With this post we’re gonna throw it back to a simpler time when international fieldwork was still going strong, something hard to picture at the moment. In late January, MS student Nicky Roberts arrived back in the states after a successful field excursion to wrap up data collection on Bontosua Island in Indonesia. Nicky’s project is centered on the fisheries value-chain on the island, and if and how these fisheries products move beyond this small community. Most residents of Bontosua depend heavily on livelihoods provided by fishing, and a value-chain assessment can help illuminate how these valuable resources contribute to incomes and food security of individuals who operate at different points within the chain, such as the point of extraction (fishers), through processing, trading and markets channels, and ultimately the consumers. In collaboration with a local university partners and a team of enumerators who make this collection possible, Nicky is managing an influx of large amounts of interview data. Now that she’s back stateside, Nicky is beginning to piece together the story told by the flow of fish from the waters off of Bontosua. For now, we’ll soothe our quarantine brains and nerves by parsing through these pictures of this incredible group of young fisheries researchers in action.
