Small-scale fisheries (SSF) play a major role in the fisheries sector with over 490 million people depending at least partially on them. The sector is estimated to account for 40 percent of total inland and marine capture fisheries production, up to 90 percent of all those employed in capture fisheries, including an estimated 21 million women. However, due to the diverse and often highly dispersed nature of small-scale activities, information on small-scale fisheries (such as catch, employment, nutritional contribution, and governance arrangements) is not included nor disaggregated in official statistics, or may not explicitly accounted for when designing national, regional, and global policies.  As long as data on small-scale fisheries remains “hidden”, they will continue to be marginalized in policy-making processes, decision making and management.

A critical issue in the collection of data on SSF is the lack of a statistical definition and difficulties of characterizing of a fishing operation as “small-scale” or not. Many countries (as well as regional fisheries bodies and management organizations) have already developed some form of definition of small–scale and large-scale fisheries in their fishery legislation or fishery policy, but these are specific to the national or regional context and are generally not comparable in a regional or international context. Current definitions of SSF are typically based on a limited set of quantitative metrics such as vessel size and power, gear type, or area of operation. Such narrow quantitative characterizations have issues at the transition between small scale and larger scale and may exclude legitimate SSF fishers or enable larger scale vessels to be included as part the small-scale fleet.

In recent years, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed a matrix scoring approach that aims to provide systematic method for the characterization of the scale of fishing units. The matrix is intended to enable the objective identification of fisheries or fishing operations that may be considered small-scale and contribute to a better quantification of the number of such fisheries, their catches and the issues that relate to their operations.

The paper will present an overview of FAO’s characterization matrix, the results of testing at the national, regional and global level and the role of the matrix as part of FAO’s efforts to highlight the critical role of small-scale fisheries.  This includes the development of international standards for the definition and collection of data for small-scale fisheries by the Coordinating Working Party on Fishery Statistics (CWP), an international and interorganizational forum composed of 19 participating organizations for agreeing common definitions, classifications and standards for the collection of fishery and aquaculture statistics.

How to cite: Geehan, J., Vannuccini, S., Franz, N., and Guillermo, X.: Developing a characterization matrix for small-scale fisheries., One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-1483, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-1483, 2025.

This paper summarizes the outcomes of the recent Illuminating Hidden Harvests (IHH) Small-scale (SSF) Training Workshop and Panel Discussion, an event focused on the development of a comprehensive curriculum for SSF for use by the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences (DoFAS) at the University of Liberia (UL). Organized with the support of the Liberia Sustainable Management of Fisheries Project funded by the World Bank through the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), Duke University, FAO, and Conservation International (CI), this workshop aimed to enhance Liberia’s capacity on sustainable fisheries management by building a robust SSF curriculum within DoFAS. Participants explored key challenges facing the SSF sector in Liberia, including gaps in data collection, policy alignment, and the integration of local knowledge into fisheries management practices. The workshop produced a proposed curriculum outline that addresses critical areas, such as evidence-based management, human rights, and sustainable resource use. The potential elements of the curriculum adopted at the workshop include: definitions and characterization matrix of SSF, human rights-based approach to SSF, understanding the societal importance of SSF, governance of SSF, economic viability of SSF, role of gender in SSF, climate change effects on SSF, and SSF interactions with large-scale fisheries. The recommendations which emerged from the workshop are that: (i) DoFAS at the UL and NaFAA, in partnership with Duke University, FAO, CI and other relevant stakeholders, develop and implement this SSF curriculum with a strong emphasis on sustainable practices, evidence-based decision-making, and community engagement, and (ii) ongoing collaboration between academia, government, and local communities to support policy formulation and the sustainable growth of Liberia’s SSF sector be encouraged. This initiative marks a significant step toward building a fisheries workforce equipped to protect and enhance Liberia’s marine resources.

How to cite: Jueseah, A. S., Virdin, J., Geehan, J., Finkbeiner, E. M., Arthur, R., and Franz, N.: Towards building a fisheries workforce equipped to protect and improve marine resources management in Liberia, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-320, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-320, 2025.

Aquatic foods are a vital source of nutrients for coastal communities around the world. As global efforts accelerate to protect 30% of oceans by 2030, sustainable-use marine protected areas (MPAs), which permit regulated fishing, emerge as a promising approach to balance conservation with local livelihoods. Here, we explore the potential of sustainable-use MPAs to simultaneously support biodiversity conservation and human nutrition, particularly in coastal and coral reef regions. Through a comprehensive review and analysis, we identify three key pathways through which these MPAs can impact nutrition: (1) maintaining or enhancing fisheries catch, (2) fostering tourism opportunities, and (3) supporting alternative livelihoods. Our findings indicate that sustainable-use MPAs currently contribute around 13.6% of global catch, 14% of fisheries revenue, and 13.7% of nutrient supply, underscoring their vital role in supporting both economic and nutritional security for coastal communities. In coral reef regions, expanding these MPAs could increase fish biomass and catch by up to 20%, potentially preventing up to 3 million cases of inadequate micronutrient intake across coral reef nations. By integrating sustainable-use MPAs into broader ocean conservation strategies, we can help address malnutrition in vulnerable communities while achieving ambitious biodiversity targets. This approach is crucial for ensuring MPAs contribute not only to ecosystem health but also to global goals for nutrition security and human well-being.

How to cite: Viana, D., Gill, D., Ahmadia, G., Valdivia, A., Andradi-Brown, D., Bennett, N., and Golden, C.: Sustainable-use marine protected areas to improve human nutrition, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-140, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-140, 2025.

Global fish loss due to discards and processing is estimated at over a third of wild-capture fisheries production. Simultaneously nearly a third of the global population suffers from food insecurity while more than 40% cannot afford a healthy diet.

While post-harvest loss is a global problem, it is significantly worse in lower-income countries like the Philippines where more than two million small-scale fishers play a crucial role in ensuring food security, supporting sustainable livelihoods, and reducing poverty. The problem and impacts are larger and more urgent for small-scale fishers, who face limited access to capital and technology. Estimates of post-harvest fish losses in small-scale fishery value chains range anywhere from 20% to 75%, demonstrating the difficulty in quantifying the problem. In the Philippines, where such catch is almost entirely used for domestic consumption, and post-harvest loss is high, this is especially relevant.

In 2024, Oceana commissioned a study, co-designed by CenSAII, into post-harvest fish loss in selected coastal communities along Samar Sea (Samar) and San Bernardino Strait (Northern Samar) – among the richest fishing grounds of the Philippines. The research team used the Informal Fish Loss Assessment Method (IFLAM), with primary data directly collected from stakeholders or participants along the fish distribution chain through workshops and focus-group discussions.

Initial estimates in the study put average post-harvest fish losses in our target areas (representative communities in the two provinces) at 40% - that is, 40% of the catch by volume is subject to physical and quality loss. These locales, in the provinces of Samar and Northern Samar, top the list of areas in the Philippines with malnutrition and high poverty incidence. Most households in Samar (60.5%) and Northern Samar (75.1%) experienced food insecurity during 2018, well above the national average of 54%.

We are using this information to inform funding proposals from local fishing communities to the Philippine government for targeted post-harvest interventions, to reduce fishing pressure on sardines, increase local incomes, and retain more fish within the communities for consumption.

How to cite: Yray-Frossard, R., Salvador, R., and Sharan, S.: Improve nutrition and livelihoods for small-scale fishers and coastal communities through post-harvest interventions in the Philippines, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-77, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-77, 2025.

The diverse characteristics and contexts of small-scale producers underpin their multidimensional contributions to sustainable development, including food provision, resilience, poverty alleviation, and cultural heritage preservation. However, their diversity is often oversimplified, limiting their impact on global development and hindering effective food systems transformation. We use the case of small-scale fisheries, a diverse subsector capable of feeding one in four people globally, to challenge the dominant narrative that small-scale producers are too complex and context specific to be effectively categorised. Our analysis of over a thousand small-scale fisheries, representing 66% of global marine small-scale fisheries, utilised a model-based clustering approach and found five global archetypes of small-scale fisheries. Each archetype was characterised by different operational, socioeconomic, technological, and post-harvest attributes. Our findings start to unlock small-scale fisheries’ potential to contribute meaningfully to food systems transformation. This approach is low-cost, simple to implement and well-suited for decision-making processes in data-limited contexts, particularly in the Global South. The case of small-scale fisheries illustrates how this approach could be transferable to small-scale producers across other food sectors, paving the way for more precise policy-making and enabling their full contributions to sustainable development, potentially benefiting millions of people globally.

How to cite: Aguion, A., Basurto, X., Funge-Smith, S., Gorelli, G., Iversen, E., Mancha-Cisneros, M. M., and Gutierrez, N.: Illuminating Pathways for Marine Food Systems Transformation by Small-Scale Producers, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-312, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-312, 2025.

Globally, small-scale fisheries (SSF) support over 94% of the 120 million people engaged in capture fisheries. An estimated 5.8 million fishers in the world earn less than $1 per day, yet they generate an estimated two-thirds of the global fish catch for direct human consumption, with fish being a key source of local food security. According to the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, (2012), tenure systems are defined as the rules and norms that determine who can access what resources and their spatial and temporal attributes. The FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (2015) identify the governance of tenure as a fundamental requirement for responsible and sustainable use of aquatic biodiversity and natural resources.

In the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, the importance of small-scale fishers to broader sustainability outcomes is crucial. In the WIO region, small-scale fishers are strongly anchored in local communities, reflect a way of life, and provide critical contributions to society, economy, culture, and environment. At the same time, there has been a rapid increase in regional dialogues and actions related to WIO blue economy initiatives and global conservation targets catalyzed by multi-lateral agencies, global development and conservation organizations and regional governments. At the core of these initiatives are substantive challenges and/or threats to marine tenure of SSF and coastal communities generally. In our presentation, we highlight in particular two specific gaps which the Blue Tenure Transitions (BTT) working group is addressing. First, how we are building the transdisciplinary science base for the WIO region on the specific impacts and implications of marine tenure and the social, culture, economic, and ecological challenges of inadequate tenure provisions in the context of Blue Economy and 30x30 initiatives such as Marine Spatial Planning in countries such as South Africa and Tanzania. Second, we will present how we are co-developing participatory methodologies that enable communities to map and subsequently ‘share their stories’ about marine tenure in creative and accessible ways (through visuals and artforms and/or narratives) that empower them to advocate for necessary reforms. Our overall objective is to support community tenure systems and highlight bright spots where tenure has led to positive social and ecological benefits to ensure small-scale fisheries have equitable access to ocean resources, and help co-generate policies and practices that help protect and enable small-scale fishers. Working group members in the BTT project are funded by the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association and are based in both academic and government positions, from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Institute for Coastal and Marine Research at the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, Rhodes University, South Africa, Institute of Marine Science at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ministry of Fisheries and Blue Economy, Zanzibar, South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, South African National Biodiversity Institute, and the Vulnerability to Viability Global Partnership for Small-Scale Fisheries at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

How to cite: Muhl, E.-K., Strand, M., Mbatha, P., Francis Woiso, J., Shalli, M., McGarry, D., Dopolo, M., Elkharousy, Z. K., and Dunga, L.: Access, Rights and Equity for Blue Tenure Transitions in Small-Scale Fisheries , One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-1282, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-1282, 2025.

We provide the first global assessment of the status of preferential access areas (PAAs), a relatively understudied policy tool to govern small-scale fisheries. We find 44 countries, most of them of low or low-middle income, have established a total of 63 PAAs encompassing 3% of continental shelf area worldwide. The analysis of an ad-hoc subsample of twelve countries in three continents for which data were available (2016-2017) revealed that PAAs supported greater amounts of small-scale fisheries marine catch volume, landed value, fishing for self-consumption, and more nutritious species than marine areas outside PAAs. This preliminary assessment suggests that if appropriately enforced through shared governance with fishers and responsible fishing practices, relatively small areas of the ocean could provide important nutrition security, economic, and employment benefits to millions of people living in coastal areas. We offer an agenda for future research and policy action based on our findings. 

How to cite: Basurto, X., Virdin, J., Franz, N., Deland, S., Smith, B., Cleary, J., Vegh, T., and Halpin, P.: A global assessment of preferential access areas for small-scale fisheries, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-1544, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-1544, 2025.