For nearly two years, local, regional, and global fisheries and seafood supply chains have been forced to adjust and adapt to the unprecedented conditions brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

This study seeks to synthesize the complex conditions and outcomes to date, and provide an overview of the current landscape of change. Within that landscape we explore which trends or pa terns emerged simply as stop gaps in a moment of crisis, and which shifts are likely to last in the long-term.

This document is part of a series of briefs framed under the provisions of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). The briefs aim to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the livelihoods and sustainable development of the small-scale fisheries sector and provide examples of coping strategies.

The onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020 led to a dramatic rise in unemployment and fears about food-security throughout the Caribbean region. Subsistence fisheries were one of the few activities permitted during emergency lockdown in The Bahamas, leading many to turn to the sea for food. This study highlights the role of small-scale fisheries as a ‘natural insurance’ against socio-economic shocks and a source of resilience for small island communities at times of crisis. It also underscores the risks to food security and long-term sustainability of fishery stocks posed by overexploitation of natural resources.

This pamphlet provides an overview of food systems. Food systems are at the heart of some of the most significant challenges we face today, including diet-driven ill health and environmental damage. A third of the world is hungry or malnourished, more than half of global ill health is determined by poor diets, and food systems account for a quarter of CO2 emissions.

We tracked the impacts of COVID-19 on aquatic food value chains in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Myanmar and Nigeria during 2020. We assessed the availability and price of aquatic foods and production inputs using a high frequency panel survey of 767 actors from eight value chain nodes. We also conducted semi-structured phone interviews with 63 respondents in Bangladesh and online interviews with 100 aquatic food value chain actors and key informants from 17 sub-Saharan African countries. This information provides insights into the pathways by which the crisis has affected aquatic food value chain actors, the scale of those impacts and how they have adapted. These findings give rise to policy recommendations aimed at mitigating impacts in the present, assisting recovery and building a more resilient aquatic food system in the future.

This training material is a facilitator guide for peer to peer learning on better management practices for post-harvest handling and trading of fresh fish.

Para contribuir a los esfuerzos nacionales y globales, Comunidad y Biodiversidad, A. C. (COBI) ha iniciado un proceso de consulta con pescadores en ocho entidades federativas de México para conocer los impactos económicos y sociales de la pandemia. Así como, los roles del estado y la distribución de apoyos, los efectos en la salud, las soluciones locales aplicadas por los pescadores, la igualdad de género, el uso de tecnología y el impacto ambiental. Este primer reporte refleja los impactos económicos y sociales inmediatos del COVID-19 y concluye con una serie de recomendaciones expresadas por el sector pesquero.

The full range of activities required to deliver fish and fish products from production to the final consumer is subject to indirect impacts of the pandemic through new sanitary measures, changing consumer demands, market access or logistical problems related to transportation and border restrictions. This in turn has a damaging effect on fishers and fish farmers’ livelihoods, as well as on food security and nutrition for populations that rely heavily on fish for animal protein and essential micronutrients.

This policy brief reviews on going challenges and proposes measures to protect production and income of the sector and the most vulnerable, as well as maintain operations and support the supply chain.

En este octavo y último reporte, Comunidad y Biodiversidad, A.C. (COBI) se enfocó en entender qué ha cambiado en las vidas de los pescadoras y pescadores a raíz de la pandemia, qué se ha aprendido en estos meses y cómo regresar a pescar con seguridad en el contexto de la nueva normalidad.

This guide is for dried-shrimp producers, buyers and those involved in extension services. The aim is to describe good processing, handling and hygiene practices that will help producers maximize the value and income from dried shrimp, meet required national standards and access new and high-value markets.

This manual has been produced to help introduce better practices that can help people make more from the fish they catch, process and sell, as well as help them reduce post-harvest losses.

The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) were adopted by member countries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and were officially approved as an international instrument in June 2014. Tis document is only a summation of the contents of the Guidelines.

The following information brief provides an overview on the topic of marine tenure in securing sustainable small-scale fisheries and its role in meeting global development objectives.

Taking into account the economic importance of this sector for small-scale producers, as well as its high degree of vulnerability, the aim of this report is to give an overview of the current state of social protection and challenges facing small-scale fishers and fish farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean. It analyses the social protection needs of this population segment, the main social protection programs in the region, and proposes a roadmap with public policy recommendations to promote adequate social protection.

This review includes the findings of a desk study, complemented by consultation and validation missions, on social protection systems in place and available to small-scale fishers in Mediterranean riparian states, and it outlines the specific cases of five Mediterranean countries (Albania, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia), setting out best practices and sharing recommendations.

This discussion paper aims to build consensus on the role of aquatic foods in sustainable healthy diets, presenting the breadth of evidence available to inform and steer policy, investments and research to make full use of the vast potential of aquatic foods in delivering sustainable healthy diets and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This publication brings to the frontline, issues that beg for attention in the fisheries sector.

Chapter one of this publication, titled COVID-19 and Fisheries, highlights how the pandemic has affected the fisheries subsector.

Chapter two, titled Dead Fish is not Manna, captures the peculiarities and challenges of fisheries in Nigeria noting the contaminated state of some of the fishes sold in the country's markets.