An invisible role for women in fisheries

Nearly half of all fisheries workers worldwide are thought to be women, yet much of their work—and their catch—goes undocumented and unnoticed. That is the finding of a group of researchers who are studying the role of women in fisheries across five countries.

In Mexico, Peru, Senegal, South Africa, and Vietnam, women do much of the work processing and marketing the day’s catch, and collectively harvest thousands of tonnes of small fish and invertebrates, such as shellfish and sea cucumbers, from coastal waters. Yet when public and private agencies set out to measure the health and value of fisheries, they tend to focus exclusively on those who fish commercially at sea—men.

Read the rest of my story for Hakai magazine here.