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Editor's note
Welcome to the 20th issue of the Women in Fisheries
Bulletin, which highlights
gender roles in coastal fisheries, women’s fishing activities in
urban and rural
communities, and gender issues in development.
In Cheryl Anderson’s article “Gendered dimensions of disaster risk
management,
natural resource management, and climate change adaptation in
the Pacific”, she describes the need to understand gender issues in
Pacific
Island societies. She presents arguments for the need to include
gender
analysis in risk reductions and climate change adaptations, and
argues
that there are still gaps and opportunities for making programmes
more
gender responsive so that Pacific Island communities can be
resilient to
climate change and disaster risks.
In his paper on “Searching for clues in the lagoon: Is marine
gathering
a reflection of our evolutionary past?” Thomas Malm discusses
contemporary
marine gathering in Tonga and Oceania. He describes marine
gathering as skills that use several methods. He also discusses how
marine gathering provides food for families and recreational
activities
for those women involved.
In the next article, Jese Verebalavu reviews Fijian women’s
involvement in
fisheries business. She briefly describes Fijian women’s economic
activities
and assesses women’s contribution to the fisheries sector.
There are two reports from the Hawaiian Islands in this issue.
In
“Reef
fish stocks and fishing impacts in the Hawaiian Islands”, 89 coral
reef sites
were surveyed to assess fishing impacts. The status of Oahu’s fish
stock
populations indicate that reef fish populations are heavily depleted.
There
were variations in responses of target and non-target fish to
increasing
population densities. In the article “Impacts of west Hawaii marine
protected
areas on yellow tang stocks and fishery sustainability”, the authors
emphasise the importance of yellow tang to the aquarium fishery.
Their
survey data indicate that protected areas will help sustain adult
stocks of
yellow tang over large areas of coastline.
In the article “New sourcebook can help create more gender-sensitive
projects”, Meryl Williams describes the “Gender in agriculture
sourcebook”
and its relevance to fisheries and aquaculture. The sourcebook has a
special
module that addresses gender issues in fisheries and aquaculture.
There are also two articles in this issue from Yemaya on
seafood processing. In “Women in seafood processing”,
Gopal et al. conducted a study in Gujarat, India, on the seafood
processing industry. There are high
demands from importing countries such as the European Union for
seafood processing industries to meet
international standards. This has raised standards and the quality
of seafood processed has improved
markedly. In contrast, the working conditions for women have not
changed dramatically because of weak
bargaining power. In the article, “Solar power empowers”,
Veeraraghav reports that solar-powered fish
driers are being used by fisherwomen’s groups in Tamil Nadu, India.
This method of drying fish uses the
sun (a renewable energy source) and has revolutionised seafood
processing. It is also a hygienic way of
processing food and it is easier to use with less human resources.
I welcome any feedback on the articles in this issue and encourage
you to submit articles about women
and community fishing issues from your country or region.
Veikila Vuki
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