Paper short abstract:

Small-scale fisheries in the Finnish archipelago are struggling with growing tension between authorities, environmentalist, climate change, growing seal population and alien species. Through anthropology, can we find 'green' that would benefit all the stakeholders, and promote sustainability?

Paper long abstract:

The small-scale coastal fisheries worldwide are struggling with various environmental conflicts. Such is the case also in the Finnish archipelago. Finnish small-scale fisheries have gone through great changes over time, especially from 1960s onwards, due to i.e. urbanization, but also due climate change. For example, since the 1990s, the Archipelago Sea rarely freezes over anymore, thus preventing practicing the old traditional winter-seining. The amount of small-scale fisheries have decreased drastically within the last decades and the conditions of practicing small-scale coastal fishing have become more demanding.

The most crucial issues, according to the fishers themselves, are the dramatic increase in the populations of the grey seal and the great cormorant - both protected species. The struggle over right to use natural resources against these newcomers is both rhetorical but also physical. Also, in effort to maintain sustainable fish stocks, the regulation of fishing has become increasingly strict, focusing on the quotas, but also on the minimum lengths of caught fish. The relationships between fishers, environmentalist, researchers, recreational fishers and authorities has become tense.

This paper addresses the issue of multilayered disagreement over the notion of sustainability, what is "green" and who should have the right to access natural resources, in the perspective of socio-ecological systems of small-scale fisheries. From fishers' point of view, they are the ones who are in the biggest risk of becoming extinct. Through anthropological research, one can hope to find solutions that would benefit all stakeholders, including the animals.