The Guhagar fishing village lies in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra state in India. It has about 450 fisher families. Earlier, the regular routine for the fisherwomen of the village centred around visiting the beach and fish landing sites early in the morning to gather and buy fish that they...

The fish-processing industry’s path of using fishmeal to grow shrimp amounts to exporting the precious nutrition that India’s children badly need. In the early morning of 25 September 2019, on the shores of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, India, the humble sardine commenced its journey. The journey of its afterlife, that is. A...

Women fishers, shrimp peelers and mollusk workers in Costa Rica identify priority areas for the recognition and formalisation of their work. Costa Rica is a country with great marine biodiversity and has an important cultural heritage in its coastal marine areas. However, recognition and opportunities for decent work for the country’s...

The international democratic process has come a long way in realizing the role of fish in the right to food and nutrition–and yet, a map of the road ahead needs to be laid out. Even though the last century has seen great socioeconomic advances and improvement in human well-being worldwide, much...

Milestones in CAOPA’s march for the rights of women in African artisanal fisheries. On 19 March 2010, in Banjul, The Gambia, men and women professionals from the artisanal fishing sector from nine West African countries presided over the formation and launch of the African Confederation of Artisanal Fishing Organisations: CAOPA. Ten years...

The GFCM is launching a university devoted to small-scale fisheries. The SSF University will offer workshops and training courses to small-scale fishers and fish workers across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region. Small-scale fishers represent 84 percent of the total regional fishing fleet and 60% of total onboard jobs. Yet...

Did you know that there is a small fishing village called Marianad, in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala, India, which owes a lot of its history to a public health nurse from Bergamo – the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Italy? This nurse, Lauretta Farina, 86, passed away on 12...

The exclusion of women from organizing bodies is a key challenge facing women in Japan’s coastal fisheries. In Japan, the Fishery Cooperative Associations (FCAs) are key entities in the effort to protect the environment in coastal fisheries. They manage traditional fishing rights with legal support from the government, and are embedded...

One of the problems facing the small-scale fishing sector is a lack of dedicated representation in the official bodies of the profession. This is particularly the case in France where small-scale fishers are struggling to unite to defend their interests. For Bertrand Cazalet, Secretary and Legal Adviser of the Syndicat professionnel...

Declining incomes and ageing villages mean that women are likely to be the mainstay of families and communities in the small-scale fisheries in Southeast Asia. In the last few decades, attention on and analysis of women in fisheries and aquaculture have changed tremendously, especially in Southeast Asia. In the 1990s, just...

At the celebration of World Fisheries’ Day on 28 November, in Lorient, France, fishermen and students got together to recognize the wealth of fishers’ knowledge and experience. For the 21st year running, the Collectif Pêche & Développement celebratedWorld Fisheries Day (November 21, 1997) at a symposium organized with UBS university and...

Women’s small-scale, part-time fishing and gleaning activities globally may contribute nearly 3 million tonnes of seafood, with a landed value of around $5.6 billion. In many cultures and contexts around the world, fishing (like hunting) is considered a male domain and is closely associated with masculinity. Moving along the fish value...

Against the backdrop of the need to operationalize the SSF Guidelines in a participatory manner, the role of the local governance system of India cannot be overemphasized. As a complement to the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed the...

The ocean sustains all life on our planet and is fundamental to human survival and well-being. Now is the time to RISE UP in its defense. Coral reef die-offs, collapsing fish populations and species extinctions are evidence of the escalating ocean crisis brought about by overfishing, ocean heating, acidification, pollution and...

In this book, Svein Jentoft argues, with concise and precise logic, that we should not lose sight of communities when extending our perspective to the world of fisheries at large Life above Water: Essays on Human Experiences of Small-Scale Fisheries. TBTI Global Book Series 1, 2019. Svein Jentoft is well known...

FAO has partnered with Kyrgyzstan since the republic joined the Organization in 1993. First opened in 2009, the country office was upgraded in 2012 and an FAO Representative appointed in 2014. This marked a shift from emergency to development-focused interventions, with an emphasis on policy and institutional support as well...

According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 (SOFI 2020) released in July amidst the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people affected by hunger is steadily rising globally. People with higher risk of food insecurity include those with the lowest levels...

AKTEA is the European network of women in fisheries and its main objective is to lobby at European Union level for women rights in fisheries. It was established in 2006 by fisherwomen organisations from different European countries who collectively volunteered to take this movement forward. For several years AKTEA was...

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 Practical Guide for Gender Analysis in Small-scale Fisheries and Aquaculture is aimed at providing guidance to SEAFDEC (Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center) Departments and ASEAN Member States in the implementation of the SEAFDEC gender strategy as well as human rights-based and gender-equitable approaches in the whole value chain of...