Future Oceans Lab gives research results to fishing communities in Mexico

Xochitl returned to the fishing communities where she conducted her research the past August – November 2021 to present the results and conduct workshops with the local fishers and scientists in July 2022.

The research was conducted under the CLimate adaptation to shifting stOCKS (CLOCK) project in cooperation with Javier Tovar-Ávila from the national fisheries institute (INAPESCA from Bahía Banderas) and Eréndira Aceves Bueno from the University of Washington. Xochitl led two workshops held in the fishing communities of San Blas and La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit,  where she did not only present the results obtained but also gave space to the small-scale fisheries to provide their feedback and co-produce potential practices and policies that will help them to face the challenges arising through the impacts of climate change.

As a result, the project participants are developing a report and short video containing the results from the survey from 2021 and the workshops, that will be handed to the Mexican fishing communities, researchers and fisheries management institutions and hopefully will enhance the further cooperation among the different actors in the fishing sector of the region. Small-scale fishers are among the most vulnerable to climate change, and it is imperative to co-produce sustainable adaptation strategies to ensure their livelihood and food security in an uncertain climate change-driven future.