Publication will portray Women of the Sea, Coast and Islands in Aysén Region
December 13th, 2022
“Women of the sea, coast and islands of Aysén Region” is the given name to the first publication aimed at disseminating female participation in artisanal fishing sector from Melinka, on the north coast, to Caleta Tortel, in the southern region.
Recognizing women on the coast’s importance history and activities. Fisheries Development Institute (IFOP) and the Artisanal Fisheries Women’s Roundtable agreed to publish Women of the Sea, as part of a collaborative effort.
As the table’s president Rodrigo Araya, Regional Presidential Delegate,, highlighted this initiative as part of the regional challenges and the importance of scientific research on the coast, to strengthen regional vision around the sector.
“In the government of our President Gabriel Boric, funding for science is going to increase progressively and Fisheries Development Institute is one of those institutions that will also receive more resources during coming years, therefore, we also have the possibility of leveraging resources from it, from the region, to be able to improve precisely needed information to make better decisions with our region’s fisheries ”, he indicated.
IFOP’s executive director Gonzalo Pereira, indicated that the Institute has a staff of 18 workers in Aysén all of them linked to marine sciences, biology and marine biology, aimed at deepening as comprehensively as possible in the fishing and aquaculture field.
“It is the institution that carries out coastal marine research for fishing and aquaculture in the State of Chile. It is an institution that is linked to the public fishing system and its contribution, mainly, is to provide information, information generation and science for decision-making by the fishing authority, but it also does research work in different associations with universities, NGOs, international entities. In this case, this agreement signing is intended to produce a photobook that highlights women’s work in artisanal fishing with photographs. And here is a personal merit of our regional chief, because photographs are by Alejandra Lafón”, she explained.
The Photobook General Directorate will be in charge of Alejandra Lafón Vilugrón IFOP Aysén Headquarters ‘s Head who will be supported in her management by a technical team from the Institution and the Board.
“The agreement that we have just signed formalizes the cooperation we have through Artisanal Fisheries Women’s Roundtable, to highlight the importance, to get to know coastal women. We who are permanently linked, from the research field and our ground’s tasks we are visiting coves and seeing all these women who live in the sea, on the islands, on the coast, in our region. For this reason, we consider it super important to show them, that they know them, that we get to know each other in the region, that we have an immense sea. It is important to show these women’s the sea faces who also belong to the region. They say that sometimes it is difficult to reach these places a little further away and we have some women who are active in artisanal fishing, in their activities that come together with gastronomy, with tourism, with children’s care, with artisanal fishermen accompaniment ”, he concluded.
At the regional level, artisanal fishing is made up of more than 2,700 men equivalent to 77.6% and more than 800 women equivalent to 22.4%, mainly located in Melinka, Puerto Aguirre, Puerto Aysén, Puerto Cisnes, Caleta Andrade , Puerto Gala and Puerto Raúl Marín Balmaceda.
According to the FAO, fishing and aquaculture female’s workforce has a numerical and qualitative importance greater than what statistics show and their work is generally not made visible.
News and photography source: Aysén Regional Presidential Delegation Press