Photo by Fred Sharples, Flickr.

Global insurers unite to cut financial lifeline to pirate fishing

Leading insurers from around the world have committed to take action on pirate fishing, an unlawful practice that costs the global economy tens of billions of dollars in losses every year and contributes to overfishing and the destruction of vital marine habitats and ecosystems.

According to a press release by Oceana, two dozen companies including Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, AXA, Generali, Hanseatic Underwriters and The Shipowners’ Club have co-sponsored the world’s first insurance industry statement on sustainable marine insurance.

Continue reading →

Photo by Jens Bludau, Wikimedia Commons.

World’s largest marine reserve to protect high-value species from climate change-driven exploitation: research

Photo by Jens Bludau, Wikimedia Commons.

Photo by Jens Bludau, Wikimedia Commons.

Famous through the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, one of the most remote places in the world may play a crucial role for future marine resource sustainability. Projected increases in sea surface temperature, ocean acidification and shifts in the current strength in the South Pacific gyre are projected to enlarge tuna populations around the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Islands.

These are the findings of a recent study published in Frontiers in Marine Science by scientists with the Sea Around Us, a research initiative at the University of British Columbia and the University of Western Australia.

Continue reading →

Daniel Pauly’s shifting baselines in The New York Times Magazine

Daniel Pauly’s shifting baselines in The New York Times Magazine

Daniel Pauly’s shifting baselines in The New York Times Magazine

The piece was published earlier this year. However, writing a post about it on the Sea Around Us blog became a timely issue in the past days, given all the extreme weather events that have recently taken place across the world, from the devastation in Puerto Rico caused by hurricane María to the severe drought that has left millions of Ethiopians in need of emergency food assistance.

Continue reading →

SAU IO UWA

Want to study with the new Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean?

SAU IO UWA
Scholarships available now

The Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean under the lead of Professor Dirk Zeller is looking for outstanding PhD students interested in conducting ‘big-data’ research on fisheries and fisheries conservation issues at the ocean-basin scale. If this is of interest to you, then consider applying for the Dean’s Excellence in Science PhD Scholarship at the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth.

Continue reading →

Cape Town, Daniel Pauly and Rashid Sumaila. Photos by Vicky Lam.

Initiatives to strengthen climate change adaptation in Africa – Cape Town

Cape Town, Daniel Pauly and Rashid Sumaila. Photos by Vicky Lam.

Cape Town, Daniel Pauly and Rashid Sumaila. Photos by Vicky Lam.

By Vicky Lam – Research Associate & Program Manager, Nereus Program, University of British Columbia.

—

In late August, Professors Daniel Pauly, Rashid Sumaila and Dr. Vicky Lam, as representatives of the Global Fisheries Cluster in UBC’s Institute for Oceans and Fisheries, were invited by the World Bank to attend a technical consultation meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. The plan was to discuss a potential project that aims at understanding the likely impacts of climate change on fisheries in African countries.

Continue reading →