Livelihood diversity factors such as flexibility within fisheries, geographical mobility, reallocation of fishing effort into the broader economy, and the non-material benefits that fisheries provide are important areas of research in marine policy.

Children with sea cucumbers at Kulinus Island
(Photo by Brooke Jarvis)

We use two small-scale fisheries related socio-economic surveys of communities in the Tigak Islands of Papua New Guinea. The first conducted 5 years before a ban on the harvesting of sea cucumbers was imposed and the second from the present day, 5 years after the initiation of the ban—with the objectives of exploring changes in household fishing strategies (types and numbers of species targeted) and to identify any important socioeconomic factors that help explain those changes.

Fishing’s contribution to total household income has increased significantly, up from 61% in 2004 to 73% in 2014 with the percentage of female residents living in a household now positively and significantly associated with fishing income.

The average number of species categories targeted per household increased insignificantly while households with more women are significantly less likely to target more species than households with more men. Moreover, customary management practices contribute to this difference.

Together, these results show that households are not worse off financially 5 years after the ban on sea cucumber harvesting and that women’s fishing behaviour has implications for marine policy, in terms of developing equitable livelihood strategies that reduce dependence on coastal marine resources.

Purdy, D. H., Hadley, D. J., Kenter, J. O. & Kinch, J., (2017). Sea Cucumber Moratorium and Livelihood Diversity in Papua New Guinea, Coastal Management, 45(2), pp.1-17, DOI:10.1080/08920753.2017.1278147.
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