Livelihood transitions through women’s participation in the sea cucumber fishery in Mexico and Thailand

Abstract

The high demand for sea cucumber in Asian markets continues to motivate the expansion of this fishery around the world. A common pattern is a boom-and-bust trajectory, meaning rapid development at the outset, and a predictable collapse after a few years. In Mexico, temporary-well-paid processing jobs for women were created and sea cucumber fishers earned a good income, but both disappeared with the collapse of the fishery. In Thailand, sea cucumber has been harvested for centuries, and apparently the boom-and-bust phenomena occurred in different phases throughout history. The research objective was to explore the factors that determine the sea cucumber fishing dynamics in Thailand, and its gendered effects, as compared to Mexico. How does the gendered adaptation for depletion of sea cucumber differ between Mexico and Thailand? We aim to identify the coping and adaptation strategies taken by women to face the bust of the sea cucumber fishery. In Mexico, sea cucumber harvesting is men’s work, since it involves diving. In Thailand, it is gleaned, and women play a large role. Mexican fishers flocked to sea cucumber because they did not have as many options for well-paid employment, and women held mostly temporary-low-paying jobs, while in Thailand, employment opportunities are greater, men fish and women glean, and both also have access to other income-earning opportunities through tourism and agriculture. Currently the context in which sea cucumber is traded in Thailand provides ways to protection of marine resources, and women and men’s engagement followed different pathways in Mexico and Thailand.