13/04/2023 | The South Pacific region presents a unique context in which local communities and their political representatives are increasingly committed to integrated management of marine resources and spaces. This is particularly true for fisheries. It is a critical component of local livelihoods, regional economies, and global fish supplies. The project A Sea of Connections: Contextualizing Fisheries in the South Pacific Region (SOCPacific) shed light on the region's fishing practices, now it has ended. The project leader at the ZMT, Dr. Annette Breckwoldt, provides an overview of goals and achievements.
What were the initial questions and goals of the project?
Annette Breckwoldt: Our project aimed to place coastal and marine fisheries in three research areas, Fiji, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu, in a broader context and to examine the large web of sociocultural, geopolitical, and political contexts in which fishing practices take place.
To this end, we conducted an interdisciplinary analysis across multiple dimensions of fisheries, their management, and ocean governance in the South Pacific, including local practices, global drivers, and national and regional management strategies. Three main themes played a particular role: first, the social values of places and resources associated with coastal and offshore fisheries. Second, the tensions between fisheries and subsistence interests, and third the ways in which fisheries and existing management tools are integrated into marine spatial planning.
Who were the project partners?
Annette Breckwoldt: The SOCPacific project was largely based on a partnership between three academic institutions from Europe and Oceania: the ZMT, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) and the University of the South Pacific (USP). It was additionally supported by a larger consortium of external partners from the social and natural sciences. This allowed for interdisciplinary research with diverse stakeholders.
What was the approach to the project?
Annette Breckwoldt: Our study aimed to understand and promote local knowledge and practices. We explored the socio-cultural and political linkages between coastal and offshore fisheries from the perspectives of islanders, national governments, regional frameworks, and global marine conservation movements.
Our approach was based on collaboration with oceanic coastal communities, students, and scientists working on ocean governance arrangements. We identified key challenges related to fisheries conservation and restoration from a local perspective and considered how to minimize the negative ecological impacts of fishing while safeguarding yields.
What are the main findings from the project?
Annette Breckwoldt: SOCPacific developed the concept that South Pacific fisheries are embedded in a "sea of connections," a term that highlights the multiple meanings and dimensions of connectivity in Oceania. This resulted in a better understanding of the multiple values of fisheries in land-sea units, the linkages between fisheries and conservation, knowledge domains and stakeholders, and the political landscape of fisheries management influenced by international competition for the Pacific region and its resources.
An important project contribution was a study of the socio-cultural values of marine resources - in addition to their monetary and subsistence values - on Kadavu Island in Fiji. It provided important insights for coastal fisheries management approaches that recognize indigenous communities' values for marine species, as well as women's contributions to small-scale fisheries. SOCPacific also used children's drawings and their own comments to examine the values that school children from Fiji and New Caledonia place on the sea and marine life. They provide evidence of children's attachment to specific places that give them a sense of physical and social belonging.
Other studies revealed reef passages as key ecological and cultural sites in the sea. These are breaks and channels in fringing reefs. In Oceania, such key sites are embedded in the concept of a land-sea continuum that views the sea and land as inseparable. This inseparability is increasingly being considered in fisheries management through so-called "ridge-to-reef" approaches.
What conclusions can be drawn from this?
Annette Breckwoldt: SOCPacific has reinvigorated the study of South Pacific fisheries through the notion of Oceania as a "sea of connections." We have found that oceanic knowledge, cosmologies, socialities, spiritualities, values, and forms of governance are central to ensuring the health of the Pacific Ocean. It is the largest ocean on Earth and a shared heritage, but also the site of an unprecedented rush for space and resources.
Why are the results relevant for society?
Annette Breckwoldt: The results show that the Pacific Ocean needs the complexity, diversity and culture of oceanic societies as a shield against purely profit-oriented and exploitative interests. To provide that, Oceania needs, among other things, a growing academic structure, to which this project has already contributed.
What were the highlights of the project?
Annette Breckwoldt: Among other things, the results of SOCPacific show that for a more comprehensive understanding of fisheries, many more critical and central voices - academic and non-academic - should be heard. For us project leaders, the transparent and respectful collaboration in the international and in all respects diverse consortium was also a distinct highlight.
What are you planning to do with the results?
Annette Breckwoldt: The results will be disseminated mainly through publications (e.g. special section in the journal AMBIO), as well as through various presentations, symposium contributions, exhibitions, integration into teaching and a final SOCPacific poster.
What are the next plans regarding the project theme?
Annette Breckwoldt: The project has opened up new research and cooperation perspectives, for example with the OKEANOS Foundation. It has highlighted a gap between the great importance of reef passages and the small number of scientific papers that mention them. Reef passages, which connect coastal waters and the open ocean, are known locally as significant hotspots of biodiversity and productivity.
We have now submitted a binational proposal to DFG and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) for a project focused on these reef zones. In addition, a smaller project proposal on the topic was already successfully submitted to IFREMER in France last year, so the new project could start early in 2023 with a postdoctoral position.
More information on the project:
https://www.leibniz-zmt.de/de/forschung/wissenschaftliche-projekte/socpacific.html
https://socpacific.net
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