Climate change, globalization, and increasing industrial and urban activities threaten the sustainability and viability of small-scale fisheries. How those affected can collectively mobilize their actions, share knowledge, and build their local adaptive capacity will shape how best they respond to these changes. This paper examines the changes experienced by small-scale fishing actors, social and governance complexities, and the sustainability challenges within the fisheries system in Limbe, Cameroon. Drawing on the fish-as-food framework, we discuss how ineffective fishery management in light of a confluence of global threats has resulted in changes to fish harvesters’ activities, causing shortages in fish supply and disruptions in the fish value chain. The paper uses focus group discussions with fish harvesters and fishmongers to present three key findings. First, we show that changes in the fisheries from increased fishing activities and ineffective fishery management have disrupted fish harvesting and supply, impacting the social and economic well-being of small-scale fishing actors and their communities. Second, there are complexities in the fisheries value chain due to shortages in fish supply, creating conflicts between fisheries actors whose activities are not regulated by any specific set of rules or policies. Third, despite the importance of small-scale fisheries in Limbe, management has been abandoned by fishing actors who are not well-equipped with the appropriate capacity to design and enforce effective fishery management procedures and protections against illegal fishing activities. Empirical findings from this understudied fishery make scholarly contributions to the literature on the fish-as-food framework and demonstrate the need to support small-scale actors’ fishing activities and the sustainability of the fisheries system in Limbe.

气候变化、全球化以及日益增加的工业和城市活动威胁着小规模渔业的可持续性和生存能力。受影响者如何集体动员行动、分享知识和建立当地适应能力将决定他们如何最好地应对这些变化。本文探讨了喀麦隆林贝小规模渔业参与者经历的变化、社会和治理的复杂性以及渔业系统内的可持续性挑战。借鉴“鱼即食品”框架，我们讨论了在全球威胁交织的情况下，无效的渔业管理如何导致鱼类收割者的活动发生变化，从而导致鱼类供应短缺和鱼类价值链中断。该论文通过与鱼类收割者和鱼贩的焦点小组讨论来提出三个关键发现。首先，我们表明，捕捞活动增加和渔业管理无效导致渔业发生变化，扰乱了鱼类捕捞和供应，影响了小规模捕捞参与者及其社区的社会和经济福祉。其次，由于鱼类供应短缺，渔业价值链变得复杂，导致其活动不受任何特定规则或政策监管的渔业行为者之间产生冲突。第三，尽管小规模渔业在林贝很重要，但渔业行为者已经放弃了管理，因为他们不具备适当的能力来设计和执行有效的渔业管理程序和针对非法捕捞活动的保护措施。这项未得到充分研究的渔业的实证研究结果为有关鱼类作为食物的框架的文献做出了学术贡献，并证明了支持小规模参与者的捕捞活动和林贝渔业系统可持续性的必要性。