Fishes eye view of the Island Star. Photo by Derek Keats, Flickr.
This analysis was originally posted in New Scientist, and can be found here.
By James Randerson.
IT IS one of the planet’s last true wildernesses, yet a handful of the world’s wealthiest nations are plundering its riches to satisfy the appetites of luxury consumers – all with the help of billions in public money. Continue reading
Dr. Elsie Sunderland (left). Photo: Valentina Ruiz Leotaud.
By: Valentina Ruiz Leotaud.
On November 17th, the Nereus Program hosted a talk with a VIP guest speaker: Dr. Elsie Sunderland, the Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Harvard University.
In an hour-long presentation, which took place at UBC’s Green College, Dr. Sunderland summarized part of the work that her research group is undertaking on the biogeochemistry of global contaminants.
Many environmental contaminants biomagnify in marine food webs, reaching high concentrations in top predators, which means that they are posing health risks to humans and wildlife.
Sunderland started by saying that focusing just on carbon pollutants provides a very narrow view that ignores the vast array of substances affecting the environment. Even when policymakers think they are choosing the greenest options when it comes to energy generation, they might be doing quite the opposite.
Dr. Elsie Sunderland.
Photo: M. dagnino – Institut océanographique.
Just a day after World Fisheries Day, Sea Around Us Principal Investigator, Dr. Daniel Pauly, was awarded the 2016 Albert Ier Grand Medal in the Science category during a ceremony held at the Maison des Océans in Paris.
The Albert Ier Grand Medal is the most prestigious prize given by the Oceanographic Institute to great names of the marine world. It takes the form of a medal in gilded bronze bearing the embossed profile of Prince Albert Ist, a pioneer of modern oceanography and founder of the Institute.
Dr. Pauly is acknowledged as one of the greatest specialists of marine resources and the effects of overfishing in the world.
Besides attending the gala, Dr. Pauly is set to participate in the conference “Only One Ocean: Issues and Solutions,” which was organized by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Institute also with the idea of honouring him.
The Sea Around Us has reconstructed catch data for some 273 Exclusive Economic Zones, with the idea of helping countries better manage their fisheries.
As Dr. Daniel Pauly has said, this publicly accessible database builds on FAO statistics but overcomes its deficiencies by incorporating not only landings, but also by identifying the EEZs where the landings come from, presenting data by sectors (i.e., industrial, artisanal, subsistence and recreational) and estimating the illegal and otherwise unreported and undocumented catches.
The video above shows, step by step, how to view and download catch data by fishing country. Besides choosing among regions, users can also decide, by clicking on the “Dimension” drop-down menu, whether they want to see the information by EEZ, High Seas, Taxon, Commercial Groups, Functional Groups, Fishing Sector, Catch Type or Reporting Status.
The graphs also show how the reconstructed catch differs from official reporting.
Photo by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud.
The setting was ideal: The ocean on one side, the forest on the other.
There wasn’t a sound to be heard except that of a few seagulls, a sea lion somewhere, the waves lashing back and forth, and the enthusiastic team of the Sea Around Us talking about plans and projects for the coming years.
It was all part of the Sea Around Us’ annual retreat, which took place on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast on November 4th-6th, 2016.
Leaders Daniel Pauly, Dirk Zeller, and Deng Palomares traveled with associated faculty, staff, and students with the idea of updating everyone on everything: from finances to exciting new initiatives and potential new directions.
Photo by Deng Palomares.