The occasion was the 35th Session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI-35), the intergovernmental forum of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The purpose was to review and discuss issues and challenges related to fisheries and aquaculture. Campaigners for the rights of small-scale fishers and Indigenous...

The following Statements were made by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) at the Thirty-fifth Session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) during 5-9 September, 2022

Taiwan is an island country. The fisheries in the surrounding seas are crucial to its development. This informs the government’s policy on marine fisheries. The flourishing capture fisheries are one of the country’s main economic activities. Unlike the more stable and favourable land-based economic activities, capture fisheries are risk-prone and...

Interview with marine biologist and fisheries scientist Ray Hilborn on how area-based conservation measures can be made more inclusive of sustainable fisheries

A community-based, bottom-up regime of fisheries management, rooted in traditional ecological knowledge, is practised in the pole-and-line tuna fishery of India’s Lakshadweep Islands. India is home to a large number of small-scale fishers (SSF) using diverse craft-gear combinations along the country’s long coastline and island systems. One standout entry is the...

A participatory, bottom-up approach will go a long way in ensuring sustainable livelihoods for communities in the small-scale fisheries sector of Nigeria. Nigeria’s small-scale fisheries are very diverse, providing livelihood and food for millions of people engaged in the fisheries value chain. Fishing activity occurs in the vast network of inland...

Shrimp farms in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu have proliferated despite a 1996 Supreme Court judgement to regulate coastal aquaculture. Given an option, I would move away from this village to nearby Chidambaram town because, year after year, the fertility of my agricultural land declines.” This was told to...

Conservation of fisheries in Bangladesh has become heavy-handed and militarized while poverty in fishing communities remains unmitigated. Early on the night of March 16, 2021, police opened fire on a small fishing boat and killed a young fisher named Mohammad Masud in the Meghna River. The shots were fired in the...

The IPC people-centred methodology to assess the implementation of the SSF Guidelines is a call to action in support of small-scale fisheries. Programmes and schemes often have evaluation procedures that focus on the outputs. Have X number of training programmes been held? Were Y amount of funds disbursed as credit support?...

Remembering Paul Onyango, researcher of small-scale fisheries in Lake Victoria, who passed away on 10 April 2022. I first met Paul Onyango at the MARE Conference in Amsterdam in 2001. He later enrolled in my university’s International Fisheries Management Master Program, where he graduated as scheduled after two years. He became...

Levedy Céleste Lossangoye developed a passion for fish farming at an early age. She grew up surrounded by fish ponds on her family’s fish farm in Andem in the Central African country of Gabon. Located around 60 kilometres from Libreville, the country’s capital, her family’s farm has 21 ponds across...

The 14th edition of the Pecheurs du Monde film festival in Lorient, France, showcased the resilient cultures of fishing communities around the world. Discovering the world of fishers can be exciting and enriching. About 2,500 spectators made that discovery in Lorient, France, and in its surrounding towns from March 20 to...

The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has just published the latest issue of SAMUDRA Report, its triannual journal on fisheries, communities and livelihoods. The current edition, SAMUDRA Report No. 87, dated March 2022, features a range of articles from Africa, Asia and Europe, with a special focus on the International Year...

The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of this crucial aquatic food production sector in our region, as well as the information necessary to review advances and identify challenges in achieving the sustainability of fish and fisheries in the Mediterranean and the...

The Roundup includes recent publications, films added to our Documentation centre, meetings coming up, websites  which are important to small-scale fisheries, flashback of editorial from old issues of samudra report related to the theme  and Endquote from the world of literature related to fisheries. 

The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has released the latest edition of Yemaya, its newsletter on gender and fisheries. The articles in this issue are drawn from the presentations and discussions at the webinar organized by GAFS, Women Work in Fisheries, Too! held on 29 November 2021. The webinar...

The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has released the latest edition of its popular fisheries publication – SAMUDRA Report, its triannual journal on fisheries, communities and livelihoods. SAMUDRA Report No. 88, dated December 2022, has a special focus on the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022),...

Fisheries and aquaculture have the capacity – if supported and developed in a regulated and environmentally sensitive manner – to contribute significantly to improving the well-being of poor and disadvantaged communities in developing countries and to achievement of several of the Millennium Development Goals, especially those related to poverty reduction...

This diagnostic tool advances the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) through policy and legal frameworks. It is a key tool for use by any actor, including small-scale fishers, who is interested in contributing to...

Around the globe, fisheries managers strives to practise effective management that provides a clear path towards conserving ocean biodiversity while contributing to human well-being. A wide range of area-based fisheries management tools achieve positive biodiversity outcomes. Many also conform to the definition, criteria, and guidance on ‘other effective area-based conservation...