Ambio https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01698-5 RESEARCH ARTICLE Does catching more fish increase the subjective well-being of fishers? Insights from Bangladesh Sara Miñarro , Samiya Selim, Eric D. Galbraith Received: 5 May 2021 / Revised: 7 November 2021 / Accepted: 23 December 2021 Abstract Small-scale fisheries have been associated with These diverse fisheries generate most of the catch for direct the subjective well-being of coastal communities through human consumption in low-income countries, providing their links with culture, identity, and social cohesion. But essential food and income. In addition, small-scale fisheries although fish catches are usually considered the primary are deeply associated with people’s identity, social norms ecosystem service that benefits fishers, little is known about and lifestyle, all of which create a strong attachment to how subjective well-being is influenced by the fishing fishing (Pollnac and Poggie 2008; Cinner 2014). Fishing activity itself. Here, we applied the experience sampling has been associated with subjective well-being—feelings method in two small-scale fisheries in Bangladesh to assess of happiness and satisfaction—because fishing activities the effects of fishing on fishers’ occurrence of positive and are linked with communities’ culture, identity and social negative affect, two measures of subjective well-being. We cohesion through multiple dimensions (Weeratunge et al. found that fishing activities were not directly associated 2014; Allison et al. 2020). But the increasing commer- with increased momentary affect and that the frequency of cialization of small-scale fisheries, leading to profit-driven positive affect actually decreased as the fishing trip overfishing and the subsequent degradation of coastal fish progressed. Furthermore, although very low catches were stocks and natural marine environments, threatens the associated with less positive affect, the highest frequency societal benefits of this ancient human-nature interaction of positive affect was achieved with relatively small (Lapointe et al. 2021). Furthermore, it has been suggested catches. Our results imply that the benefits provided by that the profit- and yield-focused assumptions underpinning small-scale fisheries to the momentary subjective well- fisheries management have produced a myopic paradigm being of fishers are not strongly related to the actual where the most important benefits from fisheries to catching of fish. humanity are overlooked (Allison et al. 2012). Fishing can influence well-being both at the individual Keywords Affect  Ecosystem services  and societal level. Individual influences can arise from Positive psychology  Small-scale fisheries  engaging in physical activity in nature, living adventures Social-ecological systems  Subjective well-being and overcoming challenge (Thompson Coon et al. 2011; Holland et al. 2020). Fishing can provide a fulfilling social status, particularly in small-scale societies, associated with INTRODUCTION the opportunities to display strength and bravery, cooperate with others, and provide for one’s family and community Small-scale fisheries are considered a pillar of socio-eco- (Naranjo-Madrigal and van Putten 2019). Being a ‘‘good nomic well-being for millions of people in coastal com- fisher’’ is associated with features that develop social munities (The World Bank 2012; Teh and Pauly 2018). cohesion, such as food sharing, frequent interaction and communication, and reciprocity at sea (Gustavsson et al. 2017; Holland et al. 2020). Fishing is commonly under- Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280- stood as a ‘‘way of life’’, and the pride and self-actual- 021-01698-5. ization obtained from being a fisher has been found to be Ó The Author(s) 2022 www.kva.se/en 123 Ambio the main explanation for fishers’ reluctance to stop fishing, longevity in both men and women (Lyubomirsky et al. even when stock depletion causes it to be unprof- 2005; Steptoe and Wardle 2011; Pressman et al. 2019), and itable (Pollnac et al. 2012). Fishers seem to have adapted to positive emotions during sequential exchanges are associ- the risks of the fishing profession -one of the most dan- ated with desirable social features such as increased com- gerous occupations in the world (Kaplan and Kite-Powell mitment and group cohesion (Lawler et al. 2008). 2000; Håvold 2010), and have reported feeling a thrill that The emotions elicited in a person by a given situation fulfills their fundamental need for adventure (Pollnac and can be pleasant and unpleasant, yielding positive affect Poggie 2008). Furthermore, people in small-scale fishing (PA) and negative affect (NA). PA and NA are independent communities have cited fishing among the top things that and affected by different variables and should therefore be bring them most happiness (Miñarro et al. 2021). These measured separately (Bradburn 1969; Diener 2009). results could be assumed to imply that catching more fish Momentary affect can be measured through the Experience would yield more positive emotions (e.g., pride, happi- Sampling Method (ESM) (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson ness), and thus greater fishing effort would bring greater 2014). By prompting participants to answer questions well-being to small-scale fishing communities. about their current emotions and activities, this measure However, little empirical research exists on the medi- avoids recall bias and undergoes relatively little filtering ating factors between engaging in fishing activities and against learned standards and expectations (Shiffman et al. increased subjective well-being (Weeratunge et al. 2014; 2008). Because ESM yields repeated measurements of a Johnson 2018). Subjective well-being (hereafter SWB) is person’s activities, emotions, thoughts, and motivations recognized as an important component of the social well- over time, it can help reveal how much of the person’s being approach in fisheries (White 2008; Coulthard et al. variation in happiness (or any other state) is related to what 2011; Johnson 2018). This approach envisions three the person does, the company they keep, the time of day, dimensions of well-being including the material, relational etc. (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson 2014). ESM thus pro- and subjective dimensions, and has been used as a frame- vides a direct quantification of how the activities a person work to investigate the locally relevant well-being benefits does affect their well-being in real time. derived by fishing communities from coastal ecosystem Positive affect appears to be strongly influenced by services (Coulthard et al. 2014; Lau et al. 2019; Lapointe personal characteristics and temperament (e.g., sleep et al. 2021). Recent research has focused on how specific quality, personality traits) and by local features of the stages of the small-scale fisheries value chain may provide current situation, while general circumstances, such as well-being benefits to different stakeholders (Galappaththi income or education, have little impact on the momentary et al. 2021). While this has provided important findings on experience of a regular day (Kahneman et al. 2004). the varied nature of benefits and the mediating effects of Diurnal cycles of affect and tiredness have also been specific factors, such as urbanization, discrimination or reported by different studies (Stone et al. 1998; Kahneman management approaches, a substantial data gap remains in et al. 2004). Furthermore, negative affect has been shown mechanistically understanding how these benefits from the to peak in the morning and then decrease throughout the environment directly relate to the experience of human day (Kahneman et al. 2004). Some studies found marked well-being (Carpenter et al. 2009; Lapointe et al. 2021; contrasts between the expected enjoyment provided by Fabinyi and Barclay 2022). One little explored way to do it specific activities, and the actual affect reported when is by quantifying the effects of a specific activity on fishers’ doing the same activities, which highlights the difference subjective well-being at the individual level (Soga and between belief-based generic judgements and specific Gaston 2020). episodic reports (Kahneman et al. 2004; Shiffman et al. SWB entails people’s appraisals of their own lives, 2008; Diener et al. 2009). including both reflective cognitive judgements, such as life Of potential relevance to fishers, correlational studies satisfaction, and emotional responses to ongoing life events have found transient positive affect during challenging, (i.e., positive versus negative emotions) (Diener et al. highly skilled activities to be associated with a rewarding 2018). These two dimensions are only moderately corre- state called flow (Csikszentmihalyi 1990; Bryce and lated and have been shown to provide complementary Haworth 2002). Flow is a state in which people are com- information on the overall SWB (Diener 2009). Emotions pletely immersed in an activity in which their level of skill are thought to be short-lived reactions that are tied to matches the challenge at hand, and where ‘‘action follows specific events or stimuli (Kahneman et al. 1999), and upon action according to an internal logic which seems to ‘‘affect’’ is the experienced set of emotions felt by a person need no conscious intervention on our part’’ (Csikszent- at a particular moment, which is usually associated with the mihalyi 2014). In flow, the activity itself is intrinsically context in which the person is embedded (Diener 2009). rewarding, independently of external incentives, and leads Affect appears to be causally related to success, health and to a sense of control and positive affect. For example, Ó The Author(s) 2022 123 www.kva.se/en Ambio activities such as rock climbing, chess, or writing can lead coordinating the research team and interviewing key to flow state, ‘‘the optimal experience’’. Although indi- informants (Miñarro et al. 2021). The information in this viduals differ in their propensity to achieve flow, activities section comes from field diaries and own ethnographic data must meet certain conditions for flow to occur: they must collected in the framework of this work, combined with contain a clear set of goals, there must be a balance published literature when available. between the perceived challenges and perceived skills, and The data collection took place in two different sites, one there must be clear and immediate feedback (Nakamura rural and one urban, to control for the effect of urbanization and Csikszentmihalyi 2014). The reported self-actualiza- in the benefits derived from fishing (Lapointe et al. 2021). tion component of fishing, including ‘‘adventure’’ and The rural site in this study is Nijhum Dwip (Fig. 1), a ‘‘challenge’’ (Pollnac and Poggie 2008; Pollnac et al. remote island created by a sand alluvium accumulation and 2012), coupled with a clear goal and the high skill required first colonized by fishermen in the early 1950s. We sur- from fishers, could indicate that fishing commonly leads to veyed fishermen from the small landing site of Namar a flow-like state (Vittersø 1997). Bazar (Fig. 1). The majority of the population in Nijhum Here we investigate how fishing influences momentary Dwip adhere to Islam, and its inhabitants face precarious affect by assessing the experienced well-being of fishermen living conditions (Siam et al. 2020). The island is highly in two small-scale fishing communities in Bangladesh. We vulnerable to climate change impacts and is frequently specifically ask: (i) how does the momentary affect of flooded by monsoonal storms and cyclones (Government of fishermen vary among their daily activities?, (ii) is fishing the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 2017). The fishing is success associated with fishermen’s affect during or done exclusively by men around the island using push nets, directly after a fishing trip, and do the predominant emo- bag nets, and gillnets. Most fishermen work for a patron, tions change with fishing success?, and (iii) can we detect who provides a loan, boat and fishing gear, and the fish the occurrence of flow during challenging and highly market is controlled by patrons. Fishermen in Nijhum skilled fishing activities? Our results test the hypotheses Dwip went on fishing trips during 4.2 ± 2.8 days per week, that (i) activities associated with fishing would produce and mostly did one long (5–8 h) fishing trip per day. more positive affect than non-fishing activities, (ii) the Occasionally, fishing crews go to distant fishing grounds frequency of positive affective states and emotions is requiring trips of up to a week. The Nijhum Dwip small- proportional to the fish catch rate, and (iii) activities scale fishery is very risky; fishermen are often caught in meeting the conditions for flow will be associated with monsoon storms with no assistance due to the lack of more positive and less negative affective states. By using rescue fleet coverage in the area, according to the key well-established psychological tools to test the association informants, and there is no hospital on the island. Fur- between fishing and affect, our work helps expand the thermore, institutionally sanctioned piracy was anony- understanding on the mechanisms by which fisheries sup- mously reported to this study’s researchers on a number of port the well-being of fishing communities. occasions, leading to economic losses, personal harm, and losses of fishing equipment. Communities depend on money for certain goods and services, and at least one MATERIALS AND METHODS household member typically engages in some form of paid work, but all households are involved in subsistence Study sites activities. The urban site is within the Chittagong area, the largest In Bangladesh, an estimated 86% of marine catch is pro- port in Bangladesh and the second largest city in the duced by artisanal fisheries (Bangladesh Bureau of Statis- country. We surveyed two communities in the metropolitan tics 2016), highlighting the importance and ubiquity of this area, North Salimpur and Sagorika (Fig. 1). Fishing in sector nationwide. Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha), considered the these communities was dominated by Hindu fishers, who national fish of Bangladesh, makes up an important part of consider fishing as their identity and tradition. Fishing at Bengali cuisine and is the most important target species both sites is done with gillnets on designated permanent (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics 2016). The purpose of fishing grounds that fishers reach with engine boats. Fish- fishing is primarily for sale, although fishermen tend to ermen fished 5.5 ± 2.4 days per week, with each fishing keep a small part of the catch for family consumption, and day including between 3 and 4 fishing trips of about 4 h some of it is destined for export. This study is part of a each. The fish is sold to fishmongers at the landing site and broader research project for which the lead author spent taken to be resold in the Chittagong city markets. Only men several weeks living in each of the studied communities, are involved in fishing, but some women work as Ó The Author(s) 2022 www.kva.se/en 123 Ambio Fig. 1 Map of the study sites. Sources: Administrative boundaries (GDAM, https://gadm.org/), Rivers and Cities (MapCruzin.com (Open- StreetMap data courtesy of http://download.geofabrik.de), Urban areas (obtained from Global Land Cover 2000, original data resampled onto a 30 s grid, https://www.diva-gis.org/gdata), and Roads (Digital Chart of the World, https://www.diva-gis.org/gdata) fishmongers and maintaining the nets. While North Sal- catches, among others) when prompted about what makes impur is a small, close-knit permanent Hindu community, them happy (Miñarro et al. 2021). nearly half of Sagorika’s workforce is comprised of immigrants from other parts of Bangladesh, mostly Mus- Sampling and data collection lims, coming as temporary fishing labor for the 6-month hilsa season. Data collection took place between April and July 2018. At both sites, participants were full-time fishermen, Participants were informed of the nature and purpose of the typically organized in fishing crews, i.e., the crew working study and agreed freely to participate understanding that on the same boat during the fishing season. Net repair is a they could withdraw from the research at any time without time-consuming daily task of fishing crews in Nijhum consequences, giving their oral consent. Dwip, but it is usually a task done by someone other than Participants’ momentary affect was assessed via the fishermen in Chittagong, typically fishermen’s wives or Experience Sampling Method (ESM), which consists in men who are hired for it. A previous study on these sites surveying research subjects at random times throughout the found that the studied Bangladeshi communities have high day (Hektner et al. 2007). Volunteer fishermen were subjective well-being relative to the national average recruited in Nijhum Dwip (N = 27) and Chittagong (Miñarro et al. 2021). Further, fishermen often related (N = 20). A summary of the ESM sample is shown in different aspects of the fishing profession (notably high Table S1; because of the intensive sampling technique and to adhere to anonymity ethical requirements, only the age Ó The Author(s) 2022 123 www.kva.se/en Ambio of respondents was recorded. Participants were all male Data analysis due to a lack of female involvement in fishing activities, and their mean age was 32.8 ± 12 years old. Participants Emotional state responses were classified into three ‘‘af- freely agreed to provide their mobile phone number and fective states’’: (1) positive affect (PA) including happy, answer the phone every time they were called. Fishermen well, smiling and satisfied; (2) negative affect (NA) in the sample were called at random times twice a day including worried, anxious, angry, not good, scared; and (morning and afternoon/evening) for one week in July and (3) physical needs including hungry, sick, ill, thirsty, and one week in August 2018 and asked about their current tired. For each call, positive affect, negative affect, and activity and what emotions they were feeling. physical needs were coded as present or absent. If a fish- To record their affect, participants were offered a list of erman reported one or more emotions/needs in an affective positive emotions (Happy/Smiling/Well/Satisfied), negative state, that affective state was recorded as present. Absent emotions (Angry/Anxious/Worried/Not good at all/Scared), indicates no emotions/needs were selected for an affective and physical states (Hungry/Thirsty/Ill/Sick/Tired), and state. Because of this approach, more than one affective they could choose as many as they felt fit their current state state could be recorded per call. While some ESM studies or respond freely with emotions not present on the list. The have asked participants to rate the intensity of a given set list was developed before going to the field based on of emotions (e.g., (Larson and Csikszentmihalyi 2014), it is common pleasant and unpleasant emotions (Diener 2009) also recommended that the contents on the questionnaire and refined during a pilot study with small-scale fishers in are targeted to the research goals and cultural setting the Solomon Islands (Miñarro et al. 2021). During pilot (Diener 2009; Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi 2014). We testing, several respondents alluded to physical states when chose the presence/absence approach to reduce the asked ‘‘What are you feeling right now?’’, so the option of response burden and ensure participants remained moti- answering with physical needs was added. However, these vated to answer the calls. Furthermore, our pilot tests are not considered for the affect calculations. Participants showed that many respondents were not inclined to give a were also asked to report what they were doing at the graded response but rather they themselves only contem- moment (i.e., their current activity, which was open- plated the presence or absence of emotions. ended), why they were doing it (I have to/I want to/I have Activities were inductively categorized into various nothing else to do), how challenging the activity was (Very/ fishing-related categories, resting, and non-fishing activi- Quite/A little/Not at all) and how skilled they considered ties (Table 1). This was done through peer coding, where themselves at their current activity (Very/Quite/A little/Not two researchers classified all the responses independently at all). If they were fishing at the time of the call, they were and then compared and discussed their resulting categories asked to specify how long they had been fishing (open- until consensus was reached (Bishop and Dzidic 2014). ended), whether the fishing was going well, whether they Given the study’s focus on subjective experience, we tried had caught anything, and what was the nature of their to keep the fishermen’s own classification of activities current catch (species and weight) to evaluate the possible whenever possible. During this process, it became apparent effect of these fishing variables on their affect. The study that ‘‘fishing’’ comprised different phases throughout the was given ethical approval by the UAB ethics committee fishing trip, which displayed marked differences in affect under reference CEEAH 4119. responses. Fishing preparation refers to when fishermen Table 1 Activity categories, their frequencies of occurrence among all calls, and representative examples of the textual responses provided during the calls Activity categories Observations (%) Response examples Fishing 271 (28%) ‘‘Fishing’’, ‘‘on the boat fishing’’ Non-fishing activities 263 (27%) ‘‘Eating’’, ‘‘shopping’’, ‘‘talking’’, ‘‘drinking tea’’, ‘‘walking’’, ‘‘playing’’ Resting (control activity) 162 (17%) ‘‘Resting’’, ‘‘sleeping’’ Selling fish 71 (7%) ‘‘Selling fish’’ On the way to fish 55 (6%) ‘‘Going fishing’’, ‘‘on the way to fishing ground’’ Returning from fishing trip 48 (5%) ‘‘Back from fishing’’, ‘‘going home after fishing’’ Repairing boat 31 (3%) ‘‘Fixing boat engine’’, ‘‘repairing the boat’’ Repairing net 30 (3%) ‘‘Repair net’’, ‘‘sewing net’’ Fishing-related, unspecific 21 (2%) ‘‘Work’’ Fishing preparation 17 (2%) ‘‘Preparing to go fishing’’, ‘‘eating and getting ready for fishing’’ Ó The Author(s) 2022 www.kva.se/en 123 Ambio were getting ready to go fishing. Boat and net repair were did not show enough variation across activities, it was not treated as separate activities because while net repair is a possible to run GLMMs with their occurrence as a response fundamental part of the fishing operations in Bangladesh, variable. Thus, they were excluded from the activity boat repair is uncommon, taking place only when an analyses, although we use them as descriptive additional accident occurs. A category called ‘‘fishing-related information to characterize the occurrence of individual unspecific’’ was created for when participants answered emotions. only ‘‘work’’. Because participants were full-time fishers, To evaluate the presence of conditions for flow and their and the answers tended to be specific when they were doing effect in the occurrence of positive and negative affect, other non-fishing-related activities, we assumed work each call was classified according to their combination of refers to fishing-related tasks without further specification. perceived challenge and skill following Csikszentmihalyi’s A Pearson correlation was used to test the correlation Flow Model scheme [(Csikszentmihalyi 1990), reproduced between PA and NA. Generalized linear mixed models in Fig. 5B]. Next, the proportions of reported positive and (GLMM) with binomial family were applied to test if the negative affect, and the reason for doing activities, were occurrence of positive and negative affect (the dependent assessed for each combination of challenge and skill. variables in the models) was different depending on All statistical analyses were carried out using R, version respondents’ current activity, time of the day, call number, 3.5.2, and the ‘‘lme4’’ package (Bates et al. 2014) was used site, the reason they gave for doing the activity, their per- to carry out the GLMM analyses. Average values are ceived skill level, and the activity difficulty (as explanatory reported as mean ± standard deviation and p-values are variable in individual models). We tested for and found no considered significant when \ 0.01 throughout the differences between the two sites in reported positive or manuscript. negative affect, and thus the location variable was not considered in the final analysis. Participant ID and call number were considered as random effects to account for RESULTS repeated measures on the same set of participants, and only participants with 6 or more calls were included in the Emotional states and activities models. Odds ratio tables were calculated for the activities, which had significantly different PA and NA for their We were able to contact participants 1075 times. Inter- categories, using ‘‘resting’’ as control activity. Resting ruptions occurred during 92 of the calls, leaving 983 (including sleeping) was chosen as control because it was complete phone interviews. We obtained between 1 and 31 presumed to be neutral in that, unlike in the other cate- interviews from each participant (mean: 20.7 ± 9.5). gories, participants do not receive much input from the Overall, 52.6% of the calls reported positive affect, while environment that would influence their affect. Chi square 30.5% reported negative affect, and these proportions were tests were used to evaluate differences between the study virtually identical at both sites. The remaining 16.9% did sites in the explanatory variables. not report any positive or negative affect, only physical To evaluate the role of fishing success on fishermen’s needs. Positive and negative affect were negatively corre- affect, we used GLMMs with repeated measures to eval- lated (R2 = - 0.68), with only 4 of the calls reporting both uate two types of success: subjective evaluation and positive and negative affect. Worried was the most frequent objective fishing production. First, we address whether negative emotion reported by Bangladeshi fishermen fishermen’s own evaluation of the fishing trip at the time of (Fig. S1). Well and happy were the most commonly the call influences the incidence of positive and negative reported in the positive emotions’ category. Hungry was affect. Second, we tested the relationship of positive and the most common of the physical needs, except for being negative affect with fishing trip production in terms of sick which was frequently reported by participants who absolute catch in kg and CPUE (catch per unit of effort) as were resting. The incidence of responses indicating posi- fishing efficiency in kg per hour. To avoid potential con- tive and negative affect was not significantly associated founding effects arising from variable market values, only with site, time of the day, or whether fishers felt any sort of fishing trips exclusively reporting hilsa in their catch were physical discomfort, while the study site and whether considered (N = 220), while fishing trips reporting other fishers felt any physical discomfort were significantly species in the catch were excluded (N = 75). Radar charts correlated only with reports of physical needs (Tables S2– were produced to display the occurrence of disaggregated S4). emotions for each of the three categories of subjective Table 1 shows the activity categories with examples of evaluation of the fishing trip to further explore the con- textual responses given by participants. The most frequent nection between the two variables. Because physical needs activity during our calls was fishing, followed by non- Ó The Author(s) 2022 123 www.kva.se/en Ambio fishing activities. The least common activities (\ 5%) were negative affect-producing activities were selling the fishing fishing preparation, fishing-related-unspecific, net repair, catch and doing boat repairs. and boat repair. Frequency of some activities was different between both sites; fishing was more frequent in Chit- Role of fishing success on fisher’s momentary affect tagong (31.7% versus 24.9% in Nijhum Dwip) while resting and other activities were more frequent in Nijhum The response of fishermen to the question ‘‘Is the fishing Dwip (resting: 12.9% Chittagong vs 19.9% Nijhum Dwip; going well?’’ was significantly correlated both with posi- other activities: 23.7% Chittagong vs 30% Nijhum Dwip). tive and negative affect (Tables S2, S3), suggesting that the Net repair, although infrequent at both sites, was far more subjective assessment of fishing success is linked to affect common in Nijhum Dwip (5.1% vs 0.7% in Chittagong). (Fig. 3A). In contrast, after accounting for repeated mea- sures, we did not find a significant overall difference in Differences in fishermen’s affect while engaging objective measures of catch (the absolute catch and catch in fishing-related activities vs. others rate) between fishermen who reported positive vs. negative emotions. Despite the lack of linear correlation, when the We calculated the odds of a fisherman reporting positive or proportion of positive vs. negative responses was compared negative affect according to the type of activity in which he for different catch rates, it revealed a dominance of nega- was engaged as compared to the control activity, resting tive affect at very low rates of catch (\ 0.75 kg h-1), (Fig. 2, Table S5). In general, there was a strong negative increasing rapidly to reach maximal values at rates of 3.75 correlation between the odds for positive vs. negative affect to 4.5 kg h-1, and then plateauing or decreasing at very by activity. Fishing preparation was the only fishing-re- high rates (as high as 12.5 kg h-1, Fig. 3B). lated activity more likely to be associated with positive Our results also reveal clear associations between affect than the control activity, and the difference was not emotions and subjective evaluations of fishing trip success statistically significant. Furthermore, the odds of reporting (Fig. 3C). Calls which reported that the fishing trip was positive emotions decreased as the fishing trip phases going well reported dominantly positive emotions (satis- progressed, i.e., fishing preparation, net repair, traveling to fied, well and happy make up 58% of responses), with some the fishing ground, fishing, returning from fishing and reported being worried (23.8%). Calls which reported that selling fish were gradually associated with less frequent the fishing was not going well were dominated by the positive and more frequent negative affect. Particularly emotion worried (48.5%), with a small number of well Fig. 2 Odds of fishers reporting positive and negative affect depending on the activity they are doing. The reference for comparison is resting, which was more positive than most activities (65.5% report positive affect, while 27.4% report negative). Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals Ó The Author(s) 2022 www.kva.se/en 123 Ambio Fig. 3 A Response distribution of perceived fishing success for calls reporting positive and negative affect. B Share of positive and negative affect with catch efficiency for hilsa fishers. C Proportions of reported emotions and physical needs reported along with different fishing trip evaluations (yellow: positive emotions, blue: negative emotions, gray: physical needs) (17.2%) mentions. Mentions of hungry/thirsty were similar (36.6%) and I have nothing else to do (10.7%). The pro- among calls regardless of whether the respondent reported portions were different between sites (v2(2) = 15.5, that fishing was going well or not (19.9% and 18.6%, p = 0.0004), with urban Chittagong having more frequent I respectively). Calls reporting that fishing was average were have to answers (59.4% vs 47.3% in Nijhum Dwip), and dominantly associated with the positive but also relatively rural Nijhum Dwip having higher frequencies of I want to neutral response well (39.1%). (39.6% vs 32.9% in Chittagong) and I have nothing else to do (13.1% vs 7.7% in Chittagong). With regard to per- Flow-related aspects: Reasons for doing activities ceived difficulty of activities, most calls reported the and challenge-skill balance activity participants were doing was not challenging at all (43.4%), with a large disparity between the sites The most common reason given for doing the current (v2(3) = 35.1, p \ 10–6). In Nijhum Dwip, 51.2% reported activity was I have to (52.7%), followed by I want to activities being not challenging at all, followed by very Ó The Author(s) 2022 123 www.kva.se/en Ambio challenging (17.5%). On the other hand, in Chittagong not following the bivariate scheme of the flow model (Csik- challenging at all was reported in 33% of the calls, fol- szentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi 1992) as apathy, while lowed by quite challenging (25.8%) and very challenging 85% corresponded to the state of relaxation/boredom. (24.8%). Most fishers reported being quite or very skilled Relaxation/boredom was associated with the highest fre- at their current activities, with little variation between the quency of PA and lowest frequency of NA, and was con- sites (v2(4) = 10.9, p = 0.03). sciously engaged in as shown by the main reason given, I The reason given for doing the current activity, and how want to. Combinations expected to lead to flow states, challenging participants considered their current activity although mostly found in fishing activities, did not appear were both correlated with different affect responses (Fig. 4, to be associated with more frequent PA than the other Tables S2, S3). The reason I want to was more likely to challenge/skill combinations, but on the contrary, PA and yield positive affect, and was less than half as likely to be NA were almost equally frequent (Fig. 5). associated with negative affect than I have to (Fig. 4A). Activities considered not or a little challenging were more likely associated with less negative and more positive DISCUSSION affect than activities considered quite or very challenging (Fig. 4B). Fishers’ own perceived skillfulness at activities Our results show that fishing activities were not directly was barely significant (Fig. 4C), owing to the little varia- associated with more frequent PA than non-fishing activi- tion in responses. Figures S2 and S3 show the distribution ties. Furthermore, although very low catch rates were of reasons and the perceived challenge proportions given associated with more frequent NA and less frequent PA, by each activity category. the highest levels of PA were reached at relatively low When combining participants’ answers to explore the catch rates. While fishing activities were often associated occurrence of conditions for flow, we found that the most with the combination of a high degree of challenge and common combinations could be identified as either high perceived skill—the prerequisites of flow state—they in challenge / high skill (N = 367) or low challenge/high skill fact yielded less frequent positive affect and more frequent (N = 334, Table S6). Activities reporting high challenge negative affect than non-fishing activities including rest. and high skill (theoretically related to flow state) were The fact that fishing was not associated with more fre- mostly in the category fishing (70%), going fishing (13%), quent PA than non-fishing activities, despite the identifi- and returning from fishing (11%) for very challenging, and cation of fishing as a source of well-being by fishers fishing (42%), going fishing (11%), with various other themselves, falsifies our first hypothesis. Our results show activities accounting each for less than 10%, reported as that positive affect was frequent during fishing preparation quite challenging. Non-fishing activities (48%) and resting and decreased as the fishing trip progressed. Thus, the (28%) were the most commonly reported as not at all anticipation of going fishing, rather than fishing itself, was challenging. From those, 15% would be classified the only identifiable fishing-related activity that increased Fig. 4 Proportions of responses rating A the reason for doing activities, B how challenging participants perceived their current activities, and C participant’s skillfulness self-assessment for activities that co-occurred with positive and negative affect. The asterisks indicate significance as follows: *p B 0.05, **p B 0.01, ***p B 0.001, ****p B 0.0001 Ó The Author(s) 2022 www.kva.se/en 123 Ambio Fig. 5 A Proportions of reported positive and negative affect according to the participant-assessed level of challenge and skill, excluding the combinations with N \ 6. B Scheme of Csikszentmihalyi’s flow fluctuation model (Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi 1992) for reference the frequency of fishermen’s PA. An especially negative stronger relationship between affect and fishermen’s own affect-producing activity was selling the fish catch, which assessment of a successful fishing trip may reflect the could be due to being exhausted after the fishing trip, stress importance of non-catch aspects, such as safety and good about getting a low pay for their fish, or to low catches not weather conditions, the absence of boat or gear malfunc- being enough to fulfill their bond responsibilities (Miñarro tion, or good rapport with their crew mates. It is also et al. 2016; Sambuo et al. 2020). Besides, many fishermen possible that fishermen’s motivation for fishing influences complained that fishing takes place in very risky conditions their idea of ‘‘success’’. In any case, our results empirically and is dangerous due to monsoon storms, lack of safety corroborate previous findings that—although catching equipment, and pirates, hazards that have also been something is important—fishermen do not need big catches reported elsewhere in Bangladesh (Kaplan and Kite-Powell to enrich their experienced well-being during or after 2000; Rahman and Schmidlin 2019). Thus, perhaps the fishing (Coulthard et al. 2011; Pollnac et al. 2012; Islam expected idea of fishing is not matched by Bangladeshi and Chuenpagdee 2018). fishermen’s reality, which echoes the discrepancy found in Third, the challenging and skillful activities, that might previous SWB studies between generic judgements of how be associated with flow, were not associated with more enjoyable activities are, and actual episodic reports (Kah- frequent PA than the other states. Although caution must be neman et al. 2004; Shiffman et al. 2008; Diener et al. made in directly associating the spatial array of our results 2009). with the more abstract model illustration, there is a clear Second, while fishermen’s subjective assessment of a trend toward more frequent PA in the lower right portion of fishing trip was significantly related to their affect, the Fig. 5A—positive affect dominates in situations that are more objective assessment showed that the rate of fish not perceived as challenging. In contrast, negative affect is catch was only related to affect over the lowest range of proportionally greater in more challenging situations, even catch rates. The detailed emotions associated with fishers’ at high self-assessed skill levels. It would appear that, for assessments of the fishing trip indicate that ‘‘worried’’ was these fishermen, the most reliably positive situations occur the main emotion commonly reported when the fishing was when relaxing. This echoes findings from previous studies not going well, and it was frequently associated with on momentary affect among western populations which accidents regarding the boat engine, or nets getting tangled found that leisure and relaxing activities topped the list of or lost. Such incidents may prevent the fishing trip from activities producing more frequent PA, as opposed to work, getting enough catch to cover the associated costs, which even for participants who found their job enjoyable and typically include payments to their patron or boat owner fulfilling (Kahneman et al. 2004; Shiffman et al. 2008). (Mozumder et al. 2019; Sunny et al. 2021), or may impair Consistent with this, most responses of ‘happy’ occurred at their ability to go fishing in subsequent days. But with the lower levels of challenge (Fig. S4). Furthermore, they exception of such isolated accidents, we speculate that the consciously chose to engage in those activities, as shown Ó The Author(s) 2022 123 www.kva.se/en Ambio by the predominant reason given, I want to. Conversely, the that may bias our results. First, because of the intensive more challenging activities were undertaken only for the nature of the data collection, participants in ESM studies reason I have to, and although positive affective states were are likely to be more motivated, conscientious, agreeable reported during these activities, they tended to be mild and tech-savy than the general population (Diener 2009). (‘well’, or ‘satisfied’) and were less common than worry For instance, our sampling design attracted mostly rela- (Fig. S4). Thus, although enjoyable flow states may have tively young—and therefore less experienced—fishermen, occurred for some fishermen during highly challenging and less years of fishing experience have been associated fishing activities, they were not detectable by our method. with a lower self-actualization from fishing and higher Our results suggest that previous findings that fishing willingness to change their occupation (Pollnac et al. provides overwhelmingly positive feelings of thrill and 2012). Second, our study considers only one activity of the adventure in fishermen (Vittersø 1997; Pollnac and Poggie many dimensions of small-scale fisheries that can poten- 2008) may either (a) not be significant among these Ban- tially affect well-being of fishing communities. Many other gladeshi fishermen, or (b) be dimmed in the moment by activities have a paramount role in the well-being of other other aspects. The previous studies were based largely on actors in small-scale fisheries, such as those derived by job satisfaction interviews, a method that differs substan- women through their role in dried fish value chains tially from ESM, and may be more sensitive to the con- (Galappaththi et al. 2021), which deserve further consid- structed identity of fishers and other related values, rather eration. Furthermore, the relational dimensions of well- than the momentary lived experience of the fishing activity. being, including the fishers’ identity, camaraderie, and Flow theory further specifies that besides the balance community cohesion are very relevant in small-scale fish- between challenge and skills, activities should fulfill other eries and may account for certain discrepancies with other criteria allowing the person to have a sense of control of the studies using more holistic measures such as life or job situation by understanding what needs to be done and how satisfaction. For instance, while many SWB studies have they are performing (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). Based on found differences in satisfaction with life between urban informal reports given by multiple inhabitants of the and rural settings (Easterlin et al. 2011), our sampling communities, we speculate that in Nijhum Dwip the dan- yielded no differences in affect between the sites. How- gers and economic pressures associated with fishing are too ever, by examining the association between the fishing high, leading to a lack of control that make them often activity and affect in a focused manner, our work con- worried during fishing. In Chittagong, the more passive tributes to disentangle the mechanisms by which fisheries nature of the fishing strategy (i.e., leaving gillnets in a support the well-being of fishing communities. designated spot and doing several trips per day to and from the same fishing ground to pick up the catch and exchange the nets), may reduce the thrill of fishing and consequently CONCLUSIONS the positive affect induced by flow states, supporting the idea that the reality of fishing in this fishery is far from an Despite the positive role of small-scale fisheries for com- idealized concept of adventure and camaraderie. munity well-being, shown by previous works, our results Since fishing was viewed as one of the things that bring question whether the fishing activity itself provides sig- happiness in these communities (Miñarro et al. 2021), it could nificant subjective well-being benefits, based on the studied be assumed that fishermen value the fishing lifestyle. How- small-scale fishermen in Bangladesh. Except for preparing ever, the status of commercial fishing has been declining in to go fishing, fishing activities were not related to more the last decades, with reported impacts on subjective well- frequent positive affect, even when meeting the conditions being and job satisfaction of fishers across the world (Smith for flow (high challenge and high skill). On the contrary, and Clay 2010). As societies develop and coastal communi- several fishing activities were associated with more fre- ties transition from traditional fishing to more market-ori- quent negative affect than other daily activities, particu- ented livelihoods, some of the positive features of traditional larly when compared with resting and leisure. We also fishing (community cohesion, camaraderie, and cultural ties) found that catching more fish was not a key factor in may be threatened by the demands stemming from a new providing more frequent positive affect of fishers, although focus on productivity and profit. In addition, top-down the self-assessed success of the fishing trip was associated management from external actors, and having less control with higher frequency of PA. Promising avenues for further over the fishery, have been shown to lead to a powerlessness research could explore other aspects of the quality of a which contributes to the decline of subjective well-being in fishing trip that may impact fishers’ subjective well-being. commercial fisheries (Smith and Clay 2010). Fishing may not be particularly enjoyable in the moment, Finally, we caution that our method, despite relying on a but it may provide a feeling of satisfaction, pride, and well-established psychological tool, has several limitations camaraderie that could raise life satisfaction, as well as Ó The Author(s) 2022 www.kva.se/en 123 Ambio contribute to the overall well-being of fishing communities. psychological issues. American Journal of Community Psychol- We speculate that government programs aiming to improve ogy 53: 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-013-9611-5. Bradburn, N.M. 1969. The structure of psychological well-being. well-being in small-scale fishing communities may, there- Aldine. fore, be able to best achieve their goals by focusing on Bryce, J., and J. Haworth. 2002. Wellbeing and flow in sample of sources of positive identity and community dynamics, male and female office workers. Leisure Studies 21: 249–263. rather than trying to maximize fishing activities. 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Poverty, ers Arshadul Islam and Md Redwan, as well as Joy Bhowmik, for sustainability and human wellbeing: A social wellbeing approach logistical help. We are extremely grateful to the participating fisher- to the global fisheries crisis. Global Environmental Change 21: men for their collaboration. M. Borrós (ICTA-UAB) elaborated the 453–463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.01.003. map of study sites. We appreciate the statistics support received from Coulthard, S., L. Sandaruwan, N. Paranamana, and D. Koralgama. A. Vazquez Fariñas and S. Alvarez-Fernandez. We thank V. Reyes- 2014. Taking a well-being approach to fisheries research: Garcı́a and the participants of the LICCI Writing Workshop (FP7- Insights from a Sri Lankan fishing village and relevance for 771056-LICCI) and three anonymous reviewers for thoughtful com- sustainable fisheries. In Methodological challenges and new ments on earlier versions of the manuscript. 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Paper for Address: Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Liberal Regeneration and Wellbeing: Research into Practice, University Arts (CSD-ULAB), House 56, Road 4/a, Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1209, of Bradford. Bangladesh. Address: Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bre- Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to men, Germany. jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. e-mail: samiya.selim@ulab.edu.bd Eric D. Galbraith is a professor at McGill University and a research associate at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His research AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES interests include fisheries, ecology, and Earth system economics. Sara Miñarro (&) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Address: Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Environmental Science and Technology (Autonomous University of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Building Z-Office 137, 08193 Barcelona). Her research interests include small-scale fisheries, sub- Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. jective well-being, social-ecological systems, and marine ecology. Address: Institució Catalana de Recerca I Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Address: Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Barcelona, Spain. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Building Z-Office 137, 08193 Address: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. University, 3450 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A 0E8, Canada. e-mail: sara.minarro@uab.cat e-mail: eric.galbraith@mcgill.ca Ó The Author(s) 2022 123 www.kva.se/en