Challenges for local fisheries in the blue economy –fishers’ perceptions

Local fisheries risk marginalization in the blue economy. This study explores fishers’ views on sustainability challenges for local fisheries in Northern-Norway through a social survey approach. We asked: “What are the three greatest challenges for fisheries in your municipality today?” and “In 30 years, what will be the greatest challenges?” Fishers' concerns were compared to recent scientific literature on fishers ‘challenges globally to identify issues not emphasized by our respondents (non-issues). These are issues that may be silenced, considered non-problematic or that fishers lack knowledge of. Data from 360 fishers showed that challenges identified by the fishers broadly pertained to nine domains – competition for space and resources, access to infrastructure, workforce, economy, environment, governance, local communities, illegal activity and recognition of fisheries, fishers and fishing culture. Aquaculture, competition within fisheries, access to landing sites, and recruitment were frequently mentioned as specific challenges under these domains. Recruitment and depopulation of local communities were mentioned by a higher proportion of fishers as a future challenge than a present day one. Surprisingly, non-issues included challenges with known local relevance and high saliency, such as safety in fisheries, destructive fishing practices, climate-change adaptation, environmental toxins in seafood and gender equality. To sum up, challenges tied to the blue economy, particularly aquaculture, along with the current downward trends within fisheries when it comes to number of fishers and local fishing industry are key challenges facing local fisheries. Alternative visions for the blue economy that holds space for local fishing activity, are called for.