Abstract

Small-scale fisheries in developing countries are in crisis due to overexploitation of their fisheries, and there is an urgent need to find adequate indicators to assess their status and propose corrective measures to foster sustainable activities. We propose to integrate information from sustainable development indicators in order to describe the status of king’s littleneck clam fisheries and evaluate their trends over time in base of five pillars of sustainability (biofishery, environmental, social, economic and institutional). The sustainability level of each indicator is obtained using linear transformation functions derived from consensus, prior studies and expert knowledge. The method facilitates the conversion of indicators into aggregate sustainability indices and improves public communication. Applying this approach over king’s littleneck clam in fishing areas of Quellón, Chile, we show that there is signs overfishing. The clam fishery indicators vary between low and medium sustainability; management actions are required, mainly to increase sustainability levels in the social, economic and bio-fisheries dimensions.