Although much in the lives of members of the Caiçara small-scale fishing communities of Lázaro and Saco da Ribeira in Ubatuba, southeastern Brazil would suggest hardship, that population expresses a surprising degree of satisfaction with life. In this paper, we use a social wellbeing lens as applied through an ethnographic, mixed methods approach to reflect on this overall sense that lives rooted in small-scale fishing are well worth living despite their many challenges. We see the classic maritime anthropology theme of identity at the heart of meaning and life satisfaction. Identity provides core aspects of how people engage with their realities and anchors values that are reference points in work and social relations. With reference to the relational nuances revealed by the social wellbeing perspective, however, we show that Caiçara and small-scale fishing identities are not monolithic, but reflect gender and other social positions, and personal and familial experiences. These experiences include grappling with the complex effects of economic, social, political, and environmental changes. We conclude by arguing that fisheries policy that seeks to prioritize human wellbeing would benefit by adopting a social wellbeing perspective. Fisheries policy could thereby take into account identity, values, and relational elements of social life that give meaning and a sense of belonging to small-scale fishers, while also recognizing the cross-cutting and often contradictory variations in human experience that arise from social and economic differences. This social fabric of small-scale fishers’ lives shapes their intentions and actions and is thus a necessary complication to the practice of fisheries management that its proponents need to consider.

尽管巴西东南部乌巴图巴的拉萨罗 (Lázaro) 和萨科达里贝拉 (Saco da Ribeira) 的凯萨拉 (Caiçara) 小型渔业社区成员的生活在很多方面都显得艰难，但人们对生活的满意度却令人惊讶。在本文中，我们使用社会福祉视角，通过人种学、混合方法来反思这种整体意识，即尽管面临许多挑战，但小规模捕捞的生活仍然值得过下去。我们看到经典的航海人类学主题——身份是意义和生活满意度的核心。身份提供了人们如何应对现实的核心方面，并锚定了作为工作和社会关系参考点的价值观。然而，根据社会福祉视角揭示的关系细微差别，我们表明凯萨拉和小规模渔业的身份并不是单一的，而是反映了性别和其他社会地位以及个人和家庭经历。这些经验包括应对经济、社会、政治和环境变化的复杂影响。最后，我们认为，寻求优先考虑人类福祉的渔业政策将受益于采用社会福祉视角。因此，渔业政策可以考虑社会生活的身份、价值观和关系要素，这些要素赋予小规模渔民意义和归属感，同时也认识到人类经验中由于社会和社会因素而产生的交叉且常常相互矛盾的变化。经济差异。小规模渔民生活的这种社会结构决定了他们的意图和行动，因此是其支持者需要考虑的渔业管理实践的必然复杂化因素。