Researchers from the Nereus Program at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries developed a global database of over 1,900 Indigenous communities and estimated seafood consumption at 2.1 million metric tonnes per year or 2% of global catch.

In other words and as the infographic above shows, coastal First Nations consume 74 kg of seafood per capita, whereas the global average is 19 kg.

The study was conducted, with the support of thousands of researchers across the world, by Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program leaders Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor, who is the Manager and Research Associate, and Yoshitaka Ota, who is the Program Director of Policy.

For more than two years, the researchers worked with communities recognized as Indigenous groups, self-identified minority groups, and Small Island Developing States and their findings have just been published by PLOS ONE.

As an anthropologist who has worked with Indigenous fisheries in Indonesia, Japan, and Papua New Guinea, among others, Ota understands that local policies tend to be weak but, when gathered and analyzed with a global perspective, stronger links can be built.

He also wanted to pursue a study that relied on big data. “I met with Daniel Pauly five and a half years ago and he said I should work with Indigenous peoples at a global scale,” Ota remembered.

A third source of inspiration for this research on seafood consumption by First Nations came from Nereus’ own interest in tackling issues, such as climate change, whose impacts are especially felt by minorities and vulnerable populations. “But local needed to be global,” Ota said.

On this video, the study’s lead author, Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor, gives more details about their findings.

To read more about the study, visit Nereus Program’s website.