Making sense of small-scale fisheries

Across the world’s coral reefs, rivers, lakes, coastal waters, and high seas, fishers with simple tools and small boats harvest some 40% of the world’s wild-caught fish.

These small-scale fishers may feed as much as a quarter of the global population, providing essential nutrients and upholding local economies. Yet despite their importance, they face growing threats from climate change, pollution, and overfishing.

A solution for ‘policy paralysis and inaction’

Aside from the volume of their annual catch and reliance on family labor, small-scale fisheries are marked by contrasts. Producers target more than 2,500 species in an array of habitats using a wide range of nets, traps, hooks, and boats, with different levels of access to refrigeration. While some fisheries operate individually and provide food locally, others are corporations with paid crews and extensive market reach. 

“All these factors make developing clear pathways for sustainable consumption very difficult,” said Xavier Basurto, a professor of environmental social sciences at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and a senior author of a new analysis of 1,255 marine producers in 43 countries.

The challenge extends beyond fisheries. “The varying definitions of small-scale producers in farming, fisheries, and forestry give rise to confusion and lack of clarity in many legal documents and have been linked to policy paralysis and inaction,” Basurto and co-authors write in the study, published Oct. 14 in Nature Food.

Beyond vessel size

Together with lead study author Alba Aguión of Duke University, Basurto and co-authors identified five broad groups and three main functions of small-scale fisheries based on 13 attributes such as motorization, trip distance, refrigeration, and how harvests end up being used. Some provide food for the harvester’s own household, for example, while others are traded in local markets, exported, or processed in a factory for human consumption or products such as fishmeal for animal feed or fertilizer. 

Many small-scale fisheries function mainly as nutrition and income safety nets. These are low-tech, low-capital operations in which people use bare hands or simple tools to catch species like clams and crabs in coastal shallows, or cast nets and traps from non-motorized boats. These fisheries typically operate without paid crews or much government oversight, and often focus on subsistence or local trade, according to the authors. 

Other small-scale fisheries act as economic engines. They use motorized boats equipped with storage and refrigeration that operate farther from shore and often spend days at sea targeting species like herring and sardines. Through license and landing fees, they’re more integrated into national economies. 

Seasonal operators in China, India, Iran, and Turkey fall in between the income safety nets and the economic engines. According to the analysis, these fisheries have motorized vessels and venture far from shore, but tend to target fish for local consumption.

The authors caution that vessel size alone can be a misleading indicator. “For example, in Argentina and Kenya, some small vessels operate like industrial fleets, whereas in Bangladesh, larger cooperative-managed vessels contribute substantially to local nutrition,” the researchers explain in the study.

Toward more effective policies and better seafood guides

To understand these nuances, the authors developed a 0-39 point scoring system from artisanal to industrial outfits. They found that the smallest of small-scale fisheries, scoring in single digits, exist in 19 countries and contribute 4% of the global marine small-scale catch. 

On the more industrial end of the spectrum, small-scale fisheries owned by corporations with multiple paid crew members and broader market chains operate in only four countries, including Indonesia, Maldives, Argentina, and Peru. These countries scored 29 or higher in the authors’ system and account for around 2% of the global small-scale catch.

Similar analyses could aid policy development in other food sectors, enabling more effective and targeted policies, Basurto said. For example, a government aiming to increase productivity, employment, and value from food systems could help artisanal small-scale fisheries bring products to market. Countries with small-scale fisheries on the more industrial end may see more benefits from programs that offer access to real-time price data, for example, or financing for fuel-efficient boats. 

“The benefits of this research can be wide-ranging and go from new global policies to national or subnational policies,” Basurto said. At the consumer level, the breakdown could help to inform seafood guides for choosing options with lower environmental impact. “With better information, seafood guides can point out which fisheries help sustain local communities and which operate more like bigger industrial fleets,” said Aguión. “It lets people make choices that reflect their priorities."