Blue Anthropocene Wellbeing: Coastal Dwelling Skills and Multispecies Disease Entanglements under Climate Change in the Pacific

Pacific artisanal fisherpeople hold ancestral knowledge about adapting to extreme weather events and cohabiting with zoonotic vectors. However, climate change is now challenging long-held wisdom of how to live well in a fast-changing environment. This project will explore the adaptability of coastal communities, transforming our understanding of climate impacts on multispecies dwelling and disease entanglements in the Blue Anthropocene. Utilising a bold and original multidisciplinary biosocial approach through international collaboration between medical anthropology and marine biology in Peru and Chile, I will address the following questions: 1. What are the emerging politics of entanglement (multispecies interactions in a situated environment) between humans and non-humans in the Blue Anthropocene, considering the changing profile of disease vectors and zoonoses/panzootics? How do these politics influence prevention and control of infectious zoonoses outbreaks? 2. In what ways have new multispecies dwelling skills (biological and cultural adaptions produced over time within populations inhabiting a specific ecosystem) transformed and/or adapted in the face of climate change? How do these interact with existing ancestral skills/wisdom and the ability to live well within the wider ecosystem? The project outcomes will enable us to better support global coastal communities who may be experiencing ‘new’ unanticipated weather and health events.