Diversification, is that the key?
Fisheries are currently an economic sector in crisis. There are many to blame for that, including fishers themselves for overfishing. But part of this crisis is also due to factors such as changes in the marine biodiversity associated to climate change, fluctuating consumer demands, and unexpected evolution of regulatory systems imposing new constraints, among others. Turnovers are falling or maintained at sensitive conditions, threatening many businesses. In such conditions and given what we already know, increasing fishing effort is no longer an effective or acceptable response to deal with decreasing profits. However, the concept of multifunctionality of fisheries is slowly emerging through the diversification of activities. Fishers are learning to resort to new alternatives in order to sustain their livelihoods. They do so by interacting in new ways with the environment, institutional players, scientists, local stakeholders and customers, in addition to th