The white stumpnose stock in southern Africa was amongst those assessed for the first time. The species has been red-listed by IUCN. Image by Brian Gratwicke, Flickr.
A newly developed method for assessing how abundant fish populations are and how fishing is affecting them revealed that several fish stocks across oceans are far below internationally agreed minimum levels and in urgent need of sustainable management.
Largehead hairtail. Public domain photo.
Fish that are highly valued by Chinese consumers, such as largehead hairtail, would grow in value and in the amounts that are caught if industrial fisheries increased the mesh size of their nets.
New research by the Sea Around Us initiative at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries found that trawlers operating in China’s coastal waters are overfishing 21 economically important species because the mesh size is so small that, together with large, desirable fish, undersized fish are also getting caught. This means that fish are being taken out before they are able to reproduce.
Daniel Pauly. Photo by Paul Joseph, UBC.
The Sea Around Us Principal Investigator, Dr. Daniel Pauly, is amongst the top 0.01% of the world’s scientists based on the impact of his publications.
Japanase sardinella. Image by Totti, Wikimedia Commons.
Smaller fish and invertebrates, such as gazami crab or Japanese sardinella, are replacing larger, more commercially valuable fish such as largehead hairtail in the Bohai Sea in northeastern China.
A new study by scientists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries shows that industrial fisheries have severely affected food webs in the Bohai Sea, with organisms that occupy lower levels in the food web becoming more common than larger predators.
