Small-Scale Fishing and Sustainability. An Ethnographic Approach to the Case of Self-Employed Fishermen in the South-East of Spain

Abstract

Small-scale fishermen, in contrast to industrial fishing boats, develop a sustainable relationship with their activity from three perspectives: social, economic, and environmental. From this hypothesis, we analyze the ethnographic material obtained in extensive fieldwork (in-depth interviews and participant observation) developed in the four main ports of the region of Murcia (Spain). From this field work the existence of two other types of fishermen (life-modes) besides small-scale fishermen is derived: small entrepreneurs and wage-earners. In different proportions, all three share the consequences of the various reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Despite the similarities, this paper shows different strategies, in each of the cases, that justify their permanence in their activity, taking into account the labor modality, as well as their relationship with the idea of sustainability. Conclusions show that because small-scale self-employed fishermen are involved much more than the two other life-modes in the totality of tasks related to their profession in that they own both the means and relations of production (simple commodity production), they are best placed to achieve social, economic, and environmental sustainability.