The fishing and seafood sector in the time of COVID-19: Considerations for local and global opportunities and responses

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fishing sector over the world, including several economic, social, environmental, and health challenges that the fisheries have had to face during the early days of the health crisis, and some of them still continue today. These problems, in short, are translated into a decrease in seafood demand, loss of jobs, changes in food consumption habits, economic losses, or increased vulnerability of the industry. As a consequence, governments have been forced to implement regulations and measures in support of this sector. However, a positive aspect of the pandemic also stands out, the opportunity to transform the food system to be greener, more inclusive, and resilient against future shocks.

Assessing the Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on the Aquaculture and Fisheries Sectors in Relation to Food Security: A Critical Review

“…India's nationwide lockdown forced hatchery owners to close their hatcheries, feed mills, and processing plants [33]. Similar impacts were reported in Bangladesh and Myanmar [40]. Moreover, financial or cash-flow issues also forced the owners to lay off their labor temporarily or permanently from their farms [4].…”

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector in Developing Countries and Ways Forward

“…Due to airline limitations and the extended quarantine periods, fishing crews have been unable to depart from their homes. The COVID-19 virus could spread quickly among crew members and medical help may be challenging to obtain [26]. The majority of fishers are migratory and many are frequent international visitors to foreign fishing towns; these traits increase the chance of COVID-19 spreading and causing problems for crew members [23].…”

“…Since each fish food chain comprises several stakeholders, an understanding of the impacts and challenges that are influencing the input suppliers, fish farmers, traders, processors, exporters and importers is needed. The existing studies focus on many important issues, such as the overall impact of COVID-19 on smallscale fisheries [9,[19][20][21], aquaculture (including when COVID-19 synergizes its impacts with anthropogenic stressors) [10,22], vulnerability [23], resilience [7,24], consumption patterns [4,25], fish food [4], seafood [26], and the food system [19]. However, there is a lack of a thorough study that focuses on COVID-19 s overall effect on the fisheries sector and the fish food chain; this is a study that is needed in order to gain insights that can assist policy design in order to improve the sector's resilience.…”

Impact of COVID-19 on Croatian mariculture: Findings from the first national surveys

“…However, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the sector to reduce production as a result of the associated pandemic management measures and the disruption of associated services. The effects have been recorded at all levels of the aquaculture supply chain affecting demand, logistics, prices, labour force and business planning [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] .…”