The Role of Non-fishing and Partner Incomes in Managing Fishers’ Economic Risk

Managing economic risk is a challenging endeavor for fishers. One of the ways to mitigate such risk is through income diversification spanning even beyond fishing activities. However, the role of non-fishing income on risk management has been poorly understood. Here we investigate the relationship between fishing risk levels and secondary incomes by analyzing risk levels of fishers’ incomes from fishing, non-fishing, and partner income sources for Swedish fisheries from 2004 to 2015. We find that fishers with a balanced share of fishing and secondary incomes have lower risk levels than fishers who primarily rely on fishing income. Both non-fishing income and partner income reduce risk levels.