Abstract:
In many instances, small-scale fishery activities are informal and not counted. And because small-scale fisheries are diverse and dispersed, fully measuring their contributions is difficult. Often, information on small-scale fisheries (such as catch, employment, nutritional contribution, and governance arrangements) is not included nor disaggregated in official statistics—neither is it explicitly accounted for when designing national, regional, and global policies. As long as data on small-scale fisheries remains “hidden”, they will continue to be marginalized in policy-making processes, decision making and management. Here, I will unpack how FAO, Duke University, WorldFish and more recently Stanford University collaborate in the Illuminating Hidden Harvests (IHH) initiative to address this invisibility. For this, I will first explain how we generated 58 country case studies, received survey results from 104 countries and used other sources to produce what can be considered the new global baseline for small-scale fisheries. I will discuss how this work, that involved over 800 collaborators, has set in motion research leading up to a Nature collection on small-scale fisheries. I will also talk about the IHH uptake in policy and practice. This experience provides an example of how to bridge science and policy in a way that leverages the strength of all partners.
Bio:
Nicole Franz is an expert in the political economy of sustainable development. She has over two decades of experience working in intergovernmental organizations. As leader of the equitable livelihoods team in FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, Nicole focused on advancing global sustainability policy, making policy processes more inclusive, and empowering small-scale fisheries actors. In 2025 Nicole joined Stanford’s Center for Ocean Solutions as a research scholar where she studies sustainable and equitable small-scale fisheries, governance, and food systems and how they relate to one another. She aims to help bridging the gap between research and policy, ensuring that small-scale fisheries remain a priority in global sustainability efforts.
