Small-scale fishing families and their daily multiple-stressor on climate change and COVID-19: Preliminary findings

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic situation is still ongoing in many countries in the world, including Indonesia. The positive case continues to increase every day and impacts our life, including the fisheries’ family. The fishery is a vulnerable sector to climate change, and this day worsened by a pandemic situation. This paper aims to understand the resources attached to fishing families facing various pressures and risks, forms of response, and adaptation within the fishing families. During COVID-19 pandemic situation, we have to carried out an online ethnographic approach by online-focused group discussion (FGD) to fisherman group and fisherman wives. Purworejo village was selected as a research site because it is the one with the largest number of small-scale fishing families in Java’s northern coastal area. The results show that various pressures and risks faced by fishery families, not only related to climate change and COVID-19 such as fishing season, limited resources, capital, and access, but also a risk on their internal family. In the context of fishery family resilience, each family member has a role in dealing with stressors, especially economic stressors. Fathers look for fish in the sea almost eight hours a day; children also go to sea when economic conditions continue to deteriorate; even a fisherman’s wife has the same responsibilities as her husband.