power of fishers could increase, resulting in a first step towards beneficial small-scale fisher integration into the supply chain.