We have reached the midpoint of our 7-year SSHRC Partnership Grant. In completing our midterm reporting exercise, we compiled some numbers about the project that are shared in the infographic below. We’re very proud of the 100+ students, collaborators, and co-investigators in our partnership, who have worked hard over the past three years to develop research on the economic, cultural, and nutritional importance of dried fish.
Despite the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the DFM project has succeeded in fostering collaboration across more than 30 partner organizations. Our teams have worked together to produce, for example, a series of audiovisual documents exploring the cultural and sensorial dimensions of dried fish and have presented at virtual events including the World Ocean Week Small-Scale Fisheries Open House and the MARE “People and the Sea” Conference in 2021. Work toward a collectively authored e-book and digital humanities exhibition is currently underway.
Our primary research has produced several important findings that will guide our work in the second stage of the project. We have learned, for example, that:
- Dried fish production is expanding in Sri Lanka, but corresponding investments are not being made to supply chain management or value addition.
- The fishmeal industry in Karnataka is diverting fish away from human consumption, presenting a threat to food and nutrition security.
- Dried fish from the Bay of Bengal is highly contaminated with microplastics.
- Intergenerational transmission of female involvement in dried fish processing in Andhra Pradesh appears to have broken down.
We have also discovered evidence of the deep cultural value associated with dried, smoked, and fermented fish around the world. Our exhaustive review of the global literature on dried fish confirms that many of the challenges identified by DFM partners – notably concerning social relations, cultural value, and food and nutrition security – are severely underrepresented in both academic and applied research.
Many thanks to all our collaborators, wishing you the greatest fortune in your work in the second half of our project!
DFM Infographic: Partnership in numbers
