Fishing is not a woman’s domain in most countries across the globe. In parts of India there are fishing communities who believe that having a woman onboard a fishing boat brings bad luck. Despite this, Divya Karnad, a scientist who studies marine life in India, has spent several years studying fisheries and their impact on species like sharks and sea turtles. Her work forms a part of global efforts to track declining marine species and encourage more sustainable fishing.
A growing demand for seafood across the globe has resulted in increasingly unscrupulous and unregulated fishing, threatening endangered species like bluefin tuna, several species of sharks and marine mammals like humpback whales. In response countries like New Zealand, the U.S. and some European nations in Europe have managed to regulate their fishing fleet’s activities, and their fisheries are increasingly being recognized as sustainable by the scientific community. However the result of limited fish catches in the developed world has been an increasing dependence on fisheries from countries like India and China to supply never-ending demand.
Fishing is very poorly regulated in countries like India, one of the reasons why Karnad felt compelled to work on sustainable fishing issues. Scientific attention to the impacts of fishing is increasing in India, and Karnad saw this as an opportune moment to bring these issues to public attention. Armed with a Master’s degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, and experience with sea turtle conservation, Karnad paralleled her research in fishing communities with her passion to spread the message beyond the academy. Reaching out to thousands of readers through articles in leading newspapers and magazines in India and abroad, Karnad has recently received international recognition for her efforts. Selected to receive the prestigious 2013 John Muir Conservation Award in USA, Karnad reflects on her journey and future plans with mongabay.com.
Mongabay: Why did you choose the male dominated realm of fishing to do your research and form the topic of many of your articles?
Divya Karnad: Although it seems that way, women actually have, or at least used to have very important roles to play in the fishery. Across countries as widely separated as the Philippines and Senegal, women were traditionally responsible for sorting and selling fish catch, as a result they held the financial reins. This is increasingly changing with the entry of global export businesses into small-time fish markets. Nevertheless fishing has always loomed large as the problem and solution to marine conservation issues in India. This is because it is rare to find coastal waters that are not being fished, irrespective of their status as Marine Protected Areas. In this context, it is simply not possible to ignore fisheries and study ecology as though fishing doesn’t happen. It also doesn’t make sense to do so, when clearly fishing has such wide-reaching and long lasting impacts on marine ecosystems. Working with fishing communities reveals so many interesting stories, complexities and puzzles and has opened my eyes to new perspectives that have helped me better understand why conservation solutions that seemed so foolproof on paper have failed. I feel responsible to communicate my learning with others, since not everyone will be afforded similar privileges of time and access to these regions and these people.
mongabay1999-2013