Our way of living : survival strategies in lobster fishing households in Prince Edward Island

Larkin, Maureen (1990) Our way of living : survival strategies in lobster fishing households in Prince Edward Island. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The survival of the lobster fishery is dependent on many factors, both inside and outside the fishing household. This thesis argues that an adequate explanation of the survival of this petty commodity form of production necessitates an understanding of the tension between external structures such as state policies and the internal dynamics of fishing households. It examines the impact of changing state policies, during the period of the mid-1960s to the 1980s, on the survival of lobster fishing households. Recent changes in the area of licensing and unemployment insurance programs, resulted in both new constraints and new opportunities for the survival of lobster fishing households in PEI. -- Many analyses of the survival of fishing production have focused on the influence of state policy on the activities and decisions of the fisher. However, fishers are embedded in fishing households. State policies impact on members of fishing households, other than the fisher, and the survival of the fishing unit is dependent on the ability of the household as a whole to respond to changes in state policy. -- Drawing on data from interviews with men and women in fishing households in Naufrage, located in northeastern P.E.I., this thesis demonstrates that household members have actively and creatively responded to changes in state policy in developing strategies to reproduce their production unit. Initiatives on the part of women have been a key component in household survival strategies. They have creatively adapted to the constraints of external forces as well as lobbied for changes in state policy that, in turn, extended the survival options for fishing families. The success of survival strategies depends on the internal characteristics of the fishing household such as life-cycle and the intersection of gender relations and household dynamics.

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