Category: New & Notable

Mussels. Pxhere.

Aquatic invertebrates could nourish billions if sustainably sourced


Marine and freshwater invertebrates – such as clams, mussels, scallops, crabs, and even jellyfish – are exceptionally nutrient-dense and could meet the annual nutrient requirements of billions of people, provided that they are harvested and produced sustainably.

In a recent paper published in Nature, an international team of researchers quantified the contribution of aquatic invertebrates to global nutrient supplies and discovered that current production delivers the equivalent annual requirement for over 5 billion people in terms of vitamin B12 and selenium; over 1 billion people for copper, omega-3 fatty acids, iodine and zinc; and over 100 million people for nutrients such as vitamins B2 and B3, iron, manganese and magnesium.

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Catches by ecosystem

Explore catches by ecosystem

Catches by ecosystem

 

When users explore reconstructed catches by Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on the Sea Around Us website, they can also view how those catches are distributed across key ecosystems.

By scrolling down on a EEZ page and selecting “Ecosystems” on the “More info” section, users can access total catches by Inshore Fishing Area (IFA), estuaries, coral reefs, and seamounts. This ecosystem lens adds critical context, revealing not just how much is caught within an EEZ, but where those catches originate ecologically—and what that means for management.

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Salomon Atoll in the Chagos Archipelago.

As Chagos governance is slated to shift, new research reveals the true scale of fishing

Salomon Atoll in the Chagos Archipelago.

Salomon Atoll in the Chagos Archipelago. Photo by Charles and Anne Sheppard, Wikimedia Commons.

Domestic fisheries catches in the Chagos Archipelago are 25 times higher than official statistics show, according to a recent study by Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean and Sea Around Us researchers.

At a moment when the fate of the island group also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory is uncertain, a new paper in the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region highlights the importance of accounting for all fish removals to safeguard the area’s biodiversity values.

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Two specimens of chub mackerel in a basket

Mean Temperature of the Catch now available on Sea Around Us website

Two specimens of chub mackerel in a basket

Global warming is expected to push stocks of highly migratory straddling species in the Indo-Pacific, such as chub mackerel, from EEZs toward the high seas by mid-century. Photo by Matsumomushi, Wikimedia Commons.

Sea Around Us website users will now be able to access the Mean Temperature of the Catch (MTC), as an ecosystem indicator derived from the reconstructed catches of a large fraction of the 283 Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) presented on our website.

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Saint Pierre's shore. Photo by Chantal Briand.

Industrial fisheries in Saint Pierre and Miquelon discarded 80,000 tonnes of fish, study finds

Saint Pierre's shore. Photo by Chantal Briand.

Saint Pierre’s shore. Photo by Chantal Briand.

Destructive fishing practices and inadequate management allowed industrial fisheries operating in the waters of Saint Pierre and Miquelon to dump about 80,000 tonnes of fish back into the ocean from 1950 to 2022, with authorities failing to track the wasteful practice. This is enough fish to fill 32 Olympic-sized pools.

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