Job Satisfaction amongst Nicaraguan lobster fishers Iris Monnereau, MARE, University of Amsterdam

Nicaragua’s lobster fishery Nicaragua’s Spiny lobster fishery is a 45 US$ million industry The lobster tails are an export product The fishery is of great importance for employment and national currency (6th largest export product)

Corn Island Island on Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast Area: 10 km² Population: 8.000 The lobster fishery most important economic activity on Corn Island (22 US$ million)

Lobster fishery Different fleets Different ethnic backgrounds Different gear types

Methodology N=18 Different groups of fishers (gears, ethnicity, scale, captain and crew) Combination of survey and qualitative interview

Methodology (2) Basic needs (11 Q) Social needs (5 Q) (being out at sea, time away from home, etc) Self-realization (3 Q) (challenge, worth, adventure) Management (6 Q) (role of gm officials, influence on management, level of conflict etc.) Valuation of Nature (2 Q) General Questions (3 Q)

Results Basic needs 2.9 Social needs 3.5 Self-realization 3.8 Management 2.3 Valuation of Nature 2.4

Results (2) ‘Condition of fishstocks’ and ‘Influence on management’ scores lowest (1.3 and 1.7) ‘Worth of your job’ and ‘Being out at sea’ score highest (4.2 and 3.8)

General Questions Shift to another fishery 16% no Shift to another job outside fishing 22% no Advice a young person to enter the fishery 38% no

Discussion (1) Fishers low level of education makes ranking difficult; no concept of JS Lots of explanation necessary (interviewer needs to have a lot of knowledge of the fishery) Q on cleanliness, predictability, hours spend working etc for fishermen is intrinsic to the fishery, no need complaining about it Q on being your own master only works for captains, other fishers do not have this influence

Discussion (2) Management: fishers regards the questions very different Some fishers very satisfied with corruption of officials some very dissatisfied regarding the same issue Influence on management or level of conflict, not clear terms for a fishermen Scale of conflicts differs (some fishers deal with crew-conflicts, others with small-scale-industrial, some with international-national etc).

Conclusion Outcome is valuable but in depth knowledge of the fishery is still needed to carry out an interpret the data More agreement on the interpretation of all questions might be necessary