This post is part of Daviana Berkowitz-Sklar’s 2022 Global Food Fellowship.
The role of fisher ecological knowledge in fishery studies:
A case study from a Costa Rica recreational billfish fishery
On the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, sport fishing has become an important component of the national ecotourism industry, yet our fundamental understanding of these fisheries is limited. Scientific data about the distribution and behavior of near-shore populations of sailfish and blue marlin, two of the most targetted billfish species by sport fishers, is limited. On the other hand, local ecological knowledge (LEK) is increasingly being recognized as a valuable component of ecological studies.
Local people interact with the environment on a daily basis, yearlong, and over generations.
Fishers in Costa Rica have been observing billfish trends closely for many years and possess a wealth of knowledge about the billfish fishery. Combining Western fishery science with fishers' ecological knowledge may be a valuable way to fill data gaps, hear the perspectives of local stakeholders, and create management decisions that serve both the ocean and the local communities that depend on them.
This past summer, I set out to investigate ecological questions about the billfish fishery on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica through the ecological knowledge of local sport fishers. I asked myself, “how can fisher knowledge become a part of ecological modeling in order to provide scientific, ecological, and social value for fishery science and management?” I interviewed over 50 fishermen in the sport fishing industry and asked them questions about the availability and distribution of billfish species. I also asked them how these billfish populations and environmental factors have changed over time. I am incredibly grateful to the fishermen I met for sharing their knowledge and time.
I will analyze the information I learned from the fishermen in Costa Rica through a mixed-methods approach, combining both social and natural science techniques, as a means of giving voice to local perspectives, enhancing understanding of the environmental and anthropogenic variables influencing billfish populations and distribution, and advising equitable and effective future marine conservation planning in the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. I look forward to sharing what is learned from this investigation with all interested parties including the participants of the study. I hope to continue to learn about Costa Rican fisheries from the diverse perspectives of all stakeholders.
This project is a part of Stanford University’s DynaMar Project. This project was also supported by the Alan S. Tetelman 1958 Fellowship for Research in the Sciences.