Are fishers poor? Getting to the bottom of marine fisheries income statistics

Abstract

Fishers' economic status is hard to assess because fisheries socio-economic data, including earnings, are often not centrally available, standardized or accessible in a form that allows scaled-up or comparative analyses. The lack of fishing income data impedes sound management and allows biased perceptions about fishers' status to persist. We compile data from intergovernmental and regional data sets, as well as case-studies, on income earned from marine wild-capture fisheries. We explore the level and distribution of fishers' income across fisheries sectors and geographical regions, and highlight challenges in data collection and reporting. We find that fishers generally are not the poorest of the poor based on average fishing income from 89 countries, but income levels vary widely. Fishing income in the large-scale sector is higher than the small-scale sector by about 2.2 times, and in high-income versus low-income countries by almost 9 times. Boat owners and captains earned more than double that of crew and owner-operators, while income from fisheries is greater than that from agricultural work in 63% of countries in this study. Nonetheless, incomes are below national poverty lines in 34% of the countries with data. More detailed fishing income statistics is needed for quantitative scientific research and for supporting socio-economic policies. Key gaps to address include the lack of a centralized database for fisheries income statistics and the coarse resolution at which economic statistics are reported internationally. A first step to close the gap is to integrate socio-economic monitoring and reporting in fisheries management.

Sustainable fisheries are essential but not enough to ensure well‐being for the world’s fishers

“…The GI values range from 0 (even distribution of income across fishers) to 1 (one fisher receives all income). There is some evidence to suggest that disparity in economic benefits may be relatively more pronounced within some fisheries compared to other sectors (Ferrol‐Schulte et al, 2014; Teh et al, 2020), which would make our assumption conservative, but this is difficult to discern given limited current research on the topic.…”

“…Around 230 million people benefit from fisheries, either directly from fishing (51 million) or indirectly through activities such as processing, packaging, trading and tourism services (179 million; Teh & Sumaila, 2013). However, fishing is often associated with poverty (Béné & Friend, 2011), and studies have demonstrated that even though fishers are certainly not always the “poorest of the poor” (Teh et al, 2020), fishers in at least a third of coastal nations live below their poverty line (Teh et al, 2020). Additionally, fisheries are also affected by ongoing global challenges, including climate change (Barange et al, 2018; Sumaila et al, 2011), pollution (Hughes et al, 2003), habitat degradation (Hughes et al, 2003), illegal activities (Rudd & Branch, 2016), over‐capacity (Pauly, 1990) and inequitable distribution of access to and benefits from resources (Cisneros‐Montemayor et al, 2019; Finkbeiner et al, 2017).…”

Socioeconomic impacts of resource diversification from small-scale fishery development

“…Gendered division of labor can exist in fisheries, but Weeratunge et al (2010) argue that research should move beyond this limited perspective. Gender inequality in fisheries income is widely known (Zhao et al 2013, Teh et al 2020), yet the underlying causes are diverse. Compared to male fishers, women could be disadvantaged by being restricted to just gleaning, processing, and selling activities (Santos 2015, Furkon et al 2019, being restricted to intertidal areas (Siar 2003, de la Torre-Castro et al 2017, having poorer access to boats (Gerrard and Kleiber 2019), being given lower prices by traders (Purcell et al 2016), and even being excluded in some fisheries, thus obtaining less catch (Chapman 1987.…”

“…A main driver of catch rates and fishery income in Samoa was access to a boat. Across fisheries globally, boat owners tend to earn more than nonowners (Teh et al 2020). In some fisheries, women's limited access to fishing equipment restricts their access to certain fishing grounds and consequently reduces their catches and income (Fröcklin et al 2014).…”

“…Fishing costs can represent a large proportion of total fishery earnings (Teh et al 2020). A relatively rare characteristic of Samoa's trochus fishery is the low fishing cost, averaging just US$103 per year per fisher, which helps to explain the high rates of satisfaction.…”