Values and ethics of multicultural fishing communities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Fishing communities, through their interactions with marine ecosystems, can play an integral role in marine conservation. An understanding of the diversity of values and ethics of fishing communities is therefore important to... [ view full abstract ]

Fishing communities, through their interactions with marine ecosystems, can play an integral role in marine conservation. An understanding of the diversity of values and ethics of fishing communities is therefore important to promote fisheries sustainability and marine conservation. Values and ethics can vary across fishing communities, reflecting socio-cultural factors such as gender, ethnicity, history, resource dependence, and market interactions. The multi-cultural and historically complex nature of fisheries and fishing communities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI), India, provide a unique opportunity to study the interplay between values, ethics, and fisheries sustainability. Diverse communities from mainland India and South Asia migrated and settled in these islands and are now involved in fisheries and the seafood industry. I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 72 individuals from four cultural groups across eight communities. Locally-contextualised values, socio-cultural histories, and marine resource use were thematically coded using qualitative software. Additionally, fisheries sustainability was investigated quantitatively with a modified scoring matrix from Rapfish, a rapid appraisal technique, to examine both ecological and human dimensions. Communities involved in subsistence fisheries with longer histories of settlement on the islands share common values for marine conservation, despite differences in ethnicity and spatial separation. Meanwhile, unethical trade practices, poor price transmission, unfair deals and wages, and inequitable access to food security, are rampant in the islands’ seafood sector. For effective marine governance, scientists and conservationists should frame their messages contextualized to the local values and ethics of the fishing communities who should adopt and implement marine action plans.