Our new 12-month pilot project sees the team working on sustainable small-scale fisheries in the Kerala region in India via a Royal Academy of Engineering Frontiers grant.

We are delighted to have been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Frontiers Grant to work alongside three leading UK universities, the University of Southampton, the University of Exeter, and the University of Stirling, alongside our partners at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research - Central Institute of Fisheries Technology.

More information about the team can be found at the International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research.

Project Snapshot:

Biodiversity loss and climate change are the defining crises of our time. The ocean regulates climate, supports biodiversity, and provides substantial societal benefits through many ecosystem services. Approximately 3.3 billion people rely on fish for ~20% of their protein intake; nearly 60 million people are employed in the primary sector of fisheries and aquaculture, most in the global South. One in two fish workers are women. Yet, the oceans and viability of marine fisheries are under threat from rapid declines in biodiversity and intensifying human impacts, and increasingly unsustainable and inequitable fisheries.

The vital importance of improving ocean health is well recognised in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Convention on Biological Diversity, and the current Decades of Ocean Science and Ecosystem Restoration.

This highly innovative project combines engineering and social science methodologies that encapsulate these global challenges focusing on small-scale fisheries in Kerala, India, where fishing communities are particularly vulnerable to multiple systemic shocks.

Here, women play crucial roles along fish value chains but are disproportionately socially and technologically excluded from decision-making. Set against a backdrop of increasing extreme climate events, declining catches, biodiversity loss, and the lingering effects of COVID-19, there is a lack of understanding and knowledge of social and technological solutions to combat these issues and enhance adaptive capacity.

The project goals are:

1. Produce a comprehensive state of fisheries resources review that can inform management in Kerala;

2. Identify and co-create policy, social and technological solutions to improve sustainability by embedding traditional knowledge, gender equality, and social acceptability;

3. Develop an international network and framework for developing adaptation strategies in small-scale fisheries.

If you would like to know more about this project, please feel to reach out below.