The Cost of the Catch: Intimate Partner Violence and Other Social Issues in Nova Scotia Fishing Communities

Abstract

Fishing is central to global food systems and coastal economies, yet fishing communities are shaped by hazardous labour, environmental precarity, and persistent inequities. While international research documents high rates of poor mental health, substance use, and gender-based violence in these settings, limited attention has been given to how the fishing industry relates to Nova Scotia’s intimate partner violence epidemic. This thesis addresses this gap in two parts. First, it reviews global literature to examine how industry structures intersect with economic conditions and relational well-being. Second, it draws on qualitative interviews with frontline service providers in rural Nova Scotia working in child protection and justice systems. Findings show that fishing families are overrepresented in these systems as a structural outcome of labour conditions rather than individual pathology. Grounded in the social dislocation theory of addiction and the social determinants of health, this thesis argues for trauma-informed, prevention-focused, and place-based responses.