A new international study, led in part by Michigan State University researchers, found women make up nearly 40% of the global small-scale fisheries workforce, which is more than double what many traditional fisheries datasets suggest. The findings suggest how incomplete data can underestimate the size of an industry that supports roughly 500 million people worldwide, leading to gaps in economic planning, conservation and public policy.
MSU professors Mark Axelrod and Mar Mancha-Cisneros built on the framework made possible by the Illuminating Hidden Harvests Initiative, which encourages countries to improve how they measure and support small-scale fisheries. They teamed up with a team of over three-dozen researchers across six continents to better capture women’s roles in fisheries.
The research, published in the journal Ambio, sought to improve decision-making and advance gender equity in small-scale fisheries, which employ almost 90% of all fisheries jobs around the world and support roughly half of the global seafood catch.