Providing access or taking sides? Blue growth, small-scale fisheries, and the case of Lamu, Kenya

Promotio Iustitiae

People will stand fishing beside the sea…it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea (Ezek. 47:10).

When the prophet Ezekiel received a vision promising his people’s return from exile, he saw a miraculous river flowing from the threshold of the rebuilt Jerusalem temple (Ezek. 47:1-12). As the waters flowed east, the river became deeper and gained strength, bringing life to all it touched and renewing relationships both human and ecological. As one commentator argues, this post-trauma promise of consolation was as much about “restoration of the land” as “restoration to the land.” Ezekiel’s vision of restoration also included an abundance of fish, notable both for their beauty and their role as food.

Today, as in Ezekiel’s time, God’s promise of healing and restoration applies to relationships that are human, ecological, and aquatic. And yet, so many of today’s conversations about water neglect rich perspectives like Ezekiel’s. In particular, they neglect the importance of wild capture fisheries, and especially small-scale fisheries, in the ongoing struggle for ecosocial justice. Many countries’ exclusion of fisheries from national food policies provides but one salient example. In what follows, we make a case for the importance of small-scale fisheries and describe how they are simultaneously threatened by a “blue” turn in economic development and a failure of imagination on the part of those interested in helping them. We then turn to the case of a traditional fishing community in Lamu, Kenya, in order to illustrate these trends and seek guidance for ways forward.

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