The purpose of this study is to analyse the food security of Mauritius, a Small Island Developing State on the net import of food products, leaving behind an inflow of water footprint, making it vulnerable to the cascading effects of climate change, and various external shocks. The geographical location of Mauritius, being surrounded by water on all sides, makes it advantageous to provide for the dietary protein intake needs with a shift to fish as a major source, helping to reduce the dependence on the import of agricultural products. The pressure on the lagoon fisheries was explored and its sustainability was studied in respect of human-induced stressors such as increasing population and tourists, decline in agricultural activities, varying sea-surface temperature (SST) and pollutant discharge into sea. Mauritius was chosen as a case study because of its unique geographical feature, being surrounded by fringing coral barriers on all sides of the mainland, thus creating a lagoon ecosystem where the depth varies between 0 to 4 metres, the outer lagoon depths dropping to more than 200 metres providing two completely different ecosystems for the fish species to interact, providing for a perfect case study to observe the impact of artisanal coastal fish catch within the lagoons. For this thesis, a quantitative study involved obtaining official data and conducting field surveys at all the Fish Landing Stations, also involving site visits to three coastal villages impacted by oil spill of MV Wakashio and repeated cyclones, to understand the impact of such events on the fish catch. An increase in cyclonic events around the year, as well as, the construction activities for coastal protection works have all led to the sharp downfall of fish catch. Changes in SST were observed to dramatically affect the fish populations, with the catch being directly proportional to it. The findings of this study highlight that per capita consumption of fish and fish products per year has significantly increased. As a result, the fish catch per year inside the lagoon ecosystem of Mauritius faces the threat of rapidly declining catch, which prompts us to assume the exhaustion of the fish population within the lagoons soon.
Lo scopo di questo studio è analizzare la sicurezza alimentare di Mauritius, un piccolo stato insulare in via di sviluppo sull'importazione netta di prodotti alimentari, lasciando dietro di sé un afflusso di impronta idrica, rendendolo vulnerabile agli effetti a cascata del cambiamento climatico e vari shock esterni . La posizione geografica di Mauritius, essendo circondata dall'acqua su tutti i lati, rende vantaggioso provvedere al fabbisogno proteico alimentare con uno spostamento verso il pesce come fonte principale, contribuendo a ridurre la dipendenza dall'importazione di prodotti agricoli. La pressione sulla pesca lagunare è stata esplorata e la sua sostenibilità è stata studiata rispetto a fattori di stress indotti dall'uomo come l'aumento della popolazione e dei turisti, il declino delle attività agricole, la variazione della temperatura della superficie del mare (SST) e lo scarico di sostanze inquinanti in mare. Mauritius è stata scelta come caso di studio per la sua caratteristica geografica unica, essendo circondata da barriere coralline frangiate su tutti i lati della terraferma, creando così un ecosistema lagunare in cui la profondità varia tra 0 e 4 metri, le profondità della laguna esterna scendono a più di 200 metri che forniscono due ecosistemi completamente diversi per l'interazione delle specie ittiche, fornendo un perfetto caso di studio per osservare l'impatto delle catture ittiche costiere artigianali all'interno delle lagune. Per questa tesi, uno studio quantitativo ha comportato l'ottenimento di dati ufficiali e lo svolgimento di indagini sul campo presso tutte le stazioni di sbarco dei pesci, comprendendo anche visite in loco a tre villaggi costieri interessati dalla fuoriuscita di petrolio della MV Wakashio e dai ripetuti cicloni, per comprendere l'impatto di tali eventi sul pescato. Un aumento degli eventi ciclonici durante tutto l'anno, così come le attività di costruzione di opere di protezione costiera hanno portato al forte calo del pescato. È stato osservato che i cambiamenti nell'SST influenzano drasticamente le popolazioni ittiche, con la cattura direttamente proporzionale ad esso. I risultati di questo studio evidenziano che il consumo pro capite di pesce e prodotti ittici all'anno è notevolmente aumentato. Di conseguenza, la cattura di pesce all'anno all'interno dell'ecosistema lagunare di Mauritius affronta la minaccia di un rapido calo delle catture, il che ci spinge a ipotizzare presto l'esaurimento della popolazione ittica all'interno delle lagune.
Assessing the food security of Mauritius based on the sustainability of artisanal coastal fishing
JENA, ABHILASH
2022/2023
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to analyse the food security of Mauritius, a Small Island Developing State on the net import of food products, leaving behind an inflow of water footprint, making it vulnerable to the cascading effects of climate change, and various external shocks. The geographical location of Mauritius, being surrounded by water on all sides, makes it advantageous to provide for the dietary protein intake needs with a shift to fish as a major source, helping to reduce the dependence on the import of agricultural products. The pressure on the lagoon fisheries was explored and its sustainability was studied in respect of human-induced stressors such as increasing population and tourists, decline in agricultural activities, varying sea-surface temperature (SST) and pollutant discharge into sea. Mauritius was chosen as a case study because of its unique geographical feature, being surrounded by fringing coral barriers on all sides of the mainland, thus creating a lagoon ecosystem where the depth varies between 0 to 4 metres, the outer lagoon depths dropping to more than 200 metres providing two completely different ecosystems for the fish species to interact, providing for a perfect case study to observe the impact of artisanal coastal fish catch within the lagoons. For this thesis, a quantitative study involved obtaining official data and conducting field surveys at all the Fish Landing Stations, also involving site visits to three coastal villages impacted by oil spill of MV Wakashio and repeated cyclones, to understand the impact of such events on the fish catch. An increase in cyclonic events around the year, as well as, the construction activities for coastal protection works have all led to the sharp downfall of fish catch. Changes in SST were observed to dramatically affect the fish populations, with the catch being directly proportional to it. The findings of this study highlight that per capita consumption of fish and fish products per year has significantly increased. As a result, the fish catch per year inside the lagoon ecosystem of Mauritius faces the threat of rapidly declining catch, which prompts us to assume the exhaustion of the fish population within the lagoons soon.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/212200