Using Photographs in Fishers’ Ecological Knowledge Research: A Review and Field Study on Small‐Scale Fishers’ Knowledge of Coastal Habitats in the Central Mediterranean Sea

ABSTRACT

Fishers interact daily with coastal environments, which generate a deep understanding of habitat characteristics, species associations and ecological change. Fishers’ ecological knowledge (FEK) is therefore a critical source of insight for marine science, offering observations that uniquely complement scientific data and, when incorporated into policy and governance, can strengthen the legitimacy and acceptance of management decisions. Yet, tacit and embodied dimensions of FEK are difficult to access through verbal cues alone, which may leave important components of FEK hidden. Photo elicitation (PE), the use of photographs during interviews, has been suggested as a method to help overcome this difficulty. This study examines how PE can support engagement with FEK, particularly regarding knowledge of coastal habitats. For this purpose, we performed a literature review of PE in FEK research together with a field study using semi‑structured interviews with PE to assess how photographs can be systematically used to facilitate discussions of coastal habitats, their role in supporting faunal communities and ecological changes over time. The review revealed that, although PE is widely applied, most studies offer limited methodological reflection, obscuring the full role and potential of PE in fisheries science. Our field study showed how PE can effectively support fishers’ descriptions of fishing habitat and species identification in both shallow and deep‑water contexts can help identify changes in species distributions and elicit insights into how habitats influence fishing practices. Together, these results suggest that a reflective and systematic approach to PE can be a powerful tool for elucidating multiple dimensions of FEK, improving scientists and managers’ engagement with the richness of fishers’ knowledge and strengthening its contribution to marine research and management.