Global literature review - General fisheries sample
Methods
To position the trends identified in the dried fish literature, a search was conducted of the broader fisheries literature. The search terms “fisheries,” “fishers,” and “fishing” were entered into Google Scholar. Thousands of records were generated. To reduce the number of records to a manageable sample, every fifth record was selected until 33 records were selected per search term. By selecting every fifth record, rather than selecting the first 33 records generated, we ensured that we sampled from later pages within Google Scholar. This was inspired by the fact that many directly relevant references were found in later pages of Google Scholar during collection of the dried fish literature.
Each record was tagged according to several study characteristics. First, it was tagged by the search term that generated it. Second, each record was tagged by at least one theme, adopting the same thematic tags used when tagging the dried fish references. Third, records that were related to at least one specific value chain segment were tagged accordingly. The remainder were tagged as unrelated to a specific segment. Fourth, they were tagged by the region to which the study pertained, according to the most specific regions identified in the text. All records were given a single regional tag, with the exception of one study that compared two nations (Australia and Solomon Islands). In cases in which either no region was specified or the focus was global, a single unifying tag of ‘Global/None’ was applied, following the same procedure used for the dried fish sample.
Results
The table below shows the number of records tagged according to theme, segment, and region.
| Theme | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| History/Change | 3 | |
| Economy | 11 | |
| Labour | 5 | |
| Technical | 26 | |
| Policy and Governance | 38 | |
| Value Chain | 1 | |
| Culture and Wellbeing | 22 | |
| Ecology | 49 | |
| Segment | Some references are tagged with multiple segment tags | |
| None | 44 | |
| Production | 49 | |
| Processing | 2 | |
| Traders | 1 | |
| Retail | 1 | |
| Consumption | 1 | |
| Region | References are only tagged with one reginal tag unless otherwise noted | |
| Global/General/None | 59 | |
| Global North Total | 14 | |
| Australia | 3 | One of these is a comparative paper with Solomon Islands, counted twice here |
| Canada | 1 | |
| Netherlands | 1 | |
| North America General | 1 | |
| North Atlantic General | 1 | |
| Spain | 1 | |
| Sweden | 1 | |
| UK | 1 | |
| US | 3 | |
| Global North General | 1 | |
| Global South Total | 27 | |
| Anguilia | 1 | |
| Bangladesh | 2 | |
| Brazil | 2 | |
| East Africa General | 1 | |
| India | 2 | |
| Indonesia | 4 | |
| Kenya | 2 | |
| Madagascar | 1 | |
| Nepal | 1 | |
| Pacific | 1 | |
| Peru | 1 | |
| Philippines | 1 | |
| Solomon Islands | 1 | In a comparative paper with Australia, counted twice here |
| South Africa | 1 | |
| South America General | 2 | |
| Southeast Asia General | 2 | |
| Thailand | 1 | |
| Venezuela | 1 |
Discussion
Theme
In distinct contrast to the dried fish literature, in which the overwhelming majority of references were tagged as ‘Technical’, the dominant theme here was ‘Ecology ’(n = 49) followed by ‘Policy and Governance’(n = 38) and ‘Technical’ (n = 26). This may be partially due to the variation in search terms used in collecting references, as the term ‘dried fish’ (and related product names) refers to a product and the processes involved in its creation, which may have drawn out scientific publications on topics such as chemical composition, health outcomes, and other issues related to the products. The broader search terms used in this study generated studies of human activity and impact as opposed to the products of that activity, contributing to the focus on ecological studies of fishing activity and policy/governance approaches to regulating it. It is notable that only one study in this sample focused on the value chain, whereas that was the second most common theme in the sample of studies on dried fish. This difference may reflect a difference in orientations between the literatures on fisheries versus dried fish – or it may reflect the use of “Value Chains” as a search term in the collection of the dried fish study sample as well as the differing focus on fishers versus fish products in the search terms used to collect the two samples.
Segment
Almost half (n = 44) of the samples do not address specific segments of the value chain. This can largely be accounted for by the thematic focus. The records tagged as ‘Policy and Governance’ tend to focus on the state as opposed to the fishers themselves and often do not address the activity of fishing. The second most common theme among those with no clear segment focus was ‘Technical’ (n = 14). This reflects the orientation of the technical records toward fish products, but not the production or processing activities involved in their creation.
Those articles that address a value chain segment are almost exclusively about production (n = 49). I suspect that this was largely due to the keywords used, as they will focus on the fishers themselves and not on others in the value chain such as those involved in processing, trade, retail, and consumption (except in the case of small-scale perhaps, if the fishers also engage in processing and selling their catch directly). This is a notable contrast to the dried fish literature, which was found to be dominated by processing (53%). Of course, dried fish is by definition processed. The search terms of ‘fishing’, ‘fishers’, and ‘fisheries’ generate studies focused on the acquisition of fish but not on the resulting product.
Region
The majority of records indicated either no particular regional focus or a global focus (59.6%). In contrast, the dried fish literature tagged as ‘Global/None’ comprise only 30% of the sample. This is a function of the search terms used, as regional terms were used in the collection of the dried fish records but not used in the collection of the general sample. The dried fish literature is dominated by a focus on the Global South (53% of the total), with the remaining 17% pertaining to the Global North. The general sample also has a higher proportion of records focusing on the Global South (27.3%) than the Global North (14.1%). Thirteen of the general sample records focus on regions in Asia, comprising the largest sub-regional focus in the Global South (48.1% of that sub-sample and 13.1 % of the total). In the dried fish literature, Asia and Oceania are not only the largest focus of studies on the Global South, but of all studies. The sample size is too small to draw any further conclusions about the general fisheries sample.
