Two-thirds of the caught fish that humans eat are taken by small-scale fishers, many using canoes carved from logs or stationary beach seine nets such as the rampani that dot India's eastern coast.

Far from being relics of a bygone age, small-scale fisheries technologies and practices are usually well adapted to the ecological and social circumstances within which they operate. Yet small-scale fisheries often struggle to compete due to regulatory frameworks that tend to ignore them or that are tailored to the concerns of large commercial fleets, according to a new book published by FAO.