Community Supported Fisheries: Diverse Strategies of Direct Sales Practices in Istanbul’s Small-Scale Fishing Cooperatives

Purpose: 

This article aims to understand diverse forms of direct sales practices of small-scale fishers in Istanbul, Turkey. The research focuses on small-scale fishing cooperatives in Istanbul and examines their livelihood strategies from the perspective of Community Supported Fisheries models.

Design/Methodology/Approach: 

We have used qualitative research methods and conducted 34 in-depth interviews with representatives from 19 small-scale fishing cooperatives in Istanbul as well as from NGOs, researchers and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Findings: 

We found that small-scale fishers and their cooperatives are suffering from economic, ecological, and political pressure of industrial fisheries and industrialized food system, and they use diverse forms of livelihood strategies in order to confront these challenges. In Istanbul, we scrutinized these diverse models and examined their benefits, challenges, and limitations as well as discussed their links to different Community Supported Fisheries practices from around the world.

Originality/value: 

The study thus contributes to literatures on agricultural and fisheries economics, political economy, and small-scale fishing governance with a specific focus on community supported models used in agriculture and fisheries.