A greater understanding of the economic and behavioral drivers of sustainable fisheries management.
Professor Zinnia Mukherjee researches the Digha-Shankarpur fishery at the south of West Bengal, India — the major fishery of the state and the primary source of livelihood over 20,000 individuals. The fishing area, situated north of the Bay of Bengal and bordering Bangladesh and the Indian states West Bengal and Orissa, suffers from a number of problems that contribute to the rapidly deteriorating marine system.
Many fishermen there are among the poorest in the country and the world. For example, securing two complete meals for their families and themselves is often very challenging. Through surveying the fishing community and analyzing the data, this project will identify the determinants of the Digha fishermen’s labor supply behavior, and the socio-economic and environmental factors that prevent fishers from escaping the poverty trap and threaten the sustainability of the ecosystem.