Artisanal fishing as an undesirable way of life? The implications for governance of fishers' wellbeing aspirations in coastal Uruguay and southeastern Brazil

Micaela Trimble and Derek Johnson

Marine Policy, 2013, vol. 37, issue C, 37-44

Abstract: In Piriápolis (Uruguay) and Paraty (Brazil), artisanal fishers view fishing as a way of life, rather than just a job. The freedom of fishing and an inherent satisfaction in the occupation figure large in fishers' attachment to it. There are strong indications, however, that the relationship of fishers to fishing is changing. First, while fishers from both areas wish to keep fishing in the future, they are moving into different occupations or supplementing their work in fishing with other employment. Second, artisanal fishers from Piriápolis and Paraty identified fishing as an undesirable occupation for their children because they believe that in the future fishing will no longer be a viable occupation. Nonetheless, despite the wishes of their parents, young men and women in Piriápolis and to a much lesser degree in Paraty continue to become involved in fishing and fishing-related activities. The paper uses a social wellbeing perspective to interpret fisher responses to the changing circumstances they face. Wellbeing is a lens to understand the distinctive features of artisanal fisheries and helps to understand fishers' disenchantment with fisheries governance processes, in a scenario where participation is being promoted by the state in Uruguay and Brazil. The implications of these findings for state efforts to promote fisher participation in governance are discussed.

Keywords: Artisanal fisheries; Wellbeing; Governance; Way of life; Uruguay; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X12000632
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:marpol:v:37:y:2013:i:c:p:37-44

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2012.04.002

Access Statistics for this article

Marine Policy is currently edited by Eddie Brown

More articles in Marine Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().