The term “aquapark” refers to an innovative aquaculture organizational model designed to facilitate and empower small-scale aquafarmers at every stage of the aquaculture value chain. This model encompasses comprehensive planning, zoning, and infrastructure development for roads, water and electricity, as well as vital aquaculture inputs like seed, feed, extension services...

Nicaragua’s government seeks to ensure productivity growth in the fisheries sector, all the while maintaining food security and sovereignty.  The current state and trajectory of the artisanal fishing sector in Nicaragua’s autonomous regions along the Caribbean coast deserve a closer look and conversation. Such an examination can draw from several sources...

For many communities on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada, commercial fishing has all but disappeared as an economic activity for the once robust and independent small-boat fleet.  There are two contrasting realities in Canada on the matter of support for fishing communities and the small boat fleet that supports...

Chile stretches along the southeast rim of the Pacific Ocean. The seas off South America’s southwestern coast are one of the five most productive and biodiverse marine areas on Earth. After 50 years of applying an orthodox neoliberal economic model, fishing and aquaculture comprise the second largest sector of the...

Permit banks and collective ownership in Alaska return individual fishing rights to the collective, harking back to the early days of fishing. More than 12,000 years ago, people on Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off British Columbia about 48 km south of Alaska, were cooking salmon. They are the earliest known humans...

On the long struggle for legal recognition of the small-scale fisheries (SSF) sector SSF includes indigenous, traditional and artisanal fishers. They were subjected to extensive criminalization in South Africa and have fought a long struggle for legal recognition. They were recognized for the first time only in 2007, when the Equality...

Local and regional ‘parliaments of the sea’ can ensure the participation of society in the management of marine areas while respecting the rights of fishers. An example from France.  “Numerous ethnographic studies show that the sea and its resources are not an open-access resource, but a common good, collectively controlled by...

Fishing gear is a major contributor to marine litter. ‘Ghost nets’ is the informal term for what is formally called Abandoned, Lost or Otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG). These continue to catch both target and non-target species. They pose risk to boat operations; damage coral reefs and the seabed; and...

On a rainy day in August, when the availability of fisheries resources is high in the Teesta river here, Bimal Das returned from a four-hour fishing trip with only three kg of fish. While sorting the fish from the ice slabs, a dejected Das contemplated quitting fishing to looking for...

The International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022 (IYAFA) was celebrated worldwide. It provided a global platform to highlight the importance of small-scale fisheries and artisanal aquaculture, their role in sustainable development and the myriad of ways they ensure food security and poverty alleviation in dependent coastal and rural...

More than 900 non-indigenous species have already been identified in the Mediterranean Sea. And the number is only expected to increase. Climate change is helping non-native species move further north in the Mediterranean as water temperatures rise. As they spread, so does concern about their effect on marine ecosystems and the local fishing...

The United Nations designated 2022 as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022). The global action plan emphasized the objective for the year as “a world in which smallscale artisanal fishers, fish farmers and fishworkers of both genders are fully acknowledged and empowered to sustainably manage their...

The end of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022) has led to a new era of support for artisanal fisheries and small-scale aquaculture. Several closing events were held around the world, not only to recognize the importance of small-scale fisheries (SSF) and their contribution to food...

The last of the series of IYAFA workshops was convened by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) in collaboration with Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE) and Mulleres Salgadas (MuS). The regional workshop for Europe was held on November 13-16, 2023, in Galicia, Spain. With its participatory and...

My name is Amelie Bonner. I am 15 years old. I love art, film, reading and music. I speak French, English and Irish. I am from Arranmore Island off the coast of Ireland. It is a beautiful island and is currently home to around 500 people. The community is small....

Due to the increasing pressure of a globalized economy and under the effects of a changing climate, biological invasions have become a frequent feature of marine and freshwater environments. Global fisheries and aquaculture are therefore required to adjust to these changes, with the dual aim of reducing the negative ecological...

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world occupying one-third of Eurasia and it has enormous water resources. Fish from inland waters has always been a central part of the Russian diet and a major contributor to national food security. Inland fisheries are highly diversified and provide employment...

In 1984, the UN/FAO was holding the World Conference on Fisheries Management and Development (WFC) in Rome. Government representatives and international agencies were attending. But fishers were not invited, their representatives neither. This here is a personal account of the collective efforts that went into holding in Rome—parallel to WFC—the first...

This brochure contains the challenges and recommendations from the eight countrie’s case studies on ‘Social Development and Sustainable Fisheries’ conducted by ICSF in Antigua and Barbuda, Costa Rica, Ghana, The Philippines, Bangladesh, Brazil, Thailand and India (Kerala/Tamil Nadu and West Bengal). The ICSF’s studies uses the parameters of social development, within...

The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has just published the latest issue of SAMUDRA Report, its triannual journal on fisheries, communities and livelehoods. The current edition, SAMUDRA Report No. 91, dated June 2024, is a Special Issue that runs into 110 pages and features a diverse range of...