Small-Scale and Artisanal Fisheries: Approaches for Assessment and Management in a Changing World
A special issue of Fishes (ISSN 2410-3888). This special issue belongs to the section "Fishery Economics, Policy, and Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 May 2024 | Viewed by 4149
Special Issue Editors
Interests: artisanal fisheries; fishery management; indigenous and local knowledge; transdisciplinary studies
Interests: freshwater and marine ecosystems; how human influences affect biological integrity
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Small-scale fisheries depend on simple fishing gears and vessels, often involving artisanal fishermen and fisherwomen catching specimens from finfish and elasmobranchs to invertebrates (i.e., gleaning). A majority of fishers worldwide are engaged in small-scale fishery activities and despite this importance to their livelihoods, research and management on artisanal and small-scale fisheries has only become relevant in the past few decades.
Variability in environmental conditions as a result of climate change and habitat damage has impacted such productive social systems. Coincidently, man-made activities also threaten fishery resources and their ecosystems. Artisanal and small-scale fisheries are associated with such ecosystems owing to their limited access and facilities. In nations where small-scale fisheries remain unregulated, these ongoing effects are having enormous, unreported impacts on resource stocks and may even mislead the economic assessment of fisheries. In a cascading effect, fishers and local populations in these areas are experiencing significant economic loss as well as loss of quality of life, education, and well-being.
As such, in this Special Issue, we invite authors to submit original articles and reviews in this broad field for assessing and managing small-scale and artisanal fisheries from around the globe. We encourage submissions that offer new insights and approaches that can contribute to improved management and evaluation, rather than descriptive studies simply reporting on fishing activities and catches. The research topic covers novel research on the assessment and monitoring of small-scale fisheries, socioeconomics, governance, trade, and management measures.
Dr. José Amorim Reis-Filho
Prof. Dr. Tommaso Giarrizzo
Dr. Antoine O.H.C. Leduc
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fishes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- small-scale fisheries
- resource management
- research tools
- climate change
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Combining indigenous knowledge, aerial and underwater approaches to evaluate the spatial dynamics of data-limited small-scale fisheries
Authors: José Amorim Reis-Filho, Tommaso Giarrizzo, Antoine O.H.C Leduc
Affiliation: Combining indigenous knowledge, aerial and underwater approaches to evaluate the spatial dynamics of data-limited small-scale fisheries
Abstract: Coastal habitats provide nursery, shelter, and feeding sites for many economically relevant fish, and invertebrates, such shellfish. Given the highly artisanal character and the patchy spatial distribution of small-scale fishing in low-income nations, there is often little data available to inform management, potentially threating the sustainability of this livelihood-supporting activity. This study assesses the combination of different data collection methods in the analysis of the spatial dynamics of indigenous fishers in a tropical bay. We examine the displacement and location of fish and shellfish captures by combining three independent methods: i) traditional information about location (i.e., crossing sighting land-based mark points) of the fishing grounds, and validation of these sites by using ii) aerial images (i.e., drone-based) and iii) underwater records (i.e., remotely operated vehicle) to understand use patterns and type of specific marine habitats related to fishery practices. Results show that fishers have a vast knowledge on specific fishing grounds in which are easily reached (i.e., geographical precision) without the use of GPS devices, as well as they know about the type of bottom and habitat. This indigenous knowledge was confirmed through aerial and underwater inspections once these techniques have demonstrated accuracy between fisher’ knowledge by describing the marine habitats and the records obtained from technical tools. This highlights the importance of linking different approaches in order to understand small-scale fisheries spatial dynamics.
