Perceived Vulnerability and Climate Change Impacts on Small-Scale Fisheries in Davao Gulf, Philippines

Abstract

The small-scale fisheries play a critical role in food security and income of coastal fishing communities. However, climate variability and its impacts are affecting fishers, their communities, and fishing grounds. This study aimed to determine the perceived impacts of climate change and vulnerability of small-scale fisheries in selected fishing communities around the Davao Gulf. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to gather data on the perceptions of fishers (N = 220) on the impacts of climate change on their livelihood and communities. Seven focus groups corroborated the collected data and conclusions reached (N = 15). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the sources of vulnerability and number of impacts of climate change. Regression was used to determine factors influencing the catch per unit effort (CPUE). The PCA results showed that for the vulnerability, the sources, coral bleaching, inadequate food, lack of credit access, changes in weather pattern and hotter temperature contributed highly. For the climate change impacts, the factors, less seasonality, unclear reproductive patterns, diseases in the catch, invasive species, decrease in catch and venturing farther to fish offshore were substantially influential. Further analysis showed that disease and invasive species, decrease in fish catch, fishing farther offshore, and monthly income affected the CPUE of the fisheries. Recommendations for climate change vulnerability reduction based on the conclusions reached in this study include more financial credit access, apprehension of illegal fishers, increased capacity building and technical skills for coastal communities, supplemental livelihoods, and information dissemination on climate change adaptation strategies.

Climate change, traditional ecological knowledge, and riverine biodiversity conservation: a case in Aklan, Central Philippines

“…The cold months between December and February were also characterized to exhibit unprecedented cooling. These trends in perceived CC impacts agreed with other findings in the Philippines (Macusi et al, 2021;Nelson et al, 2019;Peñalba et al, 2019;Combest-Friedman et al, 2012) and worldwide (Peerson & Minter, 2020;Mihiretu et al, 2021;Ncubc & Tawodzera 2019). These locally perceived weather irregularities were consistent with empirical meteorological data in the region (Fig.…”

Climate change, traditional ecological knowledge, and riverine biodiversity conservation: a case in Aklan, Central Philippines

“…The cold months between December and February were also characterized to exhibit unprecedented cooling. These trends in perceived CC impacts agreed with other findings in the Philippines (Macusi et al, 2021;Nelson et al, 2019;Peñalba et al, 2019;Combest-Friedman et al, 2012) and worldwide (Peerson & Minter, 2020;Mihiretu et al, 2021;Ncubc & Tawodzera 2019). These locally perceived weather irregularities were consistent with empirical meteorological data in the region (Fig.…”

Determinants of fish catch and post-harvest fish spoilage in small-scale marine fisheries in the Bagamoyo district, Tanzania

“…Experienced fishers have more skills and knowledge about fishing grounds, fishing gear and vessels, seasonal variations in fish availability and water currents, which increase fishing efficiency ( Sesabo and Tol, 2007 ; Purcell et al., 2020 ). The importance of fishing experience on the catch rate has been reported elsewhere in the fishing sector ( Tingley et al., 2005 ; Alom et al., 2020 ; Macusi et al., 2021 ). Surprisingly, the fishers with primary education reported more catch per fishing session compared to fishers with college education.…”

“…(2018) in Ethiopia. Related studies in the Philippines reported older fishers ( Muallil et al., 2014 ; Macusi et al., 2021 ). The young fishers tended to catch more fish per fishing session compared with the older fishers.…”

Impacts of extreme climate change event on small-scale fishers and their community and their adaptation in Baganga, Davao Oriental

“…Other climate change impact also extends to other valuable species such as glass eel production which has been declining globally due to anthropogenic activities, pollution, habitat loss, overexploitation, and global oceanic changes (Tattao et al, 2022). Similar findings in Davao Gulfs indicated that climate change impact heavily influenced invasive species that damaged ecosystem and reduced fish harvest due weather pattern change, fishers experienced hotter temperatures, and climatic shifts (Macusi et al, 2021). Other causes of depletion include overfishing of marine species, coral bleaching, and conversion of mangrove forests to aquaculture projects (Muallil et al, 2013).…”

Climate change, traditional ecological knowledge, and riverine biodiversity conservation: a case in Aklan, Central Philippines

“…The cold months between December and February were also characterized to exhibit unprecedented cooling. These trends in perceived CC impacts agreed with other findings in the Philippines (Macusi et al, 2021;Nelson et al, 2019;Peñalba et al, 2019;Combest-Friedman et al, 2012) and worldwide (Peerson & Minter, 2020;Mihiretu et al, 2021;Ncubc & Tawodzera 2019). These locally perceived weather irregularities were consistent with empirical meteorological data in the region (Fig.…”

Determinants of fish catch and post-harvest fish spoilage in small-scale marine fisheries in the Bagamoyo district, Tanzania

“…Experienced fishers have more skills and knowledge about fishing grounds, fishing gear and vessels, seasonal variations in fish availability and water currents, which increase fishing efficiency ( Sesabo and Tol, 2007 ; Purcell et al., 2020 ). The importance of fishing experience on the catch rate has been reported elsewhere in the fishing sector ( Tingley et al., 2005 ; Alom et al., 2020 ; Macusi et al., 2021 ). Surprisingly, the fishers with primary education reported more catch per fishing session compared to fishers with college education.…”

“…(2018) in Ethiopia. Related studies in the Philippines reported older fishers ( Muallil et al., 2014 ; Macusi et al., 2021 ). The young fishers tended to catch more fish per fishing session compared with the older fishers.…”

Impacts of extreme climate change event on small-scale fishers and their community and their adaptation in Baganga, Davao Oriental

“…Other climate change impact also extends to other valuable species such as glass eel production which has been declining globally due to anthropogenic activities, pollution, habitat loss, overexploitation, and global oceanic changes (Tattao et al, 2022). Similar findings in Davao Gulfs indicated that climate change impact heavily influenced invasive species that damaged ecosystem and reduced fish harvest due weather pattern change, fishers experienced hotter temperatures, and climatic shifts (Macusi et al, 2021). Other causes of depletion include overfishing of marine species, coral bleaching, and conversion of mangrove forests to aquaculture projects (Muallil et al, 2013).…”

Climate change, traditional ecological knowledge, and riverine biodiversity conservation: a case in Aklan, Central Philippines

“…The cold months between December and February were also characterized to exhibit unprecedented cooling. These trends in perceived CC impacts agreed with other findings in the Philippines (Macusi et al, 2021;Nelson et al, 2019;Peñalba et al, 2019;Combest-Friedman et al, 2012) and worldwide (Peerson & Minter, 2020;Mihiretu et al, 2021;Ncubc & Tawodzera 2019). These locally perceived weather irregularities were consistent with empirical meteorological data in the region (Fig.…”

Determinants of fish catch and post-harvest fish spoilage in small-scale marine fisheries in the Bagamoyo district, Tanzania

“…Experienced fishers have more skills and knowledge about fishing grounds, fishing gear and vessels, seasonal variations in fish availability and water currents, which increase fishing efficiency ( Sesabo and Tol, 2007 ; Purcell et al., 2020 ). The importance of fishing experience on the catch rate has been reported elsewhere in the fishing sector ( Tingley et al., 2005 ; Alom et al., 2020 ; Macusi et al., 2021 ). Surprisingly, the fishers with primary education reported more catch per fishing session compared to fishers with college education.…”

“…(2018) in Ethiopia. Related studies in the Philippines reported older fishers ( Muallil et al., 2014 ; Macusi et al., 2021 ). The young fishers tended to catch more fish per fishing session compared with the older fishers.…”

Impacts of extreme climate change event on small-scale fishers and their community and their adaptation in Baganga, Davao Oriental

“…Other climate change impact also extends to other valuable species such as glass eel production which has been declining globally due to anthropogenic activities, pollution, habitat loss, overexploitation, and global oceanic changes (Tattao et al, 2022). Similar findings in Davao Gulfs indicated that climate change impact heavily influenced invasive species that damaged ecosystem and reduced fish harvest due weather pattern change, fishers experienced hotter temperatures, and climatic shifts (Macusi et al, 2021). Other causes of depletion include overfishing of marine species, coral bleaching, and conversion of mangrove forests to aquaculture projects (Muallil et al, 2013).…”