<p>Mangrove fishing among the Balanta in coastal Guinea-Bissau illustrates the interplay of power, ecology, and economy in shaping local livelihoods. This study situates gendered small-scale fishing practices within a justice framework, examining: (1) the structural drivers of livelihood precarity, including climate change, market distortions, and illegal, unregulated, and undeclared foreign fishing; (2) gendered contributions in fishery value chains; and (3) socio-ecological impacts of fishing transformations, including uncontrolled cutting of mangroves by foreign fishers’ camps. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Balanta communities of the Oio, Quinara, and Tombali regions (fringing the Mansoa, Geba, Cacine, and Cumbidja estuaries), the findings reveal systemic marginalization of national small-scale fishers. Balanta men provide rice and primarily focus on larger fish for subsistence and national and foreign markets, while women catch smaller fish, crabs and shrimps inside the rice fields and near mangrove creeks mostly for subsistence. Gendered practices vary both regionally and at the village level, with some communities fishing minimally, while others sell fresh, sundried or smoked fish. Currently, national policies favour foreign actors over national small-scale fishers, undermining local subsistence strategies and threatening biodiversity. In Guinea-Bissau, the state often criminalizes local fishers’ unsustainable practices, worsening their precarity amid socio-ecological challenges. This study critiques these inequities, advocating for a distributive justice approach that relocates resources equitably, ensures sustainable fishing technologies, and regulates exploitative foreign practices. By addressing the injustices affecting fishing communities, it calls for decentralizing governance to prioritize local livelihoods, ecological sustainability, and distributive justice in the national context of blue economy development.</p>