Emerging Information and Communication Technologies for Monitoring India’s Marine Small-Scale Fisheries, Opportunities for Inclusion, Risks of Exclusion
1161 / 166
Authors
-
ALEXANDER TILLEY
WorldFish, Bayan Lepas - 11960, Penang, Malaysia
-
ANDREW M. SONG
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW - 2007, Australia
-
AJIT MENON
Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai - 600 020, India
-
PHILIPPA J. COHEN
WorldFish, Bayan Lepas - 11960, Penang, Malaysia
-
MARIANNE MANUEL
Dakshin Foundation, Bengaluru - 560 092, India
Keywords:
Apps, Digital, Exclusive economic zone, ICTs, ICT4SSF, Illegal fishing, IUU fishing, MCS, National security, Tracking, VMSAbstract
Adaptive, inclusive and effective management of fisheries resources is dependent on knowledge from multiple quantitative and qualitative sources. As technology advances, there is an increasing interest in digital and automated solutions for gathering fisheries data. Small-scale fisheries (SSF) have presented a persistent challenge to many centralized quantitative data collection systems, and
frequently maintain the status of ‘unreported’. This unreported nature often implicates SSF in the definition and discussions of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Monitoring, control and surveillance are seen as a vital part of the solution to IUU fishing, with substantial investment being put into increasingly sophisticated technology for tracking fishing vessels. For the past few years, India has been attempting to pass legislation to require all vessels, from small-scale to industrial, to install vessel monitoring systems on the grounds of national security and combating IUU fishing. However, there are concerns that a securitized and top-down approach to implement vessel tracking is not only wasteful but risks further marginalization of small-scale fishers from the resource, and fisheries groups from governance processes. India should seek to solve the underlying causes of IUU fishing while also developing collaborative monitoring and community-based management models. In this paper, we review evidence of emerging information and communication technologies and approaches in SSF and discuss how, if introduced and managed through collaborative processes, they could be used as a platform to strengthen inclusive governance, increase sustainability and improve wellbeing in coastal fisheries in India.
Downloads
References
Balint, R. (1999) The last frontier: Australia's maritime territories and the policing of Indonesian fishermen, Australian journal of French studies. Routledge, 23(63): 30-39. doi: 10.1080/14443059909387530.
Bavinck, M. (2005). Understanding fisheries conflicts in the south - a legal pluralist perspective. Society National Resource 18: 805-820.
Behivoke, F., Etienne, M.P., Guitton, J., Randriatsara,
R.M., Ranaivoson, E., and Léopold, M. (2021). Estimating fishing effort in small-scale fisheries
using GPS tracking data and random forests. Ecological Indicators 123: 107-321.
Bennett, N.J., Finkbeiner, E.M., Ban, N.C., Belhabib,
D., Jupiter, S.D., Kittinger, J.N., Mangubhai, S.,
Scholtens, J., Gill, D. and Christie, P. (2020). The
COVID-19 pandemic, small-scale fisheries and
coastal fishing communities. Coastal Management
(4): 336-347. doi:10.1080/08920753.2020.176
Bhalla, A. (2020). 12 years after 26/11 attack, 1.5 lakh
fishing vessels in Indian waters don’t have tracking
devices. Available at: https://www.indiatoday.
in/india/story/12-years-after-26-11-attack-1-5-
lakh-fishing-vessels-in-indian-waters-don-t-havetracking-devices 1744407-2020-11-26 (Accessed:February 14, 2021).
Bhatt, P. (2020). IUU fishing as a national security
threat: revisiting India’s domestic framework
and compliance with international regimes.
International Law Studies 96(1). 443-463.
Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/
ils/vol96/iss1/14 (Accessed: January 28, 2021).
Blaha, F. and Katafono, K. (2020). Blockchain
Application in Seafood Value Chains, 1207. FAO
Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular, FAO, Rome.
pp 1-43. doi:10.4060/ca8751en.
Bradley, D., Merrifield, M., Miller, K.M., Lomonico,
S., Wilson, J.R., and Gleason, M.G. (2019).
Opportunities to improve fisheries management
through innovative technology and advanced data
systems. Fish and Fisheries 20: 564-583.
Campbell, S.J., Jakub, R., Valdivia, A., Setiawan, H.,
Setiawan, A., Cox, C., Kiyo, A., Darman, Djafar,
L.F., Rosa, E. de la, Suherfian, W., Yuliani, A.,
Kushardanto, H., Muawanah, U., Rukma, A.,
Alimi, T. and Box, S. (2021). Immediate impact
of COVID-19 across tropical small-scale fishing
communities. Ocean and Coastal Management
: 105-485.
Cisneros-Montemayor, A.M. and Sumaila, U.R. (2019). Busting myths that hinder an agreement to end harmful fisheries subsidies. Marine Policy 109:
doi: 10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103699.
CMFRI. (2019). Fish Catch Estimates. www.cmfri.org.in/fish-catch-estimates.html
Cohen, P.J., Allison, E.H., Andrew, N.L., Cinner, J.,
Evans, L.S., Fabinyi, M., Garces, L.R., Hall, S.J., Hicks, C.C., Hughes, T.P., Jentoft, S., Mills, D.J.,
Masu, R., Mbaru, E.K. and Ratner, B.D. (2019).
Securing a just space for small-scale fisheries in
the blue economy. Frontiers in Marine Science 6:
Counterview.org (2016). Sagarmala Project: Serious
Concerns Being Raised About Environmental
Effects on Coastal Areas. https://counterview.
org/2016/11/21/sagarmala-project-eriousconcerns-being-raised-about-environmentaleffects-on-coastal-areas/ (accessed March 11,2021)
Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum (2021). Comments
on the Draft National Fisheries Policy 2020,
Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum. https://smalls
calefishworkers.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2020/05/
DMF_Comments-on-Draft-NFP-2020_170221.
Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister
(2020). India’s Blue Economy: A Draft Policy
Framework. Government of India.
FAO. (2009). A Fishery Manager’s Guidebook. Second edition, K.L. Cochrane and S.M. Garcia (eds.), FAO and Wiley-Blackwell. Available at: http://
www.fao.org/3/i0053e/i0053e.pdf.
FAO. (2014). Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, FAO, Rome, Italy. Available at: http://www.fao.org/tenure/voluntary-guidelines/en/
FAO. (2015). Voluntary Guidelines for Securing
Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context
of Food Security and Poverty Eradication, FAO,
Rome, Italy. Available at: http://www.fao.org/3/
i4356en/i4356en.pdf .
FAO. (2019). Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated
(IUU) Fishing, FAO, Rome, Italy. Available at:
http://www.fao.org/iuu-fishing/en/ (Accessed:
February 14, 2021).
FAO and WorldFish. (2020). Information and
Communication Technologies for Small-Scale
Fisheries (ICT4SSF) - A Handbook for Fisheries
Stakeholders. In support of the implementation of
the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food
Security and Poverty Eradication. A. Tilley
and M.B. Roscher (eds,). FAO, Bangkok and
WorldFish, Malaysia. doi:10.4060/cb2030en.
FAO. (2021). National Aquaculture Sector Overview.
India. National Aquaculture Sector Overview
Fact Sheets, Text by S. Ayyappan, FAO Fisheries
Division [online], Rome. http://www.fao.org/
fishery/countrysector/naso_india/en [Accessed 9
August 2021].
Frawley, T.H., Blondin, H.E., White, T.D., Carlson,
R.R., Villalon, B. and Crowder, L.B. (2021).
Fishers as foragers: individual variation among
small-scale fishing vessels as revealed by novel
tracking technology. Fisheries Research 238: 105-
Fujita, R., Cusack, C., Karasik, R., Takade-Heumacher,
H., and Baker, C. (2018). Technologies for
Improving Fisheries Monitoring, Environmental
Defense Fund, San Francisco. https://www.edf.
org/sites/default/files/oceans/Technologies_for_
Improving_Fisheries_Monitoring.pdf
Future of Fish (2019). Fishery Development Blueprint:
Traceability in the Peruvian Mahi Mahi Fishery.
Future of Fish. Available at: https://www.
futureoffish.org/sites/default/files/docs/resources/
Mahi-Report_Eng_web.pdf.
Ghosh, S., Muktha, M., Hanumantha Rao, M.V. and
Behera, P.R. (2015). Assessment of stock status of
the exploited fishery resources in northern Bay of
Bengal using landed catch data. Indian Journal of
Fisheries 62: 23-30.
Gianelli, I., Ortega, L., Pittman, J., Vasconcellos, M. and Defeo, O. (2021). Harnessing scientific and local knowledge to face climate change in small-scale fisheries. Global Environmental Change 68:102-253.
GOI. (2021). Draft Indian Marine Fisheries Bill as of 23 July 2021. Available here: https://bit.ly/3yywkPv
Gunakar, S, Jadhav, A., Bhatta, R. (2017). Protections
for Small-Scale Fisheries in India: A Study of
India’s Monsoon Fishing Ban. MARE Publication
Series. Springer International Publishing, Cham.
pp 291-311.
Harper, J. (2020). Asia’s Fishermen and Farmers Go
Digital During Virus, BBC, 2 June. Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52767227
(Accessed: January 28, 2021).
Heymans, J.J., Mackinson, S., Sumaila, U.R., Dyck,
A., and Little, A. (2011). The impact of subsidies
on the ecological sustainability and future profits
from North Sea fisheries. PloS One 6(5): e20239.
Hilborn, R., Amoroso, R.O., Anderson, C.M., Baum,
J.K., Branch, T.A., Costello, C., de Moor, C.L.,
Faraj, A., Hively, D., Jensen, O.P., Kurota, H.,
Little, L.R., Mace, P., McClanahan, T., Melnychuk,
M.C., Minto, C., Osio, G.C., Parma, A.M.,
Pons, M., and Ye, Y. (2020). Effective fisheries
management instrumental in improving fish stock
status. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America 117(4):
-2224.
Hind, E.J. (2014). A review of the past, the present,
and the future of fishers’ knowledge research: a
challenge to established fisheries science. ICES
Journal Marine Science 72: 341-358.
Iwama, A.Y., Araos, F., Anbleyth-Evans, J., Marchezini, V., Ruiz-Luna, A., Ther-Ríos F, Bacigalupe, G. and Perkins, P.E. (2021). Multiple knowledge systems and participatory actions in slow-onset effects of climate change: insights and perspectives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 50: 31-42.
Jadhav, A. (2018). Undefining small-scale fisheries in India: challenging simplifications and ighlighting
diversity and value. In: Social Wellbeing and the
Values of Small-scale Fisheries, D.S. Johnson,
T.G. Acott, N. Stacey and J. Urquhart (eds.),
Springer International Publishing, Cham. pp 147-
Jena, J.K. and Grinson, G. (2018). Small-scale fisheries in India: an appraisal. In: Small-scale Fisheries in South Asia, S.S. Giri (ed.), SAARC Agriculture Centre, Bangladesh. pp 15-41.
Kelleher, K., Westlund, L., Hoshino, E., Mills, D.,
Willmann, R., de Graaf, G., and Brummett, R.
(2012). Hidden Harvest: The Global Contribution
of Capture Fisheries. World Bank; WorldFish.
Kurien, J. (2017). Small-Scale Fishermen Form the
Backbone of India’s Fisheries Sector, but Policy
is Silent on Them. Available at: https://scroll.in/
article/842300/small-scale-fishermen-form-thebackbone-of-indias-fisheries-sector-but-policy-issilent-on-them (Accessed: February 17, 2021).
Lakshmi, A. (2018). Report of the National Workshop on Small-scale Fisheries, Cyclone Ockhi and Disaster Risk Management, International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) Trust, May 29-30, 2018, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Madgavkar, A., Manyika, J., Krishnan, M., Ellingrud
K., Yee, L., Woetzel, J., Chui, M., Hunt, V. and
Balakrishnan, S. (2019). The Future of Women
at Work: Transitions in the Age of Automation.
McKinsey Global Institute.
Maritime New Zealand, (2018). Mandatory float-free EPIRBs for fishing vessels will save lives. Safe
Seas Clean Seas Issue 53: 7. Available at: https://
www.maritimenz.govt.nz/magazines/safe-seasclean-seas/issue-53/issue-53.pdf.
Marzuki, M.I., Gaspar, P., Garello, R., Kerbaol, V. and
Fablet, R. (2018). Fishing gear identification from
vessel-monitoring-system-based fishing vessel
trajectories. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering
: 689-699.
Ministry of Shipping, GOI (2019). Sagarmala - Concept & Objectives. http://sagarmala.gov.in/aboutsagarmala/
vision-objectives (accessed March 11, 2021)
Nayak, P.K., Oliveira, L.E. and Berkes, F. (2014).
Resource degradation, marginalization, and
poverty in small-scale fisheries: threats to socialecological resilience in India and Brazil. Ecology and Society 19(2): 73. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-06656-190273.
Nayak, P. K., Oliveira, L. E. and Berkes, F. (2014) “Resource degradation, marginalization, and poverty in small-scale fisheries: threats to social-ecological resilience in India and Brazil,†Ecology and Society. Resilience Alliance Inc., 19(2). doi: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26269575.
NPSSFW. (2021). Submission of comments of the
National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers
on the Draft National Fisheries Policy 2020.
https://smallscalefishworkers.org/wp-content/
uploads/2020/05/NPSSFW_Comments_Draft-
NFP-2020_6th-Draft.pdf
Nakashima, D.J., Galloway McLean, K., Thulstrup,
H.D., Ramos Castillo, A. and Rubis, J.T. (2012). Weathering Uncertainty: Traditional Knowledge
for Climate Change Assessment and Adaptation,
UNESCO, Paris and UNU, Darwin, 120 p.
Nthane, T.T., Saunders, F., Gallardo Fernández, G.L.
and Raemaekers, S. (2020). Toward sustainability
of South African small-scale fisheries leveraging
ict transformation pathways. Sustainability 12(2):
Olsson, P., Folke, C. and Berkes, F. (2004). Adaptive
comanagement for building resilience in socialecological systems. Environmental Management 34(1): 75-90. doi:10.1007/s00267-003-0101-7.
Pinsky, M.L. and Mantua, N.J. (2014). Emerging
adaptation approaches for climate-ready fisheries
management. Oceanography 27(4): 146-159.
Pomeroy, R., Parks, J., Mrakovcich, K.L. and La
Monica, C. (2016). Drivers and impacts of fisheries scarcity, competition, and conflict on maritime security. Marine Policy 67: 94-104.
Project Provenance Ltd. (2016). Blockchain: The
Solution for Transparency in Product Supply
Chains. Project Provenance Ltd. Available at:
https://www.provenance.org/tracking-tuna-onthe-
blockchain (Accessed: February 11, 2021).
Rethinam, J. (2020). Webinar on Draft National
Fisheries Policy 2020 - A Critical Outlook. National Fishworkers Forum.
Sainsbury, N.C., Genner, M.J., Saville, G.R., Pinnegar,
J.K., O’Neill, C.K., Simpson, S.D. and Turner, R.A. (2018). Changing storminess and global capture fisheries. Nature Climate Change 8(8): 655-659.
Scholtens, J., Subramanian, K. and Jyotishi, A. (2021). A twisted trajectory. Samudra Report, 83. http://aquaticcommons.org/27115/1/Sam_83_art08_India_%20Joeri.pdf
Singh, D., Piplani, D., Shinde, S. and Karthik, S. (2016). mKRISHI fisheries: a case study on early warning system (EWS) for disaster communication
and management. 2016 IEEE International
Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS).
pp 1-6. doi: 10.1109/ISTAS.2016.7764280.
Smith, H. and Basurto, X. (2019). Defining small-scale fisheries and examining the role of science in
shaping perceptions of who and what counts: a
systematic review. Frontiers in Marine Science 6:
Song, A.M. (2015). Pawns, pirates or peacemakers:
Fishing boats in the inter-Korean maritime boundary dispute and ambivalent govern
mentality. Political Geography 48: 60-71. doi:
1016/j.polgeo.2015.06.002.
Song, A.M., Hoang, V.T., Cohen, P.J., Aqorau, T. and
Morrison, T.H. (2019). Blue boats and reef robbers: a new maritime security threat for the Asia Pacific? Asia Pacific Viewpoint 60(3): 310-324.
Song, A.M., Scholtens, J., Barclay, K., Bush, S. R.,
Fabinyi, M., Adhuri, D.S. and Haughton, M. (2020). Collateral damage? small-scale fisheries in the global fight against IUU fishing. Fish and Fisheries 21(4): 831-843.
Sreekumar, T.T. (2011). Mobile phones and the
cultural ecology of fishing in Kerala, India. The
Information Society 27(3): 172-180. doi:10.1080/
2011.566756.
Srinivasan, J. and Burrell, J. (2013). Revisiting the
fishers of Kerala, India, Proceedings Sixth
International Conference on Information and
communication technologies and development,
Full papers - vol. 1, Association for Computing
Machinery, December 7-10, 2013, New York,
USA. pp 56-66. doi:10.1145/2516604.2516618.
Sterling, B., Gooch, M., Dent, B., Marenick, N., Miller, A. and Sylvia, G. (2015). Assessing the value and role of seafood traceability from an entire value-chain perspective. Comprehensive Reviews in
Food Science and Food Safety 14(3): 205-268.
Steyn, J. and Das, M. (2015). Claims of mobile phone use by Kerala fishermen not supported by fieldwork. In: ICTs for Inclusive Communities in Developing Societies, J. Steyn and D. van Greunen (eds.), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK. pp 107-142.
Stone, I.S. (2020). SCALED UP: Go Fish: The Covid-19
Edition. Available at: https://www.dailymaverick.
co.za/article/2020-04-09-go-fish-the-covid-19-
edition (Accessed: February 1, 2021).
Suhendar, M. (2013). Comparison of Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) between Iceland and Indonesia [Final Project]. United Nations University.
Available at: https://www.grocentre.is/static/gro/
publication/280/document/suhendar12prf.pdf.
Sumaila, U.R., Cheung, W.W.L., Lam, V.W.Y., Pauly, D. and Herrick, S. (2011). Climate change impacts on the biophysics and economics of world fisheries.
Nature Climate Change 1(9): 449-456.
Sumaila, U.R., Rashid Sumaila, U., Ebrahim, N.,
Schuhbauer, A., Skerritt, D., Li, Y., Kim, H.S.,
Mallory, T.G., Lam, V.W.L. and Pauly, D.
(2019). Updated estimates and analysis of global
fisheries subsidies. Marine Policy 109: 103695.
doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103695.
Szuwalski, C.S. and Hollowed, A.B. (2016). Climate
change and non-stationary population processes
in fisheries management. ICES Journal of Marine
Science 73(5): 1297-1305. doi:10.1093/icesjms/
fsv229.
Tilley, A., Hunnam, K., Mills, D., Steenbergen, D.,
Govan, H., Alonso-Poblacion, E., Roscher, M.,
Pereira, M., Rodrigues, P., Amador, T., Duarte,
A., Gomes, M. and Cohen, P. (2019). Evaluating
the fit of co-management for small-scale fisheries
governance in Timor-Leste. Frontiers in Marine
Science 6: 392.
Tilley, A., Wilkinson, S.P., Kolding, J., López-Angarita,
J., Pereira, M. and Mills, D.J. (2019). Nearshore
fish aggregating devices show positive outcomes
for sustainable fisheries development in Timor-
Leste. Frontiers in Marine Science 6: 487.
Tilley, A., Dos Reis Lopes, J. and Wilkinson, S.P.
(2020). PeskAAS: a near-real-time, open-source
monitoring and analytics system for small-scale
fisheries. PloS one 15(11):0234760. doi:10.1371/
journal.pone.0234760.
UNCTAD. (2020). COVID-19 and E-Commerce: Impact on Businesses and Policy Responses. United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Available at: https://unctad.org/system/files/
official-document/dtlstictinf2020d2_en.pdf.
Urbina, I. (2021). Fish Farming Is Feeding the Globe.
What’s the Cost for Locals? The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/08/fishfarming-is-feeding-the-globe-whats-the-cost-forlocals
Vohra, S. (2020). Draft National Fisheries Policy Seeks Big Growth but Ignores Fishers. https://india. mongabay.com/2020/07/draft-national-fisheriespolicy-seeks-big-growth-but-ignores-fishers (accessed March 15, 2021)
Xiong, H., Dalhaus, T., Wang, P. and Huang, J.
(2020). Blockchain technology for agriculture:
applications and rationale. Frontiers in Blockchain
: 7.
Downloads
Submitted
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Indian Society of Coastal Agricultural Research (ISCAR)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The copyright of the articles published in the Journal of the Indian Society of Coastal Agricultural Research lies with the Indian Society of Coastal Agricultural Research (ISCAR), who has the right to enter into any agreement with any organization in India or abroad engaged in reprography, photocopying, storage and dissemination of information contained in the journal. However, ISCAR supports open access and there is no restriction in the use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that it is not being used for commercial purposes and due credit is given to ISCAR.
How to Cite
