ATACProject

Future Oceans Lab is currently hosting the project ATAC (October 2023–October 2026) funded by XUNTA de Galicia. This project is been leading by Dr. Elena Ojea in the University of Vigo and in collaboration with Erendira Aceves Bueno (University of Washington) and Jorge G. Molinos (University of Hokkaido, Japan) with the participation of Prof. Naoki Kumagai (National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan) and Javier Tovar (INAPESCA, Mexico).

The livelihoods dependent on fisheries are highly affected by climate change, especially small-scale fisheries, due to their strong interdependence with the marine environment. Climate impacts alter their socio-ecological resilience, causing overexploitation of resources and poverty traps. The premise of this proposal is that under future scenarios of climate change in the sea, current adaptation measures will be insufficient and a transformative change in dependent livelihoods will be necessary. So far, little is known about little is known about the factors that do or do not facilitate the processes of adaptation and transformation in artisanal fishing systems and there is a discussion about what is more important in the action of adapting, the perception of impacts or the adaptive capacities.

ATAC project stands for Adaptation and Transformation of artisanal Fishing to Climate Change. The objective of this project is to advance in the science of adaptation in artisanal fisheries to understand the determinants of the responses of socio-ecological systems to climate change.

For this purpose, we propose a set of objectives:

1) To analyse three case studies with different levels of impact;

2) To characterise the organisational structures for decision making;

3) To study the perceptions and the adaptive capacity; and

4) To elucidate which factors determine adaptation or transformation the system.

To address these objectives, the project is based on the data collected by the Future Oceans Lab during the ERC-CLOCK project in three case studies: Galicia, Nayarit (Mexico) and Shikoku (Japan)  in order to compare results between case studies for the first time and to be able to answer these cross-cutting questions.

As a result, it is hoped to advance in the understanding of the processes of adaptation and transformation of marine socio-ecological systems and to understand the role of perceptions, capabilities and organisation in the responses to climate change. The project is a participatory process where we are already working with local stakeholders in case studies, so that it will be built on an existing base from which it is intended to co-design the products that are returned to the communities.

The ambition is that the work contributes to decision making and the improvement of living conditions and to the living conditions and to the sustainability of artisanal activity both in the case studies and at international level.