Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Seafood is a central component of coastal food systems, supporting nutrition, livelihoods, and cultural identity. Yet access to seafood benefits extends beyond ecological availability and formal fishing rights and is also shaped by social, economic, and political mechanisms across the food system. This community case study examines how tourism-driven coastal displacement reshapes access to local seafood systems in Culebra, Puerto Rico, a small island municipality with a long-standing small-scale fishing sector. Drawing on rapid ethnography, semi-structured interviews, archival review, spatial analysis, and a participatory focus group, the study applies the access framework developed by Ribot and Peluso to examine access pathways from harvest to consumption. Findings show that while local seafood production persists, access is increasingly constrained by housing displacement, rising costs, tourism-oriented markets, and reduced working waterfronts. These dynamics redirect seafood toward visitor economies and limit affordable, culturally relevant access for long-term residents. The case demonstrates how tourism-driven development can undermine local seafood systems without reducing ecological supply, instead operating through indirect displacement and exclusionary access mechanisms. By situating seafood access within broader processes of housing, tourism, and coastal development, this study contributes to interdisciplinary efforts to advance more equitable and community-centered seafood systems in the U.S. Island context.
Institutions: East Carolina University, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,353
OpenAlex ID: W7203689063