Farming Atlantic Salmon in Tasmania

Global North’s growing appetite for farmed salmon imperils communities’ access to local fish

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Farming Atlantic Salmon in Tasmania

Farming Atlantic Salmon in Tasmania. Photo by Arthur Chapman, Flickr.

The growing appetite for expensive farmed salmon can leave coastal communities struggling to access affordable local fish like sardines and anchovies, new research published in Science Advances shows.

The paper, co-authored by researchers with Oceana and the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, exposes the global aquaculture sector’s growing dependence on wild, small pelagic fishes which are frequently caught, processed, and ‘reduced’ to fishmeal and fish oil. Almost the entirety of the production of fishmeal and fish oil, that is, 87 per cent and 74 per cent respectively, is used to feed farmed fish.

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Marine and Freshwater Miscellanea

Sea Around Us produces new ‘miscellanea’ report

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Marine and Freshwater Miscellanea

The Sea Around Us PI, Dr. Daniel Pauly, and communications officer, Valentina Ruiz-Leotaud, have produced a new Fisheries Centre Research Report titled Marine and Freshwater Miscellanea V.

As its four predecessors, this document presents a diverse range of topics that offer substantial contributions to the field of fisheries science and which, if not published as an FCRR, might have remained stored away in individual researchers’ desks or computers.

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Small-scale fisheries at sunset in Malaysia.

Leading scientists redefine the notion of ‘sustainability’ to save the ocean

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Small-scale fisheries at sunset in Malaysia.

Small-scale fisheries in Malaysia. Photo by Jamie Oliver – WorldFish, Flickr.

A week before Brussels’ Ocean Week and a few months before the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, a group of researchers published the results of an unprecedented scientific effort: they redefine the concept of ‘sustainable fishing’ and propose eleven ‘golden rules’ that radically challenge the flawed notion that currently prevails in fisheries management.

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After the collapse of herring and cod stocks in the western Baltic Sea, flatfish such as plaice, flounder, and dab now dominate the catch. However, they can't replace the lost catch of cod and herring. Photo by Ilka Thomsen, GEOMAR.

Fisheries research overestimates fish stocks

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After the collapse of herring and cod stocks in the western Baltic Sea, flatfish such as plaice, flounder, and dab now dominate the catch. However, they can't replace the lost catch of cod and herring. Photo by Ilka Thomsen, GEOMAR.

After the collapse of herring and cod stocks in the western Baltic Sea, flatfish such as plaice, flounder, and dab now dominate the catch. However, they can’t replace the lost catch of cod and herring. Photo by Ilka Thomsen, GEOMAR.

As the abundance of global fish populations continues to deteriorate, top fisheries researchers are calling for simpler yet more accurate stock assessment models that avoid overly optimistic scientific advice, which ends up encouraging overfishing.

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Cover of the Journal of Fish Biology. June 2024.

Paper on gigantism makes cover of Journal of Fish Biology

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Cover of the Journal of Fish Biology. June 2024.

Cover of the Journal of Fish Biology. June 2024.

A recent paper authored by the Sea Around Us’ PI, Dr. Daniel Pauly, research assistant, Elaine Chu, and Dr. Johannes Müller from Leiden University, has made the cover of the June print issue of the Journal of Fish Biology, where it was introduced by a brief essay in the ‘Between the Covers’ section. The image that illustrates it is that of a large mythical sea creature known as an Aspidochelone, which appeared in a French bestiary around 1270 A.D.

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Forty-year-old concepts around fish respiration regain prominence in light of climate change

Forty-year-old concepts around fish respiration regain prominence in light of climate change

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Forty-year-old concepts around fish respiration regain prominence in light of climate change

Common carp. Photo by Bernard Spragg. NZ, Wikimedia Commons.

Before Dr. Daniel Pauly, now the principal investigator of the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia, became a doctoral student, he spent two years doing fisheries work in Indonesia.

Having done his academic studies in Germany, he was surprised to discover a near absence of information on the growth of tropical fish. Thus, upon his return to Kiel University’s Institute of Marine Sciences, he decided to find out how fish grew; the idea was that if general patterns emerged, they could be applied to the many species in Indonesia and elsewhere in the tropics.

His doctoral dissertation was, consequently, built around identifying the factors that govern fish growth.

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Blacktip reef shark

Marine sharks and rays ‘use’ urea to delay reproduction

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Blacktip reef shark

Blacktip reef shark. Photo by Ray in Manila, Flickr.

Urea – the main component of human urine – plays an important role in the timing of maturation of sharks, rays and other cartilaginous fish.

A new study by researchers with the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries found that high urea concentrations common in cartilaginous fish, particularly oviparous marine species, allow them to mature and begin to reproduce at a larger fraction of their maximal size.

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Planet vs. Plastics - Ghost fishing

Planet vs. Plastics – Ghost nets

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Under the campaign slogan of ‘Planet vs. Plastics,’ Earth Day 2024 is focused on environmental activists’ commitment to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health, demanding a 60 per cent reduction in the production of all plastics by 2040.

Even though the Sea Around Us research doesn’t focus on ocean pollution, there is an evident connection between fisheries and the littering of our oceans.

To illustrate this connection, the above video presents some of the alarming figures related to gear abandoned at sea, which remains in the oceans and often continues to capture fish and other marine animals in a process commonly referred to as ‘ghost fishing’.

A magical weekend of scientific learning and exploring scenic Bamfield

A magical weekend of scientific learning and exploring scenic Bamfield

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A magical weekend of scientific learning and exploring scenic Bamfield

Sailing away from Bamfield aboard the MV Frances Barkley. Photo by Anna Luna Rossi.

By Anna Luna Rossi.

It takes about six hours, departing from Vancouver, to reach the Bamfield Marine Science Centre, where was held the 45th annual Pacific Ecology and Evolution Conference (PEEC). Three of those hours consist of sailing on the MV Frances Barkley – a 65-year-old heritage ship originating in Norway that started its current route in 1990 – through the Alberni Inlet from Port Alberni to Bamfield, almost reaching the open ocean in Barkley Sound.

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Citizen Coalition organized by BLOOM

Over 100 NGOs, citizen groups and top figures launch coalition for ocean protection

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Citizen Coalition organized by BLOOM

As the French city of Nice begins preparations to host the high-level 2025 United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources), over 100 non-governmental organizations, academic units, celebrities, and civil society collectives have joined forces to launch the Citizens’ Coalition for the Protection of the Ocean.

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Caricature of a snapper created using Adobe Firefly,

Snappy explains how warmer waters from climate change affect fish

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Snappy, a snapper living in tropical waters, is the protagonist of a video created to observe World Water Day 2024.

Through his story and in very simple terms, we explain how warmer water than that to which fish are used becomes an aggressor of sorts that impacts internal biochemical processes and forces the fish to stop growing at a smaller size than it would normally do in optimal habitat conditions and move poleward.

Dr. Daniel Pauly and Dr. Rashid Sumaila have launched the Africa-UBC Oceans & Fisheries Visiting Fellows Program. Photo by Kim Bellavance, Tyler Prize.

UBC researchers launch Africa-UBC Oceans & Fisheries Visiting Fellows Program

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Dr. Daniel Pauly and Dr. Rashid Sumaila have launched the Africa-UBC Oceans & Fisheries Visiting Fellows Program. Photo by Kim Bellavance, Tyler Prize.

Dr. Daniel Pauly and Dr. Rashid Sumaila have launched the Africa-UBC Oceans & Fisheries Visiting Fellows Program. Photo by Kim Bellavance, Tyler Prize.

University of British Columbia researchers Dr. Rashid Sumaila and Dr. Daniel Pauly have launched the Africa-UBC Oceans & Fisheries Visiting Fellows Program, whose goal is to inspire exceptional young African researchers to develop ocean and freshwater sustainability solutions.

The fellowship is aimed at early-career academics from sub-Saharan African universities and research institutes who are interested in engaging with leading researchers at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries to facilitate diverse, equitable, mutually beneficial research collaborations.

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Deng Palomares and Belize fisheries 2023-12-06

Belizean fishers want changes in policy and practice to revert declining catch trends

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Deng Palomares and Belize fisheries 2023-12-06

The Sea Around Us project manager, Dr. Maria ‘Deng’ Palomares, with Belizean fishers. Photo by the Belize Fisheries Project.

Belizean fishers’ experience in the water confirms the declining trends in fishery catches – and, therefore, in fish populations – uncovered by the Belize Fisheries Project (BFP), of which the Sea Around Us is a member together with Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI), the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative (HRI) and MRAG Americas.

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Hammerhead sharks

Shark alert: Global study documents increasing trend in shark mortality, identifies pathways to save threatened species

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Hammerhead sharks

Hammerhead sharks. Photo by Masayuki Agawa, Ocean Image Bank.

Sharks have persisted as powerful ocean predators for more than 400 million years. They survived five mass extinctions, diversifying into an amazing variety of forms and lifestyles. But this ancient lineage is now among the world’s most threatened species groups due to overexploitation in poorly regulated fisheries and the proliferation of wasteful finning practices.

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