Tropical Artisanal Coastal Fisheries: Challenges and Future Directions

Artisanal fisheries occur all over the tropics and provide an important source of protein and income for many coastal communities. However, varied types and magnitudes of anthropogenic impacts threaten the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural sustainability of this poorly studied fishing practice. This article reviews the scattered literature on tropical artisanal coastal fisheries, identifying key challenges to ensure future sustainability. Despite huge data shortfalls, there is considerable evidence that artisanal fisheries have a significant influence on the distribution and abundance of target and by-catch species, in addition to wider impacts on biodiversity, biomass, assemblage structure, community dynamics, and ecosystem functioning. Despite these immediate and considerable threats, regulation and management of artisanal fisheries are problematic. Local communities in the coastal tropics are frequently very poor, and families frequently rely on fishing for food security and income. Ensuring social and environmental sustainability therefore entails models of governance that are able to adaptively manage these complex socio-ecological systems. Such models are being developed, but it is unclear whether there are sufficient resources and technical capacity to widely implement them before the widespread collapse of fisheries with potentially serious consequences for the communities that rely on them.