“Life stories in the Southern Seas” is an ethnographic research that details the lifestyles of artisanal fishers in Magallanes, Chile.
“Life Stories in the Southern Seas” is a publication of IDEAL Center.
“Life Stories in the Southern Seas”, a publication of the Center for the Dynamic Research of Marine Ecosystems of High Latitudes (IDEAL), was launched before an audience of 50 guests. This book seeks to augment our knowledge of fishing people and experiences, both at sea and on shore. The book was presented by Alberto Serrano, Director of the Puerto Williams Anthropological Museum Martín Gusinde; Carlos Barría, artisanal fisherman; and María Amalia Mellado, anthropologist of IDEAL Center.
“In Magallanes, there is no biographical material with these characteristics, as research on artisanal fisheries is scarce here. In that sense, this book is a great contribution for the region because it helps us to understand the workings of the dynamics of fishers,” said Serrano.
“Life stories in the Southern Seas”, however, lays bare crucial issues of the current world such as climate change and the sustainability of marine resources, as well as how these matters are lived and experienced on the local level.
Barría expressed thanks for the opportunity to make visible the problems that fishers face on a daily basis. “It is important that there is a record of what life is like at sea,” he said.
From left to right: Alberto Serrano, Carlos Barría and María Amalia Mellado.
“This text is an invitation to submerge in the region’s fishing world based on the experiences of the fishers themselves,” concluded Mellado.
The book is the product of nearly a year and a half of ethnographic research carried out by the anthropologists Alberto Serrano, María Amalia Mellado, and Pablo Rojas; the sociologist Gustavo Blanco; and the economist Laura Nahuelhual. All are researchers at the Universidad Austral de Chile and the IDEAL Center. The study aimed to characterize the ways and means of fishing life as well as strategies employed by artisanal fishermen and women in Punta Arenas over the last 50 years when faced with socio-environmental changes. The resulting material gave life to this book and provided input for other research being done on fisheries governance in the region and the king crab fishery.
See the book in spanish.
See teaser.