FISH LINKS - Scrutinizing the impact of tourism-driven fish consumption on reef fish communities: a socio-environmental study in tropical seascapes

Coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems in the world and provide food and income for approximately one-quarter of small-scale fishers worldwide and contribute to livelihoods for approximately 500 million people. However, anthropogenic activities like overfishing are threatening coral reef ecosystems. In the last decades, tourism has evolved into a global phenomenon, with significant impacts on social and ecological systems. To what extent tourism impacts coral reef fish communities is, however, unclear. The aim of this project is to increase our knowledge on if, how, and why tourism-led fish consumption may be affecting coral reef fish communities on nearshore reefs. This study will be carried out along the Tanzanian coastline and is a collaboration between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Södertörn University, Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute and State University of Zanzibar. We will use an interdisciplinary comparative approach to probe the possible impact of fish consumption by tourists on reef fish species by co-examining fish consumption patterns and the ecological status of consumed fish species in different sites. Our results will increase our knowledge on the intersection between tourism and ecological systems. More pragmatically, we expect our findings to orient sustainable tourism practices and effective institutional arrangements in relation to tourism-related challenges.