Women and Natural Resources

Women and Natural Resources
Week 4 Lecture Notes – Fisheries

Welcome to Week 4. We are jumping from natural resource topic to topic – so stay with me here. In this week’s lecture notes, I will provide a little background about fisheries in general so that you have some context. By the close of this course, it is my hope that you will have a terrific introduction to multiple natural resources and the problems encountered within – probably more than you expected given that this is a women’s studies course!

Note: The text “Taking Stands” has more to do with forestry than the other topics we discuss in class, although I do ask you to refer to the text here and there. In the grand scheme of things, it is in fact, all connected with the exception of desertification on some measures. Therefore, I will ask you to refer to this text only during specific weeks. I am mentioning this in case some of you were wondering why I asked you to purchase this particular book. While much of what Reed has to say does impact other resources, most of her writing falls under an “umbrella of forestry.”

So Fisheries – what exactly is a fishery?

When you see “fishery” in the news, you probably think of salmon, halibut, flounder, maybe even fish-and-chips. Perhaps you think about the fishing boats that catch fish, or even marine life. FYI – Aqua Culture – which is the farming and management of certain (not all) shellfish such as oysters, comes under it’s own category.

There are many moving parts to fisheries: the boats, the fishers (men and women who fish), the crew, the equipment to trap, trawl, troll, purse seine (pronounced “sign.” Some fishers sell their catch directly off their boat while docked, others sell to local markets or to commercial buyers at local ports. For some fisheries, buyers or processors will meet the large commercial fishing boats out at sea for faster processing, and because some boats need to offload their catch before returning to the sea for more.

There are many coastal fishing port businesses that benefit from having fishers and a local market from fishing, meaning, there are interconnected systems of people and resources that rely on fishing dollars to sustain local communities. This is called the ripple affect and is an extremely important concept, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Recall we had several fishery closures (salmon, groundfish) during the last 20 years that cost local economies billions of dollars in lost income. A fishery closure means that the federal government prohibited fishers from fishing a certain species of fish. In the past, the closure was a result of over-fishing.

Fisheries are regulated by states through several federal agencies: The Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and other state agencies.

Women’s role in fisheries around the globe vary significantly. In 1992 a group of women concerned with the management of fishery resources founded the Women in Fisheries Network. You can view their website at: http://www.fis.com/wfn/
To see many great fishery websites and links see the Pacific Fishery Management Council site:
http://www.pcouncil.org/resources/links-to-fishery-agencies-and-organizations/

There are numerous studies that have been published regarding women’s participation in fisheries. In my research, I found that there are about 3 objectives for the purpose of examining community issues regarding women’s participation in fisheries, and the effects on mainstream fisheries development:

• To examine the roles of women in the fisheries sector of the communities dependent on fisheries (and also where appropriate those not dependent upon fisheries)
• To provide an analysis of the obstacles and the potential related to women’s contribution to the socio-economic development and diversification of these communities
• To identify ways and means for the promotion of equal opportunities for women in the fisheries sector.

As similar to agriculture (farming, crop production, harvesting, selection, medicinal plants), biodiversity, and access to land and water, there exists gender differences in other countries (non U.S.) within fisheries. This includes the legal and social status and rights, access to decision-making and positions in organizational management, formal support systems (child care), education, and socio-cultural constraints (the external aspects that affect women’s decisions, social status, and personal interest and aspirations. Economic factors are also significant.

In one study within fisheries dependent communities in the European Union (about 12 countries that formed a political and economic union in 1993), the following patterns were found regarding women and fisheries:

1. Women feel unwelcome in the seagoing fishing sub sector, but have little interest in participating anyway. It is not surprising that very few women are involved (3% of the workforce)
2. Women feel discriminated against in aquaculture, but to a much lower extent, and are far more representatively involved. There are a few specifically women-managed aquaculture activities.
3. Processing is the one sub sector where women are over-represented, but mainly
because they predominate in low-grade unskilled jobs. Seafood processing is
perceived to hold few career prospects for women, mostly with good reason.