Preliminary assessment of the impact of Covid-19 Pandemic in the small-scale and recreational fisheries of the Canary Islands

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic has affected worldwide in many different ways. Fisheries around the world are not an exception due to the long-term isolation and the non-activities period suffered. To do an evaluation of its impact on the fishing sectors in the Canary Islands, 87 online and phone questionnaires were carried out between July and September 2020, conducting the interviews to artisanal fishermen, fishmongers, recreational charter boats fishermen and tackle shops along the archipelago. Both, the artisanal and recreational fishing sectors have been affected by this pandemic, but in an unequal manner. The drop of the demand of fresh fishing products in the islands markets due to the closure of hotels, restaurants and other services, and the highly significant decreasing in the number of tourists, provoked an estimated income loss for the artisanal fishermen about the 40% on average, but the majority of vessels continued their activities during the pandemic, with very limited effects on direct employment. However, the fishmonger’s activity apparently was not affected and increased their monthly income in relation to the previous year. Likewise, the infeasibility of fishing charter companies due to the great reduction in the number of tourists contrasted with the significant increase in the number of recreational fishing licenses immediately after the confinement ended. Even though that fishing tackle shops increased sales by over 60% in relation to the similar period of the year before, only 4.4% of these shops declared not to have had economic losses.

COVID-19 experiences of small-scale fishing households: The case of Lake Victoria, Kenya

“…Fish marketing and price disruptions due to COVID-19 were widely reported across fisheries of all types and scales, affecting actors throughout fish value chains. Notable patterns of marketing disruption include inactivity or reduced fish marketing in tourism-dependent markets in the Canary Islands (Guerra-Marrero et al, 2021), and globalized export markets in diverse locations (Bassett et al, 2021;Grillo-Núñez et al, 2021;Sowman et al, 2021).…”

Syndemics of the sea: Adverse disease interactions and the stressors of fisher livelihoods

“…Most of the attention paid to the issue of COVID‐19 and fishers has focused on the impact of lockdowns on the falling demand for seafoods, although it is recognized that the economic impact of the pandemic on fishers' lives and day‐to‐day activities has varied by location (Guerra‐Marrero et al., 2021). Some fishers were stranded at sea by the shutdowns and could not, at first, return to dock, others were locally designated essential works and continued to fish.…”

Global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by recreational anglers: considerations for developing more resilient and sustainable fisheries

“…In countries and jurisdictions where recreational angling was allowed to continue in some form (but with some restrictions, such as social distancing; Paradis et al 2021 ), initial angler surveys and licence sales often suggested increased participation rates (e.g. Guerra-Marrero et al 2021 ; Midway et al 2021 ), including first time anglers and anglers resuming after periods of inactivity (Howarth et al 2021 ), and was likely related to recreational angling being considered a COVID-19 safe activity (‘social fishtancing’; Midway et al 2021 ).…”