Searching for Subsistence: In the Field in Pursuit... - University of ...

DISCUSSIONDid We Find Subsistence?Did we find anything that could becalled “subsistence” under any of thefour definitions we located in the literature?The answer to date has to be “notreally.” We did not find anyone actuallyfishing for livelihood, and the fact thatonly two fishermen stated that it was possibleto save money by catching (ratherthan buying) fish indicates that an economicnecessity definition of subsistence(definition 1) is not widely applicable tothe fishermen we encountered. However,quite a few of our key informants told us adifferent story, some claiming that fishermendepend on their catch for food andmany more affirming that fishing could bepart of a household budget strategy.We did not find anyone fishing to supporta network of food distribution basedon sharing (definition 2). Although severalrespondents mentioned sharing catch,none declared it as his primary motivationfor fishing. A few of the fishermen’sresponses allowed for an interpretationcorresponding to a cultural definition ofsubsistence, as in definitions 3 and 4, butthe questions we asked were not specificenough to distinguish between motivationsparticular to subsistence and morenuanced motivations of recreationalfishing.At this point, we cannot say thatwe have found activity that is differentenough to warrant a separate managementcategory (that is, in addition tocommercial and recreational), but wehave not concluded it does not exist.Several key informants corroborated theintuition that there may be a third categoryout there. As for the nature of thisthird category, our impression is that whatinformants associate with “subsistence” issomething along the lines of definition 1(fishing for livelihood), but with a particularemphasis on direct food procurement(as opposed to selling the catch). Inthis sense, their understanding is more inline with the connotation of “subsistencefishing” in everyday language—a focus onfood provisioning for direct consumptionfor the purpose of survival.This does not mean that subsistencefishing a la definition 1 is occurring inRhode Island, nor that it is the only kindof subsistence fishing occurring in RhodeIsland, nor moreover, that any form ofsubsistence is occurring—it only serves todemonstrate what comes to mind for peopleknowledgeable about fishing in RhodeIsland when they hear the word “subsistence.”But it is significant that the academicliterature does not seem to matchup with the “real world” assessments weencountered among informants.Though the stated purpose of this projectwas to search for anything that couldbe called “subsistence” according to theacademic literature and then determinewhether this type of fishing warrants aseparate management category, our findingthat “subsistence,” as understood byour key informants, may be occurring isin some ways even more significant: ifpeople are indeed fishing for food, outof need or as part of a household budgetstrategy, there is a good case for adaptingmanagement to reflect that need. Whileacademic definition 1 overlaps with ourinformants’ understanding of “subsistence,”much of the rest of the academicliterature is in danger of obscuring thisform of subsistence by relegating it to therealm of “informal economy.”What People "Know" versusWhat We "Found"There may be significant departuresbetween what people think about subsistencefishing and what we found in thefield. Below, we compare what we foundwhen interviewing fishermen with somecomments we received from our keyinformants, highlighting some of the discrepancybetween what people “know”and what we “found.”“It’s the Asians, blacks, ethnicgroups, Portuguese”Are the viewpoints we encounteredamongst our key informants accurate orare they the product of stereotyping andurban mythology? We were repeatedlytold that scup in particular is a target ofsubsistence fishermen and that “scup isa black fish” yet one very active blackfisherman we interviewed said he hadnever heard of scup and was surprisedwhen told of its alleged association withhis race. Similarly, Asian immigrantswere frequently cited as the archetypalsubsistence fishermen. At one bait shop,a group of Asian customers were specificallypointed out to us as being subsistencefishermen, yet when asked directlyabout their motivations, they replied thatthey fished for fun and released all the fishthey caught. Of course, we cannot drawany conclusions from these two anecdotesbecause they may represent the exceptionsto otherwise accurate assessments.Our sample size was too small and at thispoint we simply do not know if we endedup with anomalous cases in our sample.“Hmmm. Just what is subsistencefishing if you can afford to go outon a charter boat to do it?”We received this comment, clearlyimplying a definition 1-type understandingof “subsistence,” from a colleagueduring the planning stages of our project.Since we did not discount the possibilitythat other meanings of subsistence fishing(such as definitions 2, 3, and 4, whichdo not hinge on living standard) couldoccur on party/charter boats, we pursuedthis question, and found what may comeas a surprise to many: definition 1-typesubsistence may well occur within thecharter fishing industry (we use the term“charter” generically, while noting thatthe industry is divided into charter andparty boat operations). The party boatowner we interviewed stated that “10%of [his] party boat clients have to catchenough to justify going. They are thereto catch fish to eat.” This same key informantmentioned people fishing off hisparty boats in the past in pursuit of bothincome and food as part of an overallhousehold economic strategy. Definition1-style subsistence fishing off party boatshas been in documented in other settingsas well—for example, in Manhattanduring the Great Depression: “They didmore business than any other party fishingboat on Sheepshead Bay during theDepression. Kevin admits that the hardtimes may have actually contributed tothe brothers’ success: because fish wereso abundant in the area, people pooledtheir money and sent one person fromeach apartment house to go fishing: thatperson could conceivably catch enoughfish to feed the entire building (Lai 2001:284).”The Challenge of MethodologyIs it possible to study something withoutan operational definition of thatsomething firmly in hand? At bottom, aphilosophical clash between inductive598 Fisheries • VOL 32 NO 12 • DECEMBER 2007 • WWW.FISHERIES.ORG