Forgotten Fisheries: Shells, women and the fisheries no one was counting

Forgotten Fisheries SHELLS, WOMEN AND THE FISHERIES NO ONE WAS COUNTING

Forgotten Fisheries SHELLS, WOMEN AND THE FISHERIES NO ONE WAS COUNTING

It is 2016, and a small boat is moving slowly through the Lau Lagoon in the northern part of Malaita, in the Solomon Islands. On board, Jan van der Ploeg is conducting a survey of coastal communities and their relationship with marine resources. Across from him sits Janet Saeni-Oeta, who has recently given birth to her second son and returned to the field, to the lagoon where she grew up, where her grandparents built their lives on artificial islands rising from the coral reefs. Between interviews, she pauses to feed her baby. Around the boat, on the reef flats, women are wading and gathering clams. Jan watches. And something becomes impossible to ignore. “When we only look at fish and men, we miss more than half of the picture,” he says. “There’s a whole world going on out there in plain sight, we just have to look differently.”

TEXT Jasmijn Snoijink PHOTOGRAPHY Jan van der Ploeg Janet Saeni-Oeta © 2026 NFP - NL-CGIAR https://nlfoodpartnership.com

That moment in the lagoon is now the quiet engine

“When we only look at fish and men, we miss more than half of the picture.”

behind a research project called Forgotten Fisheries, part of the CGIAR Food Frontiers and Security programme, which focuses among other things on food security in small island settings. It is a

tively simple: what happens when science starts

collaboration between Van Hall Larenstein Uni-

paying attention to what has always been there,

versity of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands and

but never really counted?

WorldFish, a CGIAR research Center with more than

When people think of fisheries, they picture boats,

four decades of presence in the Solomon Islands,

nets and large, pelagic fish such as tuna or mack-

made possible through the NL-CGIAR Senior Expert

erel. Jan opens every conversation about his work

Programme. The question they are asking is decep-

with a gentle provocation. “Small-scale fishing is not small,” he says, when asked about shellfish. In the Global South, and especially in Pacific island nations, shells, including bivalves such as clams and mussels, and gastropods such as snails, are central to how women earn money and how families eat. The project focuses on documenting the contribution of shellfish to nutrition, income and environmental health. In the Solomon Islands alone, communities use at least 80 different species. Most are barely documented scientifically.

People know their names; the ecology behind them

3

NFP - NL-CGIAR

“Small-scale fishing is not small.

In the Global South, shells, clams and other invertebrates are central to how women earn money and how families eat.” is almost entirely unmapped. These species play a critical role in coastal ecosystems: filtering water, stabilising reefs and supporting the food chains that fishing communities depend on.

But the importance of shells goes deeper than food and income. In the Solomon Islands, shells are currency. People use them as a traditional form of exchange, for bride price (the payment made by a groom’s family to the family of the bride), for resolving disputes, for marking social obligations.

Women work with hand drills to make beads, polishing and stringing them into long strands that represent relationships, history and identity.

Households across the islands hold traditional shell money. It is part of what it means to belong. And it is under threat. Climate change, overharvesting, sedimentation and pollution are putting these resources under severe pressure. Logging and mining companies destroy mangroves, with permission typically granted by men, and the women bear

“Resources that have sustained communities for generations are eroding, often without anyone in a position of authority noticing.”

the consequences. This is not only a question of women’s livelihoods. It is a question of an entire economic sector that remains invisible to policymakers, one that sustains families, communities and cultures across the Pacific coast. Fisheries policy that focuses on boats, nets and pelagic fish

Janet Saeni-Oeta grew up in the Lau Lagoon,

promotes the visible, male-dominated part of the

fishing was the heartbeat of daily life. She grew up

economy while ignoring everything else.

in a family of boys and was the only girl, but that did not stop her joining the fishing trips, holding the net, casting it, getting on the boat. One thing stayed with her as she grew older: the fish were getting smaller. She is the first woman in her family and from her village to go to university. When she joined WorldFish in 2010, she knew exactly why she was there: to work with coastal communities and to support women in bringing larger catches, and larger shells, to market. She is now Country Director for WorldFish in the Solomon Islands.

NFP - NL-CGIAR

4

for women, young people and others who are most

“It’s not science to do science - it’s science with a very specific goal: to alleviate poverty, improve rural livelihoods and protect biodiversity.”

often overlooked in agricultural research: precisely the people we say we are doing the research for.”

That practice-oriented approach, he argues, is precisely what connects Van Hall Larenstein to the priorities of CGIAR and its national partners. He

Jan van der Ploeg grew up in Africa, surrounded by

calls himself a “barefoot conservationist”: commit-

different cultures and the ways communities relate

ted to working closely with communities, grounded

to their natural environment. He trained as an

in the realities of people’s lives. Science, in his view,

environmental anthropologist at Leiden University,

should not be done for its own sake.

completing his PhD on human-crocodile relations

When Janet moved into her leadership role in

in the Philippines. After his dissertation, WorldFish

2023, she identified a gap. The WorldFish team

brought him to the Solomon Islands, where he

had accumulated deep expertise and years of

spent three years as part of the WorldFish team.

fieldwork, but most of that work had been heavily

He is now based at Van Hall Larenstein University

focused on implementation. What the team lacked

of Applied Sciences, where his work as a lecturer focuses on practice-based research: finding real-world solutions in close collaboration with local partners, rather than building theory at a distance.

He sees that distinction as central to what he brings to this project. “A lot of agricultural research simply does not connect to local reality,” he says. “It is often far too theoretical and general. Vulnerable smallholder farmers and fishers in marginal areas do not benefit from it, and that is especially true

5

NFP - NL-CGIAR

was support in translating knowledge into scientific publications: the kind of output that shapes policy and carries weight in international research conversations. “I was really happy that our team would be given the chance to have someone to support us in terms of scientific output,” she says.

That is precisely what Jan brings. His role within the NL-CGIAR Senior Expert Programme is to support junior researchers in navigating scientific

Jan van der Ploeg

publishing. “Navigating scientific journals and using the right terminology can be a challenge, especially

“If you want to support communities, you have to go through the government.”

for junior researchers in Solomon Islands,” he says.

It is the difference between knowledge that stays local and knowledge that influences how the world understands coastal fisheries.

But the Solomon Islands has more than 3,000

That influence matters beyond academia. The

coastal communities. Reaching them one by one is

Solomon Islands’ Ministry of Fisheries and Ma-

neither realistic nor sustainable. What Janet’s team

rine Resources looks to WorldFish as their go-to

demonstrated was a different model: the only

research organisation, for information, training

way to have impact at scale is to work through the

and support for resource management process-

government, strengthening its capacity to support

es and implementation. Scientific output shapes

community-based resource management across

policy. The clearest illustration of this is commu-

the country. “You will not make a change just by

nity-based fisheries management. When Jan first

spending a lot of money in one community,” she

worked in the Solomons, the approach was com-

says. “You have to think much more strategically. If

munity by community, intensive, slow and costly.

you want to support communities, you have to go

NFP - NL-CGIAR

6

“Sometimes scientists from abroad come in, do their thing, go back to Europe and never report back.

Working within the CGIAR is a guarantee that that doesn’t happen.” through the government.” That insight is now national policy. Community-based resource management is the Solomon Islands government’s official strategy for protecting marine resources.

Jan is direct about the politics of international research. Science is international by definition, he

serve as an entry point to having a healthy diet, or

says. “People claiming that it is not, don’t know

even to better managing the ecosystems where

what they are talking about.” Working within

those shells are found.”

CGIAR, in his view, is a model that avoids what he

Climate change is not a distant concern in the Sol-

calls “parachute science”. “Sometimes scientists

omon Islands. Janet describes what communities

from abroad come in, do their thing, go back to

are experiencing: coastal erosion, sea level rise, salt

Europe and never report back,” he says. “Working

intrusion into water sources, increased sedimenta-

within the CGIAR is a guarantee that that doesn’t

tion, loss of mangroves, coral bleaching, disappear-

happen.” WorldFish has been present in the Solo-

ing seagrass meadows. The Pacific Islands have

mon Islands for 41 years. That sustained presence

given the world one of the most powerful phrases

means genuine partnerships with ministries, pro-

in climate discourse: “We are not drowning, we are

vincial governments and communities. Research

fighting.” WorldFish’s response has been to build

agendas are shaped by those stakeholders, not

resilience through diversity, restoring traditional

imposed on them. Janet illustrates this from the

practices: gardening alongside fishing, maintaining

other side: at the international conference on shell-

diverse livelihoods so that when a cyclone hits,

fish fisheries where this interview took place, she

or fish stocks decline, families still have food and

encountered research that filled gaps she had been

income.

aware of for years, nutritional data on shellfish

For Jan, the immediate goal is concrete: joint publi-

species that communities depend on but for which

cations led by Solomon Islands researchers, build-

she had no numbers to share. “With international

ing the scientific capacity of the WorldFish team

collaboration, we can have that information and

from within. The deeper ambition is to change how

provide it to communities,” she says. “That can

decision-makers think. When a harbour is planned, or when a logging company applies for permission near the coast, the trade-offs should be visible.

“Very often it’s the men deciding,” he says, “and they forget about the sedimentation and the pollution and all the problems downstream. And it’s the women who are feeding their families from those resources.”

Janet is clear-eyed about scale. Forgotten Fisheries is a small project, part of the WorldFish research programme in Solomon Islands built up over many years. Among the initiatives it connects to is the

Janet Saeni-Oeta

7

NFP - NL-CGIAR

ACIAR Pathways Project, funded by the Australi-

Jan allows himself a closing remark, dry and point-

an Centre for International Agricultural Research,

ed. “Please don’t overestimate the impact of just

which works towards sustainable small-scale

a small project.” He pauses. “Or, convince the gov-

fisheries across the Pacific. Its impact must be

ernment to give us much more money.” The joke

understood in that context, as one contribution to

lands, but the point behind it is serious. Forgotten

a national strategy on small-scale coastal fish-

Fisheries is small by design, a precise contribution

eries and a growing regional movement. For her,

to a much larger effort that has been building for

the goal is something harder to measure. It is the

decades. The ambition is not to solve everything.

realisation, built slowly through years of research

It is to make sure that the next time a decision is

and advocacy, that coastal resources are not just

made about the coast, the women gathering shells

food. They are an identity. They are a culture.

on the reef flat are part of the picture.

They are who communities are. Helping to protect those resources, she says, is not only about better management or better policy. It is about helping communities remain themselves.

“These coastal resources are an identity. They are a culture. They are who communities are.”

ABOUT THIS SERIES Food security, climate resilience, sustainable food sys-

Research Portfolio, bringing Dutch knowledge to where it

tems, these are challenges that no single country or insti-

is needed most, and bringing global insights back to the

tution can address alone. That is the driving logic behind

Netherlands. The programme is designed to strengthen

the collaboration between the Netherlands and CGIAR,

international research collaboration and ensure that sci-

the world’s largest publicly funded network of agricultural

ence leads to real-world impact.

research centres, working across low- and middle-income

This article is part of a series of interviews highlight-

countries on the most pressing challenges in food and

ing these collaborations. The series is produced by the

agriculture.

Netherlands Food Partnership in partnership with the

Through the NWO funded Senior Expert Programme in

NL–CGIAR working group, which brings together NWO,

the NL-CGIAR research programme, experienced Dutch

the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of

researchers contribute their expertise to the CGIAR

Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature.