V2V PHOTO OF THE WEEK 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: December 21, 2022
This photo was captured at Mposa beach (Mapira beach) on the shores of Lake Chilwa, Malawi. The photo shows planked boats full of special fish traps used by the small-scale fishers of Lake Chilwa. These types of fish traps are made out of mosquito nets; therefore, it is illegal to use them for the purpose of fishing. The fishers use fish traps, gillnets, seine nets and long lines. However, fish traps are common because they are less expensive as they are made of local materials compared to other gear types that need synthetic materials. Gillnets are also cheaper than seines. Fish traps and seines mainly catch Matemba while gillnets and long lines target large fish species such as Makumba and Mlamba.
Photo credit: Vannessa Warren, 2022
Contributor: Friday Njaya
V2V Photo of the Week: December 14, 2022
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This photo was captured during a field research on Nori-seaweed aquaculture at Lake Hamana, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It shows small-scale fishers adjusting the seaweed culture net. Lake Hamana holds the oldest aquaculture ground in Japan. Seaweed aquaculture offers an opportunity to diversify a fishery or farming operation or start a new business for the community. Seaweed farms absorb nutrients and carbon dioxide to grow and can improve water quality and buffer the effects of ocean acidification in surrounding areas.
Photo credit and Contributor: Yinji Li, 2018
V2V Photo of the Week: December 07, 2022
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This photo was captured in Kemujan village, Karimunjawa National Park, Central Java, Indonesia. The photo shows an afternoon when small-scale fishers are preparing equipment to catch squid during the night. The main tool used to catch squid is a tonda fishing rod, which is an environmentally friendly fishing gear. Tonda is considered a form of local wisdom and an effort to protect the environment as the location is a Marine Protected Area. Before every voyage, the preparation starts with setting up fishing gears, motorboats, and food supplies that will be used during the time of catching squid. The size of a vessel used by the small-scale fishers is less than ten gross tons and the canoe seen is used to carry fishers and their equipment to the vessel.
Photo credit and Contributor: Zulfikar Al-hafidz, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: November 30, 2022
The photo was captured at a field visit to Gabura island in Bangladesh Sundarbans during the 5th CSD Annual Conference on Sustainable Development 2022 (organized by the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 12th to 15th of October 2022). It shows integrated fish farming where agriculture and fishing take place side-by-side. This activity is based on traditional community knowledge and adaptive practices on the island that serves as a model of sustainable food production and empowers communities with sustainable livelihoods. In integrated fish farming, the waste products of one biological system serve as nutrients for a second biological system and water gets re-used through biological filtration and recirculation. CSD-ULAB and Sajida Foundation are collaborating to test the efficacy of climate-resilient integrated farming in different villages of the Satkhira district, Bangladesh.
Photo credit and Contributor: Jenia Mukherjee, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: November 23, 2022
This photo was captured at the Maruhubi landing site, Zanzibar Island, Tanzania. The photo shows a pile of small pelagic (anchovies) on the ground and two kids picking the big ones for family use before the anchovies get steamed and dried. Small pelagic play an important role in contributing to the food security and nutrition of a considerable number of coastal residents. The catch number of anchovies depends on the cycle of the moon or tidal phases. Fishing is normally carried out during the moonless nights, which is about 20 - 22 nights in a month.
Most processors come to this site during the fishing period for camping (for 18 - 20 days in a month) because the site is facilitated with a big drying space and buyers are coming to this area to buy the dried anchovies. Fish processors purchase anchovies, steam them with a mixture of salt and water, and then dry them on racks or on the ground. The dried anchovies get packed and transported to Congo and Tanzania mainland.
Photo credit: Mwanakhamis Ali, 2022
Contributor: Batuli Mohammed Yahya
V2V Photo of the Week: November 16, 2022
This photo was captured at the Frasergunj village of the Indian Sundarbans. The photo shows the process of capturing seedling of Tiger Shrimp (Penaeus monodon) from the murky waters of the Indian Sundarbans. In Bengali, seedling is known as ‘meen’ and it is harvested by both men and women who are known as ‘meendhara’. Meen catching requires a special bag type net having rectangular bamboo frames.
Photo credit and Contributor: Raktima Ghosh, 2021
V2V Photo of the Week: November 09, 2022
This photo was captured at the Shaplapur fish landing site along Cox’s Bazar District - Teknaf marine drive, Bangladesh. The photo shows the traditional fishing moon boats (locally known as “Chand Nouka”) on the Shaplapur landing site, which is one of the largest fish landing sites along the southeast coast of Bangladesh. Every day, approximately 250-300 fishing boats unload their catch on the landing sites of Bangladesh.
Teknaf marine drive is the 80-kilometre-long road from Cox’s Bazar to Teknaf along the Bay of Bengal and the world’s longest marine drive. The opening of this road in 2017 has eased access to markets and currently, the major part of the landed catch gets transported to distant markets. Nevertheless, the fishing communities are vulnerable to extreme weather events that make their fishing voyage in the bay very risky. The 65-day seasonal fishery closure also put more strain on the livelihoods of local fishing communities.
Photo credit and Contributor: Mohammad Mahmudul Islam, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: November 02, 2022
This photo was captured in Yui(由比) fishing community of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The photo shows the women of Sakura shrimp fishers are involved in cleaning the fish boxes for the next fishing voyage, which will take place in the evening of the day during the spring fishing season (from the end of March to the beginning of June). Known as the “Jewel of Suruga Bay”, catching Sakura shrimp has been an important livelihood that supports the economy of the local communities in Suruga Bay, Shizuoka, Japan. In 2018, the fishery experienced an unprecedented decline. After continuous transdisciplinary efforts that have been in place to cope with the situation in the bay, the shrimp resources have started showing slight recovery.
Photo credit and Contributor: Yinji Li, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: October 26, 2022
This photo was captured at Phimbi beach, Zomba District, Lake Chilwa, Malawi. Lake Chilwa is the second largest lake in Malawi and Phimbi beach is among one of the least active beaches in the basin. The photo shows small-scale fishers and their boats in the background and an elevated wooden structure used for drying the catch. Due to poor road networks, it is difficult for fish traders to access this beach, especially in seasons when the lake gets flooded. It is challenging for fishers to do fishing when the lake gets flooded due to the decrease in the number of catches.
Photo credit and Contributor: Vannessa Warren, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: October 19, 2022
This photo collage is out of the photos captured during the 5th CSD Annual Conference on Sustainable Development 2022. It shows the V2V Bangladesh and India team and V2V secretariat Canada team represented by Samiya Selim, Prateep Kumar Nayak, Jenia Mukherjee, Anuradha Choudry, and their students at the conference cum workshop, a fishing boat carrying fishers and students on the Ganges River, and a fisher family posing at their house. This interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary Conference was organized by the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) at Dhaka, Bangladesh from 12th to 15th of October 2022, with the collaboration of the V2V Global Partnership, IMBER, Sajida Foundation, ZMT Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Universität Heidelberg, and NOCRISES. The conference brought together local and international experts from across the globe to explore the most pressing and nexus issues relating to the Sustainable Development Agenda. The focus of this conference was on a number of interconnecting issues - climate change, blue growth, equity, migration, well-being, and resilience.
Three V2V sessions took place during the conference where the V2V country coordinators, collaborators, partners, and students from Bangladesh, India, and Canada participated in roundtable discussion sessions and shared viable stories of small-scale fisheries from translocal settings within transboundary Sundarbans. The three V2V sessions were titled “V2V (Vulnerability to Viability): Transboundary Opportunities and Challenges in the Sundarbans Delta”, “Knowledge Exchange on Viability of Small-Scale Fisheries”, and “V2V: Viability of Small-scale Fisheries - Sharing Successful Stories”.
Photo credit: Aishik Bandopadhyay, Md. Emon Rahman, Jenia Mukherjee, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, 2022
Contributor: Jenia Mukherjee and V2V Global Partnership
V2V Photo of the Week: October 12, 2022
This photo was captured at Frasergunj village in South 24 Parganas district, at the Indian Sundarbans. It shows small-scale fishers, boatmen, and helpers in the Bay of Bengal with a motorized boat who are using Ferki (bamboo basket) to unload the boat full of catch to a push cart. The catch could consist of a variety of fish like Bombay Duck, Ribbon fish, Phansa, Chhuri, Honey Gourami, and various types of shrimp, which gets mostly sun-dried in a large seashore camp (shabar yard). Usually, a crew consists of about four fishers, an experienced boatman, and a helper catches fish at 35-50 kilometers far from the shore using funnel-shaped behundi jaal (bottom-set bag-net that includes a cod end and a small mesh cover).
Check the following publication for further information:
Bandyopadhyay, A., Ghosh, R., Mukherjee, J., & Pathak, S. (2022). From the shabars of the Indian Sundarbans: Everyday Empirics through photography. Coastal Studies & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/26349817221107301
Photo credit: Ashik Bandyopadhyay, 2022
Contributor: Raktima Ghosh
V2V Photo of the Week: October 05, 2022
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This photo was captured at a fish market in Char Fasson Upazila sub-district of Bhola district, Bangladesh. It shows a school-age full-time fish vendor who is a school dropout. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many children from fishing communities would occasionally help their parents in income-generating activities. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the education of children. The pandemic halted the livelihood activities of many people in fishing communities. The prolonged closure of educational institutes led many children from marginalized fishing households to withdraw from their schools before completing their education and made them full-time breadwinners of their families. It is estimated that this situation would aggravate the intergenerational poverty in fishing communities.
Photo credit and Contributor: Mohammad Mahmudul Islam, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: September 28, 2022
This photo was captured in Aloopatna village on Chilika lagoon, Odisha, India during the fishing village visit at V2V-Chilika Field School 2022. The field school was held from the 22nd of august to the 29th of August, 2022 and the theme of it was “Transitioning from Vulnerability to Viability in Fisheries Social-Ecological Systems”. The photo shows the participants from a selected group of graduate students and early-career researchers/professionals from the academia, government, NGO, and coastal community members (women from self-help groups, and members of the local fishers’ federation) posing in front of the village school after .
The communities reflected that environmental changes were especially noticeable following the arrival of shrimp aquaculture from the 1980’s onwards and the opening of a new sea mouth in 2001, which affected salinity and water quality of Chilika lagoon. Women-only groups described their lack of decision-making and participation in governing processes related to the lagoon, despite of being involved in the majority of post-harvest activities. The social and cultural trends in Chilika include the gender division of labor in households, and the differential access to resources and political participation, which are increasing the marginalization of women in Chilika Lagoon. Provisions, such as the formation of self-help groups, which aim to empower women, provide decision-making powers at the household level. However, some women felt they could contribute and influence more at the community level. It must be noted that age, marital status, class, religion, caste, and an array of intersectional factors are affecting each woman’s access to and use of resources, visibility, ownership, and agency.
Photo credit and Contributor: V2V Global Partnership, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: September 22, 2022
This photo was captured in Inatori (稲取) fishing community of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The photo shows a fisher couple preparing the Japanese lobster fishing net for their next voyage in the early morning after landing their first lobster catch. Wives of small-scale fishers usually wait for their husbands at the fishing port for their return from fishing and help them in the post-harvest process. The lobster fishery in Japan has been threatened in recent years due to multiple factors and affected the livelihood of the community dependent on it. Inatori is a small community with a population of 5,915 in Izu Peninsular, Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan and it is well-known for its Kinme (splendid alfonsino) fishery.
Photo credit and Contributor: Yinji Li, 2021
V2V Photo of the Week: September 14, 2022
This photo was captured at the shore of the North Atlantic Ocean, the beach of Yoff in Dakar, Senegal. It shows a group of fishers from Yoff fishing communities on a pirogue with a length of 12 m. It also shows another group of people on land that has been waiting for the arrival of the pirogue. The large majority of these people are women who are buying the catch and retailing it. The others are young people that are helping fishers to haul the pirogue from the sea or helping the fishers to carry materials and catch to the land. Considering the crowd around this 12 m pirogue that shows the socio-economic importance of it and the number of people depending on it, we can imagine the number of people that are dependent on 18 m and 20 m pirogues.
Photo credit and Contributor: Aliou Sall, 2019
V2V Photo of the Week: September 07, 2022
This photo was captured at Mposa beach (Mapira beach) on the shores of Lake Chilwa, Malawi, which is the most active beach in the Machinga district. The photo shows small-scale fishers and fish traders standing on dry land that was once a part of Lake Chilwa. Lake Chilwa is drying up fast and fishing is getting harder with each passing day as the water continues to move further away from the beach. As a result, the catch gets dwindled heavily every year. During hot and dry seasons, the water level tends to recede faster in the Machinga district as compared to Zomba and Phalombe districts. Therefore, the fishers from the Machinga district migrate to other districts in search of survival through finding new fishing grounds and good farmland.
Photo credit and Contributor: Vannessa Warren, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: August 31, 2022
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This photo was captured in Satapada on Chilika lagoon, Odisha, India during the Community Workshop at V2V-Chilika Field School 2022. The field school was held from the 22nd of august to the 29th of August, 2022 and the theme of it was Transitioning from Vulnerability to Viability in Fisheries Social-Ecological Systems. The photo shows the participants holding their certificates on the last day of the field school. During the weeklong field school, a selected group of graduate students and early-career researchers / professionals from the academia, government, NGO, and coastal communities came together to deliberate and learn about concepts, approaches and methods helpful to achieve a transition from vulnerability to viability within fisheries social-ecological systems in the face of unexpected drivers such as COVID-19. The participants gained firsthand experience through the fisher community’s perspectives on transitioning from vulnerability to viability: lessons from COVID-19 experiences. Then, it followed by the three working groups reporting back to the community and highlighting the key learnings from their experiences of being in Chilika. Later, the participants and community members were served a typical meal (cooked by the Satapada Villagers) that is usually cooked at large community gatherings in the Chilika area. In the end, the certificates were given to all the participants by the community members.
Photo credit and Contributor: V2V Global Partnership, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: August 24, 2022
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This photo was captured in Chilika lagoon, Odisha, India during the V2V-Chilika Field School 2022 on Environmental Change and Governance. The theme of this field school is Transitioning from Vulnerability to Viability in Fisheries Social-Ecological Systems. The photo shows the field school participants visiting the recently developed fish market around Satapada-Aloopatna Jetty area in early morning. Multiple small-scale fishing boats, at various stages of post-fishing activities, can be seen in the photo. The third boat from the bottom is showing the step one of the process, which is sorting out various varieties of catch and disposing bi-catch into the water. The first boat from the bottom shows the second stage, which is shifting the catch to the land for selling it to the middlemen, retail sellers, and household consumption. The second boat from the bottom shows the third stage, which is cleaning the "closed nets" and boats and getting prepared for the next voyage.
Photo credit and Contributor: Ankur Shukla, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: August 17, 2022
This photo was captured in Mochimune (用宗) fishing community of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The photo shows the small-scale fishers of Mochimune during the harvesting process of Akamoku seaweed. The seaweed was considered a "troubler of the sea and fishing", however, through a series of efforts carried out by the fishers and fisheries cooperative, Akamoku seaweed has recently started attracting attention as a superfood, which could contribute greatly to the community economics. Currently, Akamoku seaweed harvesting takes place once a year around March. Mochimune is a small town with a population of 4,777 and is located at the southwestern edge of Shizuoka City in Shizuoka Prefecture. Mochimune is well-known for whitebait fishery, which accounts for 95% of its landed fish.
Photo credit and Contributor: Yinji Li, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: August 10, 2022
This photo was captured in Banawa District in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. The photo shows intact mangroves that provide critical habitat for the species important to viable small-scale fisheries, including fish and crab, as well as resources for canoes and other small boats, and shoreline protection. The mangroves here as elsewhere have and continue to be under threat from aquaculture development (tambak) and other coastal resource uses. Mangroves and viable small-scale fisheries are connected.
Photo credit and Contributor: Derek Armitage, 2000
V2V Photo of the Week: August 03, 2022
This photo was captured at Lake Chilwa, Malawi. The photo shows one of the facilities that was built in 2012 during The Lake Chilwa Basin Climate Change Adaptation Programme (2010-2017). The facilities like these are no longer in use for their original purpose of drying and storing fish as their current condition does not allow it because of their poor maintenance. After the programme ended in 2017, the community members could not maintain them because of their lack of knowledge and sufficient fund. The Lake Chilwa Basin Climate Change Adaptation Programme was a seven-year research and development programme in Malawi that concluded in March 2017. The programme was designed to protect the livelihoods of the population and enhance resilience of the natural resource base upon which it depends. The Lake Chilwa Basin is an important wetland ecosystem that is a designated Ramsar Site under the Ramsar Wetland Convention and a Man and Biosphere Reserve designated by UNESCO. As part of outreach, the Programme facilitated dialogue and action on climate change through the establishment of rural radio listening clubs, the implementation of environmentally friendly technologies such as improved fish smoking kilns, solar fish dryers, conservation agriculture, and rehabilitation of Zomba Mountain Forest Reserve and other community managed forests.
Photo credit and Contributor: Vannessa Warren, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: July 27, 2022
This photo was captured in Guet N'Dar, St Louis, Langue de Barbarie, Senegal. It shows a busy day in the lives of the small-scale fishing communities of Guet N'Dar port, which is the most important fishing collection place in Langue de Barbarie area. The large number of people present in the shore is a clear indication of the high importance of small-scale fishery in the area. Numerous businesses and activities are gravitated to the shore that would not have existed without fishing, such as ice selling, boat engine repairing, hand vendors, fuel sellers, and even financial service providers specializing in the rapid transfer of money who work in close collaboration with major banks (some of which have international status). In addition to the women fish traders and fish processors who search for raw materials, some women come to the shore from rural and urban areas in search for alternative jobs and learn about fishing activities they can financially rely on (e.g., fishing gear trading).
Photo credit and Contributor: Aliou Sall, 2019
V2V Photo of the Week: July 20, 2022
This photo was captured at Nchenga beach, Zomba District, Lake Chilwa, Malawi. Lake Chilwa is the second largest lake in Malawi and Nchenga beach is among one of the most active beaches in the basin. The photo shows a woman carrying a bucket with the day’s fresh catch of catfish, locally known as “Mlamba” (Clarias gariepinus). Mlamba is one of the most common fish species that thrive in Lake Chilwa and is one of the most profitable fish to sell in Malawi. The water in Lake Chilwa tends to be mucky and extremely polluted, as the lake does not have any inlets or outlets. The pollution affects the viability of small-scale fisheries in the lake negatively.
Photo credit and Contributor: Vannessa Warren, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: July 13, 2022
This photo was captured in Bangsapan, Prachuab Kirikhan Province, Thailand. Coastal tourism is a big economic activity in Thailand. The beach in Bangsapan, Prachub Kirikhan province, a province in the southern side of Thailand, is mainly visited by Thai people as domestic tourists from other provinces in the south and Bangkok city. Daily catches from small-scale fisheries supply fish and seafood directly to the local restaurants. This situation continues even with industrial development taking place in the area. It seems to be acceptable as long as it is not impacting the habitats and the fisheries resources. On the other side of the bay is the fishing village. No sandy beaches are present there. The absence of rich mangrove forests make one wonder about the continuous productivity and maintenance of the biodiversity in the area. Small pelagic fish like anchovies are less reliant on the coastal habitats and they are caught further offshore by large purse seines. Anchovy fisheries, both small and large-scale, are not doing well with the recent regulatory changes restricting gear uses. V2V Thailand team research will look into the coastal dynamics of the region as part of the effort to understand what makes Bangsapan communities vulnerable and how to transition to viability.
Photo credit: Suphakarn Traesupap, 2022
Contributor: Ratana Chuenpagdee
V2V Photo of the Week: July 06, 2022
This photo was captured at the shore of the North Atlantic Ocean, the beach of Yoff in Dakar, Senegal. It shows a group of people from Yoff fishing communities involved in transporting and selling fish at the shore. Processing of sardinella (yaboy in local Wolof language), a species that accounts for 80% of the landings, is conducted mainly by women. It is imperative to note that sardinella constitutes the essential source of animal protein for the fishing communities, but unfortunately the species is targeted by fishmeal factories. The number of fishmeal factories is constantly on the rise in Senegal but their increase in numbers is taking place at an alarming rate in Mauritania, a country located to the north of Senegal. Additionally, the power dynamics of trade mean that it is now more profitable for boats to sell Senegalese sardinella, or Peruvian anchoveta, as raw materials to factories for export, than to people to eat directly. This constitutes a serious threat to food security given the migratory nature of the species.
Photo credit & Contributor: Aliou Sall, 2019
V2V Photo of the Week: June 29, 2022
These photos were captured in St John’s city, province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada during the 4th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress (4WSFC) North America (June 20-22, 2022). The Congress was organized to honour the International Year for Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture and it aimed to facilitate dialogue across different dimensions of small-scale fisheries (SSF) under the theme of "Getting IT Right" to achieve and maintain sustainable fisheries, coastal communities, and ocean activities – including getting small-scale fisheries (SSF) governance, adaptation, conservation, aquaculture, blue economy, small, and the future right. The V2V Co-investigator, Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee, together with Evan Andrews and Paul Foley co-chaired this congress, while many other members of V2V took different roles in it. Several members of the V2V, including graduate students, organized sessions and presented papers on different dimensions of ‘Vulnerability to Viability (V2V) Transition’ to facilitate the process of ‘getting small-scale fisheries governance right’ within the context of a rapidly changing ocean.
Photo credit & Contributors: Prateep Kumar Nayak and Ana Carolina Esteves Dias, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: June 22, 2022
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This photo was captured in Padma River, Pancha Bati, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. The Padma River (known as “Padma” in Bangladesh and as “Ganga” in India) is a symbol of faith, hope, culture and sanity, as well as a source of livelihood for millions since time immemorial. The photo shows people congregating in large numbers at the riverside for worshiping and having “Ganga bathe” in celebrating Chaitra Sankranti Puja. some communities believe that Gangajal (the sacred water of Ganga) is so powerful that it can wash all the sins of many past births away, and taking a dip in the Ganga is a way to purify oneself. Ganga is considered one of the most sacred rivers in the region and is referred to as "Maa Ganga" (Mother Ganges) - possibly because it holds and nurtures billions of lives, including humans and other terrestrial, aquatic, and amphibious entities. She is the center of social, cultural and religious traditions in the Indian sub-continent. Reference to the river Ganga has been made in the ancient Indian scriptures such as Vedas, Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayana and several others. In fact, respect for Ganga is a part of Indian identity and is considered a symbol of Indian culture. Every year, millions of people converge on the river in selected cities to pray and take a holy dip in Ganga.
Photo credit & Contributor: Md. Atique Ashab, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: June 15, 2022
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This photo was captured in Ojo, Lagos State, Nigeria. The photo shows water hyacinth invasion in Ojo fishing community. First seen in the early eighties along Badagry creek in the coastal zone of Lagos State, aquatic weed (water hyacinth or Eichhornia crassipes and sargassum) rapidly spread across inland, aided by eutrophication from urban and industrial wastewaters. In the fishing community, the invasive weed is a menace especially during the dry season when it attains dense growth. At this stage, it disrupts aquatic life and obstructs fishing and related activities for people dependent on small-scale fisheries. Consequently, aquatic weed becomes one of the major vulnerability sources for fishers in coastal fishing communities. Sadly, the potentials of using weed as an alternative income stream remain unfulfilled due to poor awareness of the uses, thus sustaining the vicious cycle.
Photo credit: Agnes Onyejeochin Godwin, 2022
Contributor: Kafayat Adetoun Fakoya
V2V Photo of the Week: June 08, 2022
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This photo was captured at the Fish Auction Place (TPI) Morodemak, Demak Regency, Central Java province, Indonesia. The photo shows small-scale fishers engaged with landing their boats and moving their catches into baskets for sale. There are a number of fish vendors waiting to buy fish either directly from fishers or during the auction. Fish catches are sold per pound. The fish vendors prefer buying catches straight from the fishers immediately after their fishing boats land, because they would have the ability to choose fish of better quality and the type of fish they want.
Photo credit and Contributor: Ika Suciati, 2021
V2V Photo of the Week: June 01, 2022
This photo was captured in Ojo, Lagos State, Nigeria. The photo shows artisanal sand mining in Ojo fishing community. Rapid urbanization and real estate development have created an insatiable appetite for sand. Sand mining across the rivers and the coastal areas of Lagos causes several negative social and environmental impacts, such as reduced fish resources, deforestation, land degradation, flooding, erosion, and other effects caused by a physical disturbance to the habitat. The unregulated sand mining in the coastal region may have far reaching consequences for the physical and socio-economic wellbeing of the coastal regions’ population. Consequently, the huge demand impacts the survival of inland and coastal fishing communities and defines sand mining as a ‘wicked problem’, a major and recurring threat to fishers. Combined with impacts of other anthropogenic activities, the vulnerability of fishing communities is increased and the consequences were extended beyond declining catch and income to outright loss of fisheries-based livelihoods.
Photo credit: Agnes Onyejeochin Godwin, 2022
Contributors: Kafayat Adetoun Fakoya and Shehu Latunji Akintola
V2V Photo of the Week: May 25, 2022
This photo was captured in Shizuoka City, Japan during the 4th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress (4WSFC) Asia-Pacific. The Congress was organized to honour the International Year for Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, and V2V Co-investigators, Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee and Dr. Yinji Li were the co-chairs of this congress. The photo shows a program at the congress where the invited speakers (local small-scale fishers and fish processors) brought their specialties including Sakura shrimp, whitebait, and horse mackerel, and cooked for the audience, which attracted the most favourable comments from the conference participants.
It is an obvious but crucial fact that small-scale fisheries produce food. The quality of that food has become increasingly important in current fisheries research and more attention has been given to the role of fish in a healthy diet. Yet, there is still much that we do not know about how small-scale fisheries function as part of local and global fish-food systems. This plenary foregrounds one model that seeks to highlight the positive role that small-scale actors can play with regard to fish. This is the idea of short value chains where retailers cultivate direct relationships with fish producers and processors (or vice versa) in order to foreground a broader set of values than simply profit. Fish in this model thus may represent societal goods associated with small-scale fisheries like family or cooperative enterprises, ecologically sustainable fishing practices, or common heritage while also potentially providing fresh, tasty, local specialties. Fish as food plenary grounds this theme of short value chains, and its potential benefits for small-scale fisheries, in an example from Shizuoka itself.
Photo credit: TBTI Japan, 2022
Contributor: Yinji G.K. Li
V2V Photo of the Week: May 18, 2022
This photo was captured in Nijhum Dwip (meaning 'Silent Island' in Bengali), a small island in Noakhali District of Bangladesh. The photo shows a few fishing baskets (locally known as “kata”) and a number of old plastic barrels in the background. Fishing baskets serve as a way of draining the water from the catch, storing the fish temporarily, and as a unit of measurement (one kata is roughly 1 cubic foot). The price of one kata varies depending on the fish species the katas occupy. For instance, a kata full of Hilsa would value more than a kata full of off-season Chewa fish. The coastal small-scale fishers of Bangladesh use fast-growing eco-friendly bamboo to weave fishing baskets of a fixed size. They also use old plastic barrels in their fishing nets, as the barrels are buoyant and make the nets float over water. The coastal small-scale fishers of Bangladesh intuitively are resourceful in their fishing practice while they reuse materials that would otherwise end up in landfills.
Photo credit and Contributor: Syed Tauheed Raihan, 2021
V2V Photo of the Week: May 11, 2022
This photo was captured in T Badh, Padma River Bank, Rajshahi, Bangladesh. It shows a few fishers involved in selling their catches at a lower price to a Dadondar (local money lender and investor in the fishing business). There are several fishers who depend on Padma River for their livelihoods. Riverine fish is in high demand in the nearby Rajshahi city as the residents there strongly believe that riverine fish has better quality and nutritional values than cultured fish. Therefore, the price of riverine fish is much higher than cultured fish in the market. However, fishers cannot sell their fish at a fair price in local markets. Instead, they are forced to sell their catches to the Dadondars at a low price because of the debt they are into with the local Dadondars. The debt that the fishers are in is difficult to get out of, resulting in a vicious cycle of livelihood crises. Poverty is a constant impediment in fishers’ lives that gets passed down from one generation to another. To make ends meet, they must borrow money from money lenders at exorbitant rates of interest. The fishing family's situation remains unchanged because almost all of their hard-earned income is diverted to money lenders to repay the loan.
Photo credit and Contributor: Md. Atique Ashab, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: May 04, 2022
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The photo was captured in Mabluu fish market at Zanzibar Island, Tanzania. It shows an ongoing process of auction of fish caught by small-scale fishers. Male and female fish vendors gather during the auction to buy fish for the purpose of reselling. Local people are always part of the auction process to buy fish for consumption. Women vendors mainly sell the auctioned fish by the roadside in a suburb, while the men have more options to sell their fish either on their bicycles or inside the main fish market at Darajani and Malindi. The auction area is in very poor condition without any post-harvest handling appliances such as ice-making machines or freezers and the quality of the fish is always not guaranteed. Sometimes fish are thrown away due to decay, and market oversupply could bring huge losses to the fishers, resulting in their increased vulnerability.
Photo credit and Contributor: Batuli Mohmmaded Yahya, 2022
V2V Photo of the Week: April 27, 2022
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The photo was captured in the Kuala Terengganu district, Malaysia. The incidence of poverty is extremely high among the artisanal fishers in Terengganu State, which is a state on the eastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The majority of fishers use small fiberglass boats (locally called sampan), which are equipped with 25 horsepower outboard engines on average. Fishers use a variety of fishing gears, such as hand lines, long lines, traps, gill nets, and drift nets.
The area that is less than five nautical miles far from shore (zone A) has been reserved for artisanal fishers. Fishers go fishing six days a week and Friday is the non-fishing day when fishers take rest. Most of the fishers usually fish in the early morning and come back in the afternoon. The main fishing activities are conducted between March and October. Fishers face economic crisis during the monsoon season (November to February) due to a lack of fishing and alternative employment. They also face flood and climatic hazards during the monsoon season that cause potential loss of fishing assets almost every year. They also lack financial capital to invest in fishing vessels, engines, and fishing nets.
Photo credit and Contributor: Gazi Md Nurul Islam, 2013
V2V Photo of the Week: April 20, 2022
This photo was captured in Char Dhularshar of Dhularshar Union, Kalapara Upazila, in Patuakhali district of Bangladesh. The photo was taken when the government banned Hilsa fishing, transporting, and marketing for 22 days from October 9 - 30, 2019 to support the safe breeding of Hilsa. The photo portrays a number of fishers getting ready to start fishing activities after the ban period by mending and repairing their fishing nets, gears and boats. In most fishing cultures, boats symbolize the health of the fishery. When boats are on the water, they represent vibrant interactions between fish and people, and when they are off the water, they make everything look as static as they are. Considering the vital importance of the boats, the fishers of Char Dhularshar prepare their boats during the ban period to have a smooth and safe fishing voyage after the ban period. When fishing, fishers try to maximize their profits by targetting Hilsa fish as it has the highest-selling value.
Photo credit and Contributor: Sabiha Ahmed Diba, 2019
V2V Photo of the Week: April 13, 2022
The photo was captured in Sagar Island, Indian Sundarbans. Fishing trawlers working in the sea can be seen on a clear day from the shore of the island. the social-ecological system in the Sundarbans has experienced a gradual but significant shock over the last two decades with the arrival of fishing trawlers in the Bay of Bengal region from neighboring countries like Malaysia, Thailand and India itself. The intervention brought dramatic changes to the overall social-ecological balance of the island. While the fishing trawlers became an instant driver of change, their effects were multiplied by the recent environmental changes.
Trawlers pollute the aquatic environment by employing a 120-370 horsepower engine and consuming ~40 litres of oil in an hour. They steadily intrude on traditional small-scale fishing areas in search for higher catches, therefore, inflicting possible damages to fish stocks and marine habitats. Trawlers and mechanized boats repeatedly forage the coastal waters and rivers while looking for big-sized fish. After large-scale hauling, they separate big- and small-sized catches from each other and throw back small ones that are dead or dying. This leads not merely to a noticeable reduction of catch, but consequent harm for fish populations. The trawlers also drag big-sized trawl net along the ocean-bottom destroying on-bottom habitat life. Fishing trawlers have generated a massive amount of hatred among the local fishers and dried fish producers for many reasons already mentioned. Small-scale fishers of the region believe that their preferences should be given priority when it comes to where and when to fish, mainly because of their minor impacts on the ecosystem in comparison with fishing trawlers (Sevil et al., 2021).
Photo credit: Sevil Berenji, 2019
Contributor: Ankur Shukla
V2V Photo of the Week: April 06, 2022
The photo was captured in Uthaly village, Manikganj, Bangladesh. It shows a grandfather and his grandson commuting by their fishing boat on Ichhamati River, around which their community has grown up. The river teems with native fish during the monsoon season. Small-scale fishery relies heavily on boats to survive and in some communities like Manikganj’s Uthaly hamlet, these boats are the only means of transportation and communication with the outside world. In recent years, climate change-induced vulnerabilities such as cyclones have been a regular phenomena in the region, which have made these marginalized fishing communities more vulnerable than before.
Photo credit and Contributor: Diponkor Adikari, 2021
V2V Photo of the Week: March 30, 2022
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The photo was captured at the Banggi Island, Kudat district, Tun Mustapha Park Sabah, Malaysia. The majority of local small-scale fishers use small wooden skiffs powered by modified 7–8 hp water pump engines. A small number of them also operate fibreglass boats with outboard engines. Fishing is usually conducted with traditional gears. Hook and line, and gillnets, are the two most important fishing gears in fish landings. Several fishers in the area are guilty of using illegal and damaging fishing methods such as use of explosives (blast fishing) and cyanide fishing. The small-scale and artisanal fisheries in Banggi can be considered open access with little regulation.
The small-scale fisher households in Banggi Island are the poorest of the poor in Sabah region. Fishers face financial crisis and vulnerability during the monsoon season due to lack of fishing activity and non-fishing alternate employment. The strong winds and climatic hazard pose continuous threats to house structures, other economic assets, and fishing gears. Fisheries on the island have dropped three to four times over the last 20 years and the catch rate has also declined significantly. Fishing seasons are largely determined by the severity of monsoon winds. The peak fishing season occurs during the calm period at the beginning of the Southwest Monsoon, between March and May/June. This is followed by the low fishing season which coincides with the windiest months of the Southwest Monsoon from June until September, when inclement weather prevents regular fishing activity.
Photo credit: WWF-Malaysia / Marine Programme, 2018
Contributor: Gazi Md Nurul Islam
V2V Photo of the Week: March 23, 2022
This photo was captured in Tarituba community, Paraty, Brazil. It shows a traditional fishing gear, locally known as ‘covo’ or ‘manzua’. The gear is used as a trap to capture demersal, reef fish species, and lobster. The structure of the covo allows fish to go in but prevents them from coming out by trapping them inside a hexagonal wooden frame covered with chicken-wire mesh or synthetic fiber. It usually has one funnel-shaped opening for inserting bait and removing the catch. Besides the adaptability of the covos to large- or small-scale fishing operations, they contribute to the local economy by requiring establishment of small workshops to construct, repair, and supply. Small-scale fishers, who usually fish in wooden canoes, use covo with a bait inside in coral reefs or rocky shores to capture fish and lobsters.
Photo Credit and Contributor: Ana Carolina Esteves Dias, 2014
V2V Photo of the Week: March 16, 2022
The photo was captured at Bhola, the largest coastal island in Bangladesh during a commissioned study to assess the combined impacts of Covid-19 and 60-day fishing ban on SSF communities involved. The fishing ban was effective from 1 March to 30 April, 2020, which also coincided with the Covid-19 lockdown declared from 25 March to 31 May, 2020. There was a further 22-day ban starting October was imposed on catching, selling and transporting Hilsa (Ilish) within a 7,000 km breeding ground, to ensure safe spawning of the fish, during its peak breeding period. To compensate the loss of fishers during the COVID lockdown, the government has allocated 40 kg of rice to fishers who had fisher ID cards. Unfortunately, most of the fishers do not have fisher ID cards, which is one of the main problems. The study findings show a strong need for diversified alternate livelihoods for these fishing communities. The following two papers got published from this study based on the findings:
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Bhowmik, J., Selim, S. A., Irfanullah, H. Md., Shuchi, J. S., Sultana, R., & Ahmed, S. G. (2021). Resilience of small-scale marine fishers of Bangladesh against the COVID-19 pandemic and the 65-day fishing ban. Marine Policy, 134, 104794. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104794
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Sultana, R., Irfanullah, H. Md., Selim, S. A., Raihan, S. T., Bhowmik, J., & Ahmed, S. G. (2021). Multilevel Resilience of Fishing Communities of Coastal Bangladesh Against Covid-19 Pandemic and 65-Day Fishing Ban. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.721838
Photo Credit and Contributor: Mizanur Rahman, 2020
V2V Photo of the Week: March 09, 2022
The photo was captured in Vanderkloof Dam, Northern Cape, South Africa. It shows an inland small-scale fisher fishing at the Vanderkloof Dam (VDK). These fishers use numerous fishing methods, including kraal fishing which is operated a bit differently than coastal regions. In the kraal fishing method of coastal regions, fishers use reeds to trap the fish that drove in by the currents, while in the dam kraals (inland), fishers use rock walls and benefit from the water flow that enters from the dam sluice. This operates through the changing of water levels that are caused by the opening and closing of the sluices on a daily basis, which results in trapping fish in the rock walls.
The VDK is situated between the Northern Cape and Free State and is fed by the Orange River. Freshwater species caught in the dam are carp, yellowfish, mudfish, catfish. The small-scale fishery sector is extremely complex and diverse in this region due to the colonial and apartheid history of South Africa. To date, freshwaters remain the only natural resource whose management has not gone through a reform post-1994. This results in a situation where those fishing for food, livelihoods, and income do not have a legal right to fish and are forced to fish with recreational fishing licenses and post-office permits. Small-scale fishers from the area use post-office permits for their kraal fishing, but are granted special access to the area below the dam wall, after much engagement with the Free State and Northern Cape conservation authorities.
The global COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdown regulations and restrictions that were implemented by the South African government in response to the pandemic, have greatly impacted the ability of inland small-scale fishers to practice their livelihood activities, access their fishing grounds, and to ensure local food security. This pandemic has highlighted and intensified the faults in the existing governance frameworks and the current legislative state of the sector. In August 2021, a National Freshwater (Inland) Wild Capture Fisheries Policy for South Africa was adopted by the cabinet. However, is yet to be implemented and resembles more of a guiding framework than a complete policy document.
Photo credit: Michelle Joshua, 2015
Contributor: Masifundise Development Trust
V2V Photo of the Week: March 02, 2022
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The photo was captured in El Cuyo, Yucatán state, Mexico. It shows two generations of a family, a fisher (Geiser) and his son (Geiser Junior), on a fishing journey where for them fishing is not merely an economic activity but a way of life. The father is holding a giant fish called Mycteroperca bonaci (locally known as Negrillo) and the son is holding two lobsters, all captured by the Hookah diving system. The dad (Geiser) catches lobster, octopus, and groundfish, and teaches his son how to fish, but they also enjoy diving together as leisure. For Geiser Junior, the sea offers continuous learning opportunities as he has a fascination for the sea and fishing; he says he wants to be a fisherman like his dad. Geiser enjoys this passion of his son, but he says that “I want him to study, so he can go fishing with me as long he does not leave school”. Geiser is the leader of the fishing cooperative of his community, and he is currently promoting a community-based protected area to conserve lobsters in El Cuyo. He is working with researchers to get a diagnostic of the area to submit a request to the government for establishing a protected area in their community using the management tool defined as "Refugio pesquero", which is a management instrument that incentivizes setting up protected areas defined by the community to protect one or several commercially important species. He, as many other people in the community, are concerned by the pervasive coastal development and they do not want the area to be impacted as they have seen the deterioration of other places, “they want to protect their legacy”.
Photo credit: Geiser de Jesus Concha (left: 2021, right: 2014)
Contributor: Silvia Salas
V2V Photo of the Week: February 23, 2022
The photo was captured at Tarituba Community, Paraty, Brazil. It shows a fishing wooden canoe, used by small-scale fishers, and a trawler in the background. The canoes were made by knowledgeable fishers in the past, with wood from the Atlantic Forest (coastal and island vegetation visible in the background). Recently, both inland and marine protected areas were implemented in the region and extracting wood from forest reminiscent is not permitted anymore. Many of the fishing gear traditionally used by local fishers were replaced by others throughout the community development process, including factors such as the arrival of outsiders (e.g., Japanese) bringing new fishing practices and more resistant materials to produce gear. Among the current fishing practices in Tarituba, seine fishing (which employs “seine”, a surrounding net located in the canoe) targets mullet, sea bass, mackerel, among others. The fishing trawler in the background is also used to capture shrimp. With the implementation of a no-take zone overlapping the traditional fishing zone of Tarituba fishers, a monitoring program of SSF was co-developed by fishers, government officials and researchers to help identify viable solutions for both fishers and the marine ecosystem (Dias and Seixas, 2019).
Photo credit and Contributor: Ana Carolina Esteves Dias, 2014
V2V Photo of the Week: February 16, 2022
The picture was captured in Kosi Bay, Maputaland area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It shows the guide fences in kraal fisheries that are being traditionally operated by small-scale fishers of the Kosi Bay region. The coastal communities in the region use a customary fishing practice called Utshwayelo or fish kraals to capture fish. The kraals comprise guide fences (umtamana or umteyula) that are constructed at right angles to the flow of the water and to the shoreline. These fences are crescent or hook-shaped, with the concave side facing upstream. The fish are guided into the heart-shaped enclosure - where fish are trapped either in a basket (umono) or in a valve-like structure (ijele) where they can be speared (Mountain, 1990). This practice has been a source of food and livelihood for Kosi Bay communities for generations. It is their customary right to fish on the land they have lived off for generations. They usually target fish species like Grunter, Kingfish, Rock Salmon/Red Snapper, Yellowfin Bream and Pick-handled Pike.
Photo credit: Sibongiseni Gwebani, 2020
Contributor: Masifundise Development Trust
V2V Photo of the Week: February 09, 2022
This photo was captured in Jamestown, a suburb in the capital city of Ghana (Accra). It is one of the most intensive fishing communities in Ghana. The majority of the Jamestown residents are involved in trading and fishing. Fishers in Jamestown fish six days a week using wooden vessels propelled by outboard motors. Tuesdays are typically non-fishing days when fishers mend their nets. Their most common type of fishing method is the use of gill net. The fishing industry in Jamestown faces numerous challenges, including high costs of outboard motors, premix fuel for powering their outboard motors, and fishing nets. It is good to note that gill nets are scarce for the fishers of the region as there are a few companies that sell them. Therefore, fishers are compelled to mend their nets regularly during their non-working days in the sun. Also, there is no storage facilities in the fish-landing site and fishers are compelled to sell their fish at lower prices during the highest catch period. The site has also serious sanitation problems that are caused by depositing plastics, rotten fish, sewage, and abandoned fishnets. These issues are not unique to Jamestown; they occur at nearly every fish-landing site in Ghana.
Photo Credit: Qurban A. Rouhani, 2012
Contributor: Richmond Korang
V2V Photo of the Week: February 02, 2022
This photo was captured in Nijhum Dwip (meaning 'Silent Island' in Bengali), a small island in Noakhali District of Bangladesh. The photo shows two small fishing boats and large wave-breaking diesel-powered freezer trawlers (contrary to what the name suggests, these boats do not have freezers) in the background. The small fishing boats are indeed fiberglass repurposed lifeboats that are salvaged from the port city of Chittagong. The port city of Chittagong owns a large number of obsolete lifeboats that can be used as shallow water fishing boats. The small-scale fishers of the island leave their fishing boats at the beach during the winter season when they are not used regularly due to the low availability of fish in the sea.
Photo credit and Contributor: Syed Tauheed Raihan, 2021
V2V Photo of the Week: January 26, 2022
This photo was captured during a group discussion at the 7th Global Conference of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society (tagged GAF7): Expanding the Horizons. The conference was held at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand between October 18-21 2018. Dr. Kafayat Adetoun Fakoya co-convened a Special Workshop with Editrudith Lukanga on the 'Role of women fishworker organizations towards implementation and monitoring of small-scale fisheries guidelines; case of African Women Network of Fish Processors and Traders (AWFISHNET)'. She presented a paper titled ‘Evaluation of women fisherfolks in Nigeria in the implementation of gender equitable Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines’ written by Foluke Omotayo Areola and Kafayat Adetoun Fakoya. Click here to view the presentation conducted by Editrudith Lukanga on the African Women Fish workers and Processors Network (AWFISHNET).
There is an imminent rise and evolving interest in women and gender issues in fisheries. Based on this fact, human behavior impacts are not one-dimensional and do not follow a simple clear-cut pattern. Human behavior impacts are complicated by a myriad of different interacting social identities that produce heterogeneity among actors in small-scale fisheries value chains. Women play multi-dimensional roles in fisheries where they are active mainly in post-harvest subsectors as processors and traders (it makes post-harvest subsectors a female-centric industry) rather than in harvest and pre-harvest subsectors. Despite their 'perceived vulnerabilities' and major responsibilities as care-givers, wives and mothers, their contributions are not recognised. Women's activities in the small-scale fishery value chains, particularly when assisting their spouses, are considered as extensions of household responsibilities and are generally unpaid. The interacting social identities of women uplifts their social status within households and fishing communities and makes them defy existing gender norms and possess greater decision-making capacities. Therefore, lack of consideration of the heterogeneous identities of women and men could have tremendous implications on interventions or efforts to improve small-scale fisheries governance and its wide-ranging impacts on food and nutrition security, livelihoods and income-generation at local, state, regional and national levels.
Photo credit: GAF7 Thailand, 2018
Contributor: Kafayat Adetoun Fakoya
V2V Photo of the Week: January 19, 2022
This photo was captured in Biriwa town that lies within the Central Region of Ghana. The photo was taken during a field visit made to understand how the fishers among the coastal communities of Ghana were impacted by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) guidelines. It shows fish traders waiting at the shore for the arrival of catch where following social distancing or mask protocols is difficult. Male and female fishers and fish traders informed the researcher that in their line of occupation it is difficult to follow coronavirus guidelines since they need to haul their nets or drag their boats ashore in a group. Fish traders, on the other side, had to congest at the beach in order to get the best and bigger available catch. It is important to mention that the primary occupation of Biriwa inhabitants is fishing, with a few people engaged in farming. Because most of them live in the coastal area, men in the town normally become fishers since that is the available occupation at the shore and the women mostly become fishmongers (people who sell raw fish and seafood). Fishing is not done on Tuesdays because it is regarded as a taboo. The canoes used for fishing belong to families and they are given names to identify the family that owns them.
Photo credit and Contributor: Selorm A. Dzantor, 2020
V2V Photo of the Week: January 12, 2022
This photo was captured in the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh. It shows environment-friendly artisanal gears used for small-scale crab harvest. These gears, locally known as “Atol”, are made of locally available and biodegradable materials. Small-scale crab harvesters of the Sundarbans region use them to harvest crab based on their needs instead of using them to harvest tonnes of crab at a time. Nowadays, it has been instructed by the government not to use these gears since other aquatic organisms (like fish) could get caught in them. These harvesters also use small hooks and line and bait for harvesting crab. In terms of exploiting natural resources, we are overexploiting almost everything. According to Earth Overshoot Day analysis, currently, we need 1.7 Earths to meet our need for natural resources. The technological advancement in resource harvesting is one of the main drivers for the overexploitation of natural resources. A similar observation can be made in the field of fisheries. Fisheries resources are overexploited in many parts of the world. There is growing evidence that small-scale and artisanal fishing practices are environment-friendly and can contribute to the sustainability of fisheries resources.
Photo credit and Contributor: Md. Ruyel Miah, 2019
V2V Photo of the Week: January 05, 2022
This photo was captured in Yoff, the city of Dakar, Senegal. It shows a session at the Small-Scale Fisheries Academy in Senegal that uses visual thinking and the art of hosting methods to strengthen the capacities of men and women in SSF value chains. The photo captures Nabia Ngor, a micro-fish vendor from Yoff in Senegal, showing the drawing of her annual change journey. During a workshop in October 2019 she stated to her fellow participants three months into her action plan: "Before, I only marketed a crate of fish a week. During the past three months, I stopped buying clothes and wanted a luxury laptop. I reduced my days of expensive internet connection to twice a week. I also decreased the loans. This helped me to get two crates of fish to market per week and to achieve my goal, set for the first three months in my annual plan." Continuing to apply what she had learnt in the Academy courses, Nabia has achieved significant steps from her very vulnerable starting point towards a viable small-scale business. For World Ocean Day of the year 2021, Mundus maris asbl produced a short video available here featuring Nabia as she used the organisational principles she learnt in the academy to her advantage. She is not alone, others have progressed as well. Perhaps even more importantly, the Academy learners are strengthening their ability for collective action and raising their ambition for participation in broader aspects of governing life in their community.
More information on the workshop and testimony of the October 2019 workshop is available here: https://www.mundusmaris.org/index.php/en/projects/proj2019/2291-2pilot-en
Photo credit: Maria Fernanda Arraes Treffner / Mundus maris asbl, 2019
Contributor: Cornelia E. Nauen