small-scale fisheries – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

In Ghana, there are persistent disputes between industrial and small-scale fishers over access to the sea. Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images

April 13, 2026

Disputes over Africa’s ocean resources: here’s what could help avoid them

Elizabeth Selig, Stanford University; Adelina Maria Mensah, University of Ghana; Mafaniso Hara, University of the Western Cape, and Moenieba Isaacs, University of the Western Cape

As ocean uses expand, it will be necessary to reduce disputes because they disrupt the environmental sustainability and equity central to a blue economy.

To enable sustainable and equitable fisheries, transparency must be coupled with capacity-building, monitoring, enforcement and truly participatory engagement. (Shutterstock)

June 12, 2023

Illuminating dark seas: Why fisheries management must be more transparent

Daniel Skerritt, University of British Columbia and Dyhia Belhabib, University of British Columbia

One of the greatest challenges facing our oceans is illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. And a vital tool against this is problem is context-specific fisheries transparency.

One of the newly discovered sixgilled sawshark species (*Pliotrema kajae*). Simon Weigmann

March 18, 2020

We’ve just discovered two new shark species – but they may already be threatened by fishing

Per Berggren, Newcastle University and Andrew Temple, Newcastle University

Scientists thought there was only one sixgill sawshark species – until now.

Marginalised and small-scale fishers must be given capacity and the space to engage and influence policy. Shutterstock

October 28, 2019

How to get fishers more involved in decisions that affect them

Louise C. Gammage, University of Cape Town

It’s possible for local fishing communities to have a say in managing the system they work in.

Fish for sale in a Dakar, Senegal. AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam

September 30, 2019

Local communities play outsized but overlooked role in global fisheries

John Virdin, Duke University and Xavier Basurto, Duke University

Small-scale fisheries buffer poverty and hunger in coastal countries.

Fish fences are typically positioned on tropical seagrass meadows, which are important ecosystems for fish communities and the health of neighbouring habitats. Benjamin Jones/Project Seagrass

May 22, 2019

Small‑scale fisheries have unintended consequences on tropical marine ecosystems

Richard K.F. Unsworth, Swansea University; Dan Exton, University of Oxford, and Gabby Ahmadia, The University of Queensland

To ensure overall biodiversity, the intensity and impact of small-scale fisheries’ methods needs far more attention.

A fisherman on Kwan Phayo. Philip A. Loring

November 27, 2018

We can eat our fish and fight climate change too

Philip A Loring, University of Guelph and Ratana Chuenpagdee, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Many people focus just on agriculture and new technologies for feeding the world’s growing population. Yet, fisheries are the centerpiece of billions of people’s diets.

A fisherman checks his fish corral nets in the Cau Hai lagoon, Vietnam. Mark Andrachuk

August 29, 2018

Lessons for sustainable fisheries are hiding in plain sight

Mark Andrachuk, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa; Derek Armitage, University of Waterloo; Hoang Dung Ha, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry; Jessica Blythe, Brock University, and Le Van Nam, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry

When it comes to small-scale fisheries, there is no one route to sustainability. Finding success stories can help map those paths.

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