Balancing hope and disappointment: representation, social wellbeing, and the future of small-scale fisheries in Uruguay

ABSTRACT

Fishers need to feel they are valued partners in fisheries and coastal management. In 2012, the multi-stakeholder participatory action research Group POPA (For Small-Scale Fisheries in Piriápolis) held the First Small-Scale Fisheries Festival in Piriápolis, Uruguay. We investigated the change the Festival produced in the social representation of local fishers and how it relates to fishers’ wellbeing aspirations. Negative values in fishers’ self-perceptions were found. The positive social change triggered by the Festival tackled mainly fishers’ material wellbeing aspirations (boats, fishing gear for better catch and better income). We also discuss how the change proved relevant at different transformative scales.

KEYWORDS:

• Fisheries
• coastal management
• social representation
• fishers
• social wellbeing
• scale
• transformations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Small-scale fisheries encompass a wide range of inland and marine activities undertaken by both men and women, including harvesting from boats and on foot, along with pre- and post-harvest labor that occurs on land (FAO 2015).

2 Figures provided by the National Statistics Institute of Uruguay (INE) http://www5.ine.gub.uy/censos2011/resultadosfinales/maldonado.html

3 Figures provided by the Ministry of Tourism of Uruguay https://mintur.gub.uy/index.php/noticias/item/299-una-cifra-historica-en-el-turismo

4 “A fisher is one that develops small-scale commercial fishing activities through the use of boats of Gross Registered Tonnage no greater than 10” (Decree 149/997 Ministry of Cattle, Agriculture and Fisheries)

5 https://www.montevideo.com.uy/Noticias/DINARA-descarta-riesgos-por-consumo-de-pangasius-uc186818

6 https://www.presidencia.gub.uy/comunicacion/comunicacionnoticias/dinara-mercado-corea-china

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paula Santos

Paula Santos holds a Master in Communication and Culture at Universidad Católica del Uruguay. She is currently enrolled in a Master Programme on Economic History at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Universidad de la República, Uruguay. Her areas of study combine social wellbeing and resilience in socio-environmental vulnerable contexts systems (such as small-scale fisheries).

Micaela Trimble

Micaela Trimble works at the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies (SARAS), in Uruguay. She holds a PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Management (University of Manitoba, Canada). She was a postdoctoral fellow of the Federal University of Parana (Brazil), and of the Environmental Sustainability Research Centre at Brock University (Canada). She is a member of the National System of Researchers of Uruguay. Her areas of expertise include governance and adaptive co-management of social-ecological systems (such as small-scale fisheries and watersheds), public participation in environmental issues and participatory action research.

Derek Johnson

Derek Johnson is a Professor of socio-cultural anthropology at the University of Manitoba and a Research Associate at the Centre for Maritime Research at the University of Amsterdam. He works in the areas of international development and the political ecology of natural resource governance with a primary interest in marine small-scale fisheries. His work has been focused geographically on South Asia, and particularly the Indian state of Gujarat, since the mid-1990s. Derek is Project Director of the SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant project Dried Fish Matters: Mapping the Social Economy of Dried Fish in South and Southeast Asia for Enhanced Wellbeing and Nutrition Security which is conducting research in six countries in Asia. Derek is an Editor of the journal Maritime Studies.