REMAINING AT SEA: Wellbeing Perception and Aspirations of the Young Fishers of Penang, Malaysia

This thesis examines how young fishers in Penang, Malaysia construct wellbeing, identity, and future aspirations while remaining engaged in small-scale fisheries amid environmental degradation, socio-economic uncertainty, and institutional marginalization. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork across multiple fishing communities, the study applies a combined framework of social wellbeing, political ecology, and intersectionality to explore how material conditions, social relations, and subjective meanings shape youth decisions to stay at sea. The findings reveal that young fishers are not passive inheritors of tradition but active agents who negotiate hybrid livelihoods, gender norms, and environmental change, challenging deficit-based narratives of fisheries decline and youth disengagement.