Humpback red snapper. Photo by Julien Bidet for MDC Seamarc, Wikimedia Commons.
Warming waters, king tides and storm surges are not the only things affecting the availability of seafood in the Marshall Islands. Incomplete reporting of fisheries catches and, therefore, of how much is being taken out of the oceans also is.
Hammerhead shark. Photo by Kris Mikael Krister, Wikimedia Commons.
Recreational fishers are increasingly targeting sharks and rays, a situation that is causing concern among researchers.
A new study by an international team of scientists reveals that recreational catches of these fishes have gradually increased over the last six decades around the world, now accounting for 5-6 per cent of the total catches taken for leisure or pleasure.
The Sea Around Us research assistant, Jessika Woroniak, joined forces with classmate Claudia Kobetitch and created a poster that highlights the links between subsidies that enhance the fishing capacity of industrial vessels and modern slavery at sea.
The poster was presented during an internal competition at the Microeconomics class at UBC’s Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs. In a graphic manner, the piece shows how overfishing leads to dwindling fish stocks which, in turn, produce less catch and profits, a situation that prompts many operators to cut costs. The latter, can only typically be done by reducing worker pay and conditions.
Previous work by the Sea Around Us has also explored the connections between overfishing and labour and human rights abuses.
Click on the image to see the PDF of the poster.
The Sea Around Us has joined forces with the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, UBC’s School of Journalism, the Global Reporting Centre, and Trace Foundation to host an event titled The Outlaw Ocean: A conversation with Ian Urbina.
The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier, is Urbina’s most recent book and across its 540 pages, the New York Times investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world’s economies rely.
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.