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Urban fishing reveals underrepresented diversity

Nature Food volume 3, page 295 (2022)Cite this article

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To the Editor — Diversity is an important feature of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture (SSFA), yet is commonly overlooked or oversimplified within broader studies of food systems. In a recent Analysis published in Nature Food, Short et al.1 provide a much-needed snapshot of SSFA diversity — demonstrating the importance of this seafood subsector to support livelihoods, alongside sustainable and equitable food provisioning. However, we wish to draw attention to additional important aspects of this diversity that remain understudied.

SSFA producers are conventionally represented as rural actors. Yet, as the world continues to urbanize, fishing in cities is becoming a more prominent livelihood activity, especially for low-income households2. Urban fishing can occur wherever water and fish exist in a city environment. Consequently, the variety of fished species includes saltwater and freshwater finfish, shellfish and other aquatic species. People fish from shorelines or boats using a broad range of gear and methods, such as angling, spin fishing, cast-netting or traps.

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Acknowledgements

W.J.B. acknowledges support under the project ‘The Blue Urban Commons. Using the Case of Street Fishing for Planning the Sustainable and Just City’ (project no. 2019-01901) as funded by FORMAS: a Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Wiebren Johannes Boonstra & Anja Rieser

  2. Department of Environmental Studies, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

    Noëlle Boucquey

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and High Meadows Environment Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Andrew Kenneth Carlson

  4. Department of Global Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Lauren Drakopulos

  5. Department of Anthropology, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL, USA

    Jessie Fly

  6. Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

    Sofie Joosse

  7. NPC Research, Portland, OR, USA

    Sarita Panchang

  8. Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Meghna Narang Marjadi

  9. School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Hanna Charlotta Wernersson

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  1. Wiebren Johannes Boonstra
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Correspondence to Wiebren Johannes Boonstra.

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Boonstra, W.J., Boucquey, N., Carlson, A.K. et al. Urban fishing reveals underrepresented diversity. Nat Food 3, 295 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00501-2

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