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The Sea Around Us laments the passing of Paul G. Allen

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It is with great sadness that the Sea Around Us team received the news about the passing of Mr. Paul G. Allen.

As informed by his company and our project’s partner, Vulcan Inc., Allen passed on Monday, October 15, 2018. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and coworkers.

In his role as philanthropist, community builder, and conservationist, Allen supported the Sea Around Us for three years. We are thankful for having had the opportunity to work alongside such a generous person.

Photo by RSiS.

Cooperation in the South China Sea

Photo by RSiS.

Photo by RSiS.

In September 2018, the Sea Around Us Principal Investigator, Daniel Pauly, traveled to Singapore to take part in a conference titled “The South China Sea Fisheries Cooperation: Progress, Problems and Prospect,” which was organized by Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

As keynote speaker, Dr. Pauly gave an overview of the fisheries in the South China Sea. Using the Sea Around Us catch reconstructions of the countries in the area, he explained who is catching what, and outlined major trends in catch composition and catch per effort.

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Photo by Magda Ehlers, Pexels.

Become a Forrest Scholar while studying for your PhD with the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean

Photo by Magda Ehlers, Pexels.

Photo by Magda Ehlers, Pexels.

The Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean, based at the University of Western Australia under the lead of Professor Dirk Zeller, is looking for outstanding PhD candidates interested in conducting ‘big-data’ research on fisheries and fisheries conservation issues at the ocean-basin scale or on Indian Ocean Rim countries.

If this is of interest to you, then consider applying for the Forrest Research Foundation Scholarship program, which is open to domestic (i.e., Australian) and international applicants. The round for 2019 PhD students opened on September 10, 2018 and closes midnight Western Australian Time (GMT +8) on Wednesday, October 31, 2018.

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Catches global

Pauly and Zeller explain the making of the Sea Around Us database

via GIPHY
 

The Sea Around Us’ Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller have just added a new publication to their long list of items in the literature. In this case, it is a chapter in the recently published book World Seas: An environmental evaluation. Vol. III: Ecological issues and environmental impacts, edited by Charles Sheppard.

In “The making of a global marine fisheries catch database for policy development,” Pauly and Zeller give a detailed account of the process of creating the Sea Around Us’ global catch database that builds on and addresses the deficiencies of the database created and maintained by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

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Photo by Naka9707, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Appetite for luxurious shark fin soup drives massive shark populations decline

Photo by Naka9707, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Photo by Naka9707, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Populations of some shark species such as hammerhead and oceanic whitetip have declined by over 90 per cent in recent years largely because of wealthy consumers’ growing appetite for fin soup, a new paper in Marine Policy states.

The study by researchers from the University of Hong Kong, the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia and WildAid Hong Kong, reveals that since fishing pressure on threatened shark populations has increased dramatically in recent years, it is urgent for consumers to stop demanding shark fin products.

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