Purcell SW et al. (2016), Multiple Factors Affect Socioeconomics and Well...

ECB-ART-45059

PLoS One 2016 Jan 01;1112:e0165633. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165633.

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Multiple Factors Affect Socioeconomics and Wellbeing of Artisanal Sea Cucumber Fishers.

Purcell SW , Ngaluafe P , Foale SJ , Cocks N , Cullis BR , Lalavanua W .

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Small-scale fisheries are important to livelihoods and subsistence seafood consumption of millions of fishers. Sea cucumbers are fished worldwide for export to Asia, yet few studies have assessed factors affecting socioeconomics and wellbeing among fishers. We interviewed 476 men and women sea cucumber fishers at multiple villages within multiple locations in Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and New Caledonia using structured questionnaires. Low rates of subsistence consumption confirmed a primary role of sea cucumbers in income security. Prices of sea cucumbers sold by fishers varied greatly among countries, depending on the species. Gender variation in landing prices could be due to women catching smaller sea cucumbers or because some traders take advantage of them. Dissatisfaction with fishery income was common (44% of fishers), especially for i-Kiribati fishers, male fishers, and fishers experiencing difficulty selling their catch, but was uncorrelated with sale prices. Income dissatisfaction worsened with age. The number of livelihood activities averaged 2.2-2.5 across countries, and varied significantly among locations. Sea cucumbers were often a primary source of income to fishers, especially in Tonga. Other common livelihood activities were fishing other marine resources, copra production in Kiribati, agriculture in Fiji, and salaried jobs in New Caledonia. Fishing other coastal and coral reef resources was the most common fall-back livelihood option if fishers were forced to exit the fishery. Our data highlight large disparities in subsistence consumption, gender-related price equity, and livelihood diversity among parallel artisanal fisheries. Improvement of supply chains in dispersed small-scale fisheries appears as a critical need for enhancing income and wellbeing of fishers. Strong evidence for co-dependence among small-scale fisheries, through fall-back livelihood preferences of fishers, suggests that resource managers must mitigate concomitant effects on other fisheries when considering fishery closures. That is likely to depend on livelihood diversification programs to take pressure off co-dependent fisheries.

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Genes referenced: LOC100887844 LOC115917929 LOC115925415

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	Fig 1. Countries and locations in the study.Map of the central-western Pacific showing the four study countries. Individual maps show the study locations within each country; Kiritimati Island in the Line Islands Group of Kiribati was also a study location.
	Fig 2. Frequency of subsistence consumption of sea cucumbers by fishers.Stacked bars represent the frequency of consumption of sea cucumbers by fishers in Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and New Caledonia. The suggested guide to fishers for consumption frequency was: often = once or more per week, sometimes = around once per month, rarely = one or a few times per year, never = never.
	Fig 3. Sale prices from fishers to buyers for fresh sea cucumbers.Bars are country-wide average sale prices of whole fresh (unprocessed) large-sized individuals, of 22 species of sea cucumbers in Fiji (top left), Kiribati (top right) and Tonga (bottom left). Coloured dots are average prices in locations (see inset legends) within each country. Sale is from fishers to exporters or their agents. Average international conversion rates over the survey periods were used to convert data on prices in Fiji (FJD to AUD = 0.58) and Tonga (TOP to AUD = 0.54); the currency in Kiribati is AUD. Comparable data were not collected in surveys with fishers in New Caledonia. Species are arranged in order of descending economic value from the bottom to the top of graphs, according maximum prices in Chinese markets (Purcell 2014).
	Fig 4. Sale prices from fishers to buyers for dried (fully processed) sea cucumbers.Bars are the country-wide average sale prices, by the kg of dried large-sized individuals, of 22 species of sea cucumbers in Fiji (left) and Kiribati (right). Coloured dots are average prices in locations (see inset legends) within each country. Fishers in Tonga were not processing sea cucumbers and selling the dried products at the time of the surveys. Average international conversion rates over the survey periods were used to convert data on prices in Fiji (FJD to AUD = 0.58) and Tonga (TOP to AUD = 0.54); the currency in Kiribati is AUD. Ra Province and Yasawa Group are not included in Fiji (left) because none of the fishers reported selling dried products. Data were not collected from fishers in New Caledonia. Species are arranged in order of descending economic value from the bottom to the top of graphs, according maximum prices in Chinese markets (Purcell 2014).
	Fig 5. Fishersâ€™ satisfaction with income from fishing and selling sea cucumbers.Fishers were asked how satisfied they were income they gained from fishing and selling sea cucumbers, and to respond according to one of four categories (see legend). Bars represent the proportion of fishers in each location who replied according to the satisfaction categories.
	Fig 6. Importance of livelihood activities of fishers.Bubble diameter is scaled to the proportion of fishers relying on each livelihood activity for their most important to least important source of income at the time of the interview. The activity they get most income from was ranked 1, the activity providing the second-most amount of income was ranked 2, and so on. Some fishers only had one or two income sources, while some others had four or five.
	Fig 7. Fall-back livelihood options of fishers.Bars represent the proportion of respondents stating one of eight livelihood activities as a primary fall-back for earning a majority of their income if they could no longer harvest and sell sea cucumbers. Some respondents gave two livelihood activities as fall-back livelihood options, in which case both data responses were included. We recorded copra (collecting, cutting, drying and selling coconut flesh) separate to agriculture because it is not necessarily from planted coconut palms and is not a food crop. â€˜Otherâ€™ could be livelihood activities including mat weaving, aquarium fish collecting, and other artisanal craft making.

References [+] :

Cinner, Socioeconomic factors that affect artisanal fishers' readiness to exit a declining fishery. 2009, Pubmed