Abstract Small-scale fishing communities are expected to adapt to fish catch fluctuations linked to global environmental change. Notwithstanding, impacts from severe climate events and overexploitation of fisheries resources can compromise functions and resilience of ecosystems and associated species, and thereby jeopardize long-term population trend stability and fisheries productivity. To date, most assessments and vulnerability studies of fisheries-dependent populaces have focused on global, regional and national levels, while studies at village and community levels, where adaptive planning in the context of climate- and environmental changes is important, are less common. Based on data from official fishery records over a three-decadal period (1984–2016) and recent interviews with artisanal fishermen (319 fishers from eight communities) along the Tanzanian coast, we assessed small-scale fisheries with regard to (i) long-term trends in fishery landings, (ii) long-term alterations in fishing gear use, and (iii) fishers’ perceptions on how they have been coping and adapting to fluctuating fish landings. We further investigated (iv) the adaptive capacity of a wide range of coastal villages by assessing the fishers’ responses to an anticipated future scenario of a major (50 %) decline in landings from the current fisheries catch levels. The long-term trend records of fish landings showed a remarkable ∼50 % reduction in terms of both catch per vessel and catch per fisher from 1984 to 2016. According to the interviews, the majority of fishers (75 %) have changed fishing grounds from nearshore to offshore areas during the last decade, owing to a general perception that nearshore areas have suffered major reduction in fish stocks (due to overfishing and environmental changes related to extreme climate- or weather events), while offshore areas were considered still productive. The change in location of fishing grounds is probably a result of the clear switch in major gear type utilization from beach seine to ring net that occurred over the last decades. With a further progressive decline in fishery catches to a predictive level of 50 % of the current catch level, there is a general perception that artisanal fishers will continue fishing because alternative livelihoods (like crop farming, which employs more than 65 % of the population) have suffered similar negative impact. These findings highlight the need for building adaptive capacity in local coastal communities to develop alternative coping strategies for the impacts of climate- and environmental changes.

中文翻译：

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小型沿海渔业对渔获量下降的适应能力和应对策略：来自坦桑尼亚社区的见解

摘要 小型渔业社区有望适应与全球环境变化相关的渔获量波动。尽管如此，严重气候事件的影响和渔业资源的过度开发会损害生态系统和相关物种的功能和恢复力，从而危及长期的人口趋势稳定性和渔业生产力。迄今为止，对依赖渔业的人群的大多数评估和脆弱性研究都集中在全球、区域和国家层面，而村庄和社区层面的研究较少见，在这些层面，气候和环境变化背景下的适应性规划很重要。根据过去三年（1984 年至 2016 年）的官方渔业记录数据以及最近对坦桑尼亚沿海手工渔民（来自八个社区的 319 名渔民）的采访，我们评估了小规模渔业：渔业上岸量的长期趋势，(ii) 渔具使用的长期变化，以及 (iii) 渔民对他们如何应对和适应波动的鱼上岸量的看法。我们通过评估渔民对预计未来上岸量从当前渔业捕捞量水平大幅下降（50%）的反应，进一步调查了 (iv) 范围广泛的沿海村庄的适应能力。鱼类上岸量的长期趋势记录显示，从 1984 年到 2016 年，每艘船的渔获量和每名渔民的渔获量均显着减少了约 50%。 根据采访，在过去十年中，大多数渔民 (75%) 已将渔场从近岸区域改为近海区域，这是因为人们普遍认为近岸区域的鱼类资源大幅减少（由于过度捕捞和与极端气候或极端气候相关的环境变化）。天气事件），而近海地区被认为仍然具有生产力。渔场位置的变化可能是过去几十年主要渔具类型使用从海滩围网到环网的明显转变的结果。随着渔业捕捞量进一步逐步下降至当前捕捞量水平的 50% 的预测水平，人们普遍认为手工渔民将继续捕捞，因为替代生计（如农作物种植、雇用超过 65% 的人口）遭受了类似的负面影响。这些发现强调了在当地沿海社区建立适应能力的必要性，以制定应对气候和环境变化影响的替代策略。