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This 10-min episode, titled “Saving Lives in a Warming and Unpredictable Sea,” follows the stories of Carlos Alberto Núñez and Ayda Nelika Riveira, two fishers living on the northeastern coast of Nicaragua. They shared their accounts, explaining how a changing climate poses a threat to their lives and livelihoods, and how they became, with the help of FAO’s Training of Trainers programme, agents of change in their fishing community. “I share what I learned in the trainings, so my community knows how to respond when bad weather arrives,” Ayda told us during an exclusive interview. 

Fisheries officer and safety expert Florence Poulain explained that the drivers behind accidents are multifaceted, but one underlying cause is the modest socio-economic condition of many fishers: “Most small-scale fishers are usually poor, and this is one of the reasons why they take risks. They need to bring income and food back home. They need to pay for the fees of their children. And so that drives them to take risks,” she explained. 

The podcast features FAO’s work in the field of technology and innovation, for instance developing new boats and vessels designed by world-class naval engineers that are able to cope with high seas and storms. A crucial feature in the face of climate extremes exacerbating the dangers faced by small-scale fishers, told us FAO’s Assistant Director General and Director of the Fisheries Aquaculture Division, Manuel Barange.