By: Too Big To Ignore Partnership

The SSF Open House centres around "Life and Livelihoods", the official theme fo the 2021 World Oceans Week. Join us and the Too Big To Ignore Partnership for a week long series of online events as we bring attention to the importance of small-scale fisheries, celebrate their contributions, and facilitate a dialogue about an inclusive, equitable and just development of the ocean. Add your voice to these discussions and help shape the upcoming International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture and the 4th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress. All events are free and will be streamed live via Zoom and on YouTube!

By: Rylan J. Command and Evan Andrews, OFI, Memorial University

The United Nations declared 2021-2030 as the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, with the overarching mission to connect people and the ocean to facilitate the transition from the ocean we have, to the ocean we want. The UN has outlined seven priority areas for the Decade: a clean ocean, a healthy and resilient ocean, a productive and sustainable ocean, a predicted ocean, a safe ocean, an accessible ocean, and an inspiring and engaging ocean. Canada hosted a workshop that invited stakeholders and rightsholders to discuss a Canadian blueprint for the Decade.

In this story, we present a summary of the workshop related to the priority areas, reflecting on the role of governance and small-scale fisheries in Canada's Ocean Science Decade priorities.

By: Rylan J. Command and Jeremy McNiven, OFI, Memorial University

During the Ocean Visions Summit 2021, a key theme was that actions to sustain lives and livelihoods in small-scale fisheries are essential to fisheries and ocean governance. Too often, data is collected, analyzed, and disseminated without any benefit returning to the communities in which it was collected. In order to move toward an equitable and global ecosystem for ocean solutions, local communities need to be included in the process - from design to final product. This requires co-development of policy, management, and research, co-creation of knowledge, and co-delivery of products that improve human health and wellbeing. Taking a citizen science approach and forming meaningful collaborations is essential to develop knowledge about, with, and for small-scale fisheries. Here, we highlight some of the projects presented at the Ocean Visions Summit that may be helpful in Getting Transdisciplinarity Right!