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'Imagine the (Un)imaginable', thus was the motto of the European regional gathering of the 4th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress convened in Malta from 12 to 14 September 2022. Three intense days of presentations and discussions in search of solutions to the open crisis of artisanal fisheries in Europe. Hosted by the government of Malta and organised by the Too Big To Ignore global research platform led by Ratana Chuenpagdee, the congress attracted some 120 participants mostly on site, but also offered online participation. Researcher turned Parliamentary Secretary, Dr. Alicia Bugeja Said, opened the congress.

Marsaxlokk, once primarily the harbour for the famous colourful traditional boats, called luzzus, of the coastal fisheries in Malta is today even more of a tourist attraction than a major seafood conveyor in Malta's economy and society. It also hosts new types of vessels where tradition meets modernity. This island in the middle of the Mediterranean, close to Sicily and Tunisia, bears witness of thousands of years of mixing cultures, colonisation and creating a unique blend of architecture, food, arts and practices influenced by the locals, past invaders and today's visitors. Nice restaurants now line the harbour promenade. On Sunday, 11 September 2022 the traditional fish festival brought out masses of people to the fish, fruit, vegetable and souvenir stands of the market along the pier with traditional boats, small tourist transport vessels and other boats anchoring in sight.

image004bAs part of the official calendar of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022), FAO and others supported the organisation of a Small-Scale Fisheries Summit from 2 to 4 September 2022 in preparation of FAO's 35th Committee of Fisheries (COFI) convened the following week to hear about the bi-annual World Fisheries and Aquaculture Report 2022 and give orientations for future work. Mundus maris contributed an Africa focused session to the SSF Summit.

HassebMdIrfanullah bDr. Haseeb Md. Irfanullah is an independent consultant on environment, climate change, and research systems and a visiting research fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) in the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). His talk briefly introduced two emerging approaches - Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Locally-Led Adaptation (LLA). In the context of climate crisis and he discussed the currently available standards/principles related to them. Using a couple of cases from small-scale fisheries (SSF), he explored the challenges and opportunities to capitalize on these novel concepts to influence our efforts in the context of SSF's vulnerability and viability, especially in the knowledge/evidence creation and system/policy influencing spaces.

Yoff WaitingForFishLandings bWomen fish traders have long been central to marketing catches in small scale fisheries and thus not only make their own families thrive, but also contribute considerably to food security to households at national, even regional levels. Though long ignored by officialdom and development projects these women have been coping with remarkable creativity and tenacity the many changes their social and economic context has been undergoing since quite some time. The work of the Small-Scale Fisheries Academy in Senegal has paid special attention to their needs for strengthening their capacities to continue being protagonists rather than becoming victims in the value chains.

QurbanARouhani bFrom colonial objectives to constitutional imperatives

In February of 2022, the South Africa National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment gazetted the national inland fisheries policy. This marks the first time in South Africa’s history, that inland small-scale and traditional fishers are recognised within the legislative framework. Until now, South Africa’s inland fisheries has been dominated by recreational fisheries, a product of colonial priorities. In this presentation, we explore how colonial policies shaped inland fisheries and the transition to a democratic sector that is now aligned to the constitution of the country.

MariscadoraHouseVigo2bAfter postponing the event originally scheduled for 2020 event due to the pandemic, the 20th Biennial IIFET Conference was held 18th-22nd July 2022 in Vigo, Spain. Vigo has a long-time connection with the ocean. Vigo’s Bay was mentioned by Jules Verne in his book ‘20,000 Leagues under the Sea’. It is now one of the world’s largest fishing ports and one of the busiest in terms of volume. The strong connection of Vigo with its roots in the fisheries community is clearly displayed in the impressive murals dedicated to fishers and seafood around the city like the one showing a 'mariscadora' - a woman working in seafood collection with a 'percebes', a typical Galician goose barnacle (courtesy S.T. Boschetti).

On the road to Lisbon, many organisations had organised preparatory events to contribute to the mobilisation in support of the most neglected and underfunded of all Sustainable Development Goals. The Ocean Conference was co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal. The European Parliament convened a preparatory event organised by a group of MEPs with Ambassador Peter Thomson, Special Envoy for the Ocean of the UN Secretary General, on 21 June 2022. 

This month's webinar of the research platform 'From vulnerability to viability' (V2V) was delivered by Dr. Jessica Blythe on 24 June. She argued that transformations towards ocean equity and blue justice are needed to address the inequitable distribution of access to ocean benefits and resources, as well as disproportionate exposure to harms. Yet, actions that fundamentally restructure relationships between people and the ocean are highly political and can produce substantial risks for coastal communities and the marine environment. This seminar explores recent scholarship and practice on navigating this critical and complex space.

The activities of Mundus maris asbl and its partners to celebrate World Environment Day (5 June) and World Ocean Day 2022 (8 June) started already in May with raising awareness in two classes at the Colegio Bilingüe Báltico in the Veracruz Province, Mexico. The UN motto for this year 'Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean' is particularly stimulating and timely in the light of several major reports published in the last few months and painting a gloomy picture of greater negative impact of human action on the ocean than expected. Having said this, the research also shows that much worse can be prevented by determined collective action, e.g. weaning us faster from fossil fuels and delivering the deal in the World Trade Organization (WTO) to finally phase out harmful fisheries subsidies.

The May 2022 V2V webinar by Dr. Milena Arias Schreiber of the School of Global Studies at Gothenburg University introduced new concepts for the viability of small-scale fisheries. Milena used a justice lense to illustrate that new concepts are needed to describe the experiences of small-scale fisheries people in living under multiple pressures, including blue growth and blue economy. She examines how some of the new concepts can contribute to strengthening the viability of small-scale fisheries. Departing from the origin of the term Blue Justice, Milena shows how concepts can be co-produced through transdisciplinary processes and what contributions they can bring to the future ocean discourses. Her talk is based on a recent co-authored article in Marine Policy titled "Blue Justice and the co-production of hermeneutical resources for small-scale fisheries".