FOL publishes a new study on Vulnerability assessment of Galician stalked barnacle fishery to climate change impact

Small-scale fisheries (SSFs), which provide an important source of livelihood for many coastal communities, are at risk from climate change. Benthic organisms are likely to be particularly affected by the impacts of climate change due to their low spatial mobility, which limits their capacity for adaptation. Therefore, SSFs that target sedentary resources (“S-fisheries”) will potentially be among the most impacted types of fishery. In order to understand the pathways of such impacts, researchers from the Future Oceans Lab at CIM-Universidade de Vigo conduct a Social-ecological vulnerability assessment of stalked barnacle (percebe) fishery of Galicia. This work was developed within the European Research Council funded project CLOCK (Climate Adaptation to Shifting Stocks) and counts with the collaboration of Xiaozi Liu (Norwegian Research Center, Bergen, Norway),  Gonzalo Macho (Independent Fisheries Consultant, Fisherman´s Cove, Seychelles.) and Maite deCastro and  Moncho Gómez-Gesteira (both from Environmental Physics Laboratory (EphysLab), CIM-Universidade de Vigo).

The goal of this study was to assess the social-ecological vulnerability of SSFs managed under spatial property rights (i.e. TURFs) to extreme air temperature. With this aim, we examined the stalked barnacle (Pollicipes pollicipes) fishery in Galicia (NW Spain), as a complex social-ecological system. Fisheries reports were combined with interviews with technical assistants and zone biologists to collect primary indicators of stalked barnacle fishery in 26 fishing TURFs (79% of all Galician TURFs), to assess social sensitivity and adaptive capacity at local scale. The indicators were combined in a climate vulnerability index that provides a measure of the factors driving vulnerability across the TURFs. Finally, potential ways of increasing the adaptive capacity of Galician stalked barnacle fishery are discussed.

Check out the article in Marine Policy titled “Social-ecological vulnerability to climate change in small-scale fisheries managed under spatial property rights systems” here.