42  Social Vulnerability and Fisheries Engagement

Description The Community Social Vulnerability Index (CSVI) is an indicator of social vulnerability in coastal communities that are dependent upon commercial fishing (Norman 2007). To gain further insight into community vulnerability in relation to commercial fishing, fishing dependence, which can be expressed in terms of engagement, reliance, or by a composite of both, can be considered in relation to CSVI. Engagement refers to the total extent of fishing activity in a community; it can be expressed in terms of commercial activity (e.g., landings, revenues, permits, processing, etc). Reliance is the per capita engagement of a community; thus, in two communities with equal engagement, the community with the smaller population would have a higher reliance on its fisheries activities.

Similar to the commercial fishing reliance and engagement measures produced as a part of the Community Social Vulnerability Index (CSVI), we have developed index measures for recreational fishing engagement and reliance (Lewis-Smith and Norman 2024), absent in prior versions of this report as consistent annual data had not been identified. As with the commercial fishing Index construction, following the method proposed by Jepson and Colburn (2013), data directly linking place-based communities to the economic aspects of recreational fishing, which could be attributed to specific calendar years, were compiled from six distinct sources as inputs for the measures. Charter and guide permit data collected by state managers were obtained and linked to Census-Designated Place (CDP) based communities. Additionally, historic fishing tackle business location data was compiled from Data Axel, the provider of business location data to Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) business analyst application. Marina business location data was also obtained from ESRI and ESRI’s provider. These data enable interannual comparisons and allow for future replicable iterations.

Communities that score highly in either commercial or recreational reliance in addition to higher social vulnerability scores may be especially socially vulnerable to downturns in fishing. Fishing reliance can be volatile: communities can move left on the x-axis in years with reduced landings, and may thus appear to be less dependent on commercial fishing when in fact they have actually just experienced a difficult year; therefore, these results should be interpreted with care. These same qualifications apply to recreational fishing reliance measures, and several communities are among the most reliant in their respective regions for both commercial and recreational fishing. These data are difficult to groundtruth and interpreting trends requires further study.

Indicator Download

ERDDAP™ link:

https://oceanview.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/tabledap/cciea_HD_Soc_Vuln_Indx.html

References

Jepson, Michael, and Lisa Lynne Colburn. 2013. “Development of Social Indicators of Fishing Community Vulnerability and Resilience in the US Southeast and Northeast Regions.”
Lewis-Smith, Connor, and Karma Norman. 2024. “Developing US West Coast Recreational Fishing Community Measures: Applying an Index Approach in the Context of COVID-19 and Social Vulnerability.” Ocean & Coastal Management 255: 107236.
Norman, Karma C. 2007. “Community Profiles for West Coast and North Pacific Fisheries: Washington, Oregon, California, and Other US States.”