A bibliometric analysis of the marine fishing landscape in Africa and its implications for sustainable coastal communities’ resilience and governance to the increasing human-environmental risks

Marine fishing is critical for coastal livelihoods, sustainability transitions, and the attainment of sustainable development goals. With a long coastline and unique marine fish species, marine fishing could drive sustainable development in Africa. However, with increasing human-environmental challenges in tropical fishing zones, the projected sustainability benefits from Africa’s fisheries resources are threatened. This is worsened by the limited research to understand how these challenges have persisted or could be realigned to suit blue transformations in the marine fisheries sector. We sourced 1066 documents from Scopus, which were analyzed using bibliometrics to (i) analyze research trends and (ii) understand intricate networks and critical themes in research and policy regarding marine fisheries. Findings on research trends reveal a decline in research on marine fishing, domination of research by non-African authors, and institutions, and limited publications in reputable journals. Complex networks persist, worsened by the limited funding of transdisciplinary research. Most researchers and research institutions in Africa prefer marine fisheries science research. Limited marine sociological research has been conducted. Key themes are not prioritizing current governance pathways, and there is limited collaboration among coastal African countries, authors, and institutions in research. To build a new aura for sustainability, a Priority Action Pathway (PAP) has been developed that includes six (6) priority actions to drive sustainable transformations. With increased collaborations, focus on transdisciplinary marine fishing research and a shift in fisheries policy research emphasis to focus on the understanding of socioecological complexities, possibilities for identifying and promoting sustainability transformations (including in sustainable financing) in the sector are possible. This can be through an increased focus on collecting and integrating marine social science with marine fisheries science research. This can help identify/create novel perspectives from tropical coastal communities needed to co-design sustainable priority actions and mechanisms in coastal fishing zones.