Dr. Ashley McCrea-Strub, a post-doc with the Sea Around Us Project, is lead author of a study quantifying the costs of establishing marine protected areas, finding that managers have spent a wide ranging $41 – $1.1 million per square kilometer to get new reserves up and running. Studies have been done in the past that look at costs of running MPAs (such as this by 2010 article Cullis-Suzuki & Pauly) but this is the first attempt to quantify the cost of establishing MPAs in the first place. For more on McCrea-Strub’s work, read popular coverage of the work at Conservation Magazine or the full article at Marine Policy.
Scientists Question MSC
The Marine Stewardship Council, the fisheries eco-certification taken most seriously by consumers and scientists around the world, is failing to fulfill its promise, write six scientists, including the Sea Around Us Project’s Jennifer Jacquet and Daniel Pauly, in last week’s issue of Nature. Read their opinion piece, Seafood stewardship in crisis, or some of the media coverage, such as Why your sustainable fish may not be as guilt-free as you think at The Independent, Scientists criticize system of certifying fisheries at The New York Times Green Blog, or Sustainability certification fails to protect environment: report in the Vancouver Sun.
Daniel Pauly Talks Catch Shares
May/June 2010 Newsletter
Read about the high cost of cleaning oiled birds, shifting baselines, and Sarika Cullis-Suzuki’s impressions from her participation in the United Nations Fish Stock Review Conference in the May/June newsletter.
Whale Watching: Worth a Lot
A new study by authors from the Fisheries Economics Research Unit and the Sea Around Us Project shows that whale watching is a booming industry and a good alternative to whaling. Based on ecological and socio-economic criteria, whale watching could generate an additional US$413 million in yearly revenue, supporting 5,700 jobs. Together with current global estimates, this would bring the total potential for the whale watching industry to over US$2.5 billion in yearly revenue and about 19,000 jobs around the world. The research was covered widely during the IWC meeting. Read, for instance, this piece at Discovery News.
Reference: A.M. Cisneros-Montemayor, U.R. Sumaila , K. Kaschner , D. Pauly (in press) The global potential for whale watching. Marine Policy.