In early March teachers, marine biologists, and fisheries biologists from the Philippines descended upon the Davao del Norte State College in Panabo City, Philippines, to take part in a three day training workshop run by the FishBase Information and Research Group (FIN) and the Sea Around Us.

The workshop aimed to train the participants to better understand fish biology and fisheries management, using tools like FishBase, SeaLifeBase, and the Sea Around Us. It was sponsored by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Region 11, and organized by the Davao del Norte State College. Continue reading →

Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller
Sea Around Us
University of British Columbia

On January 19, 2016 the journal Nature Communications published our paper titled “Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining” (Pauly and Zeller 2016) which was widely covered by the press, and triggered a very large number of positive comments. Continue reading →

Take a look at Daniel Pauly’s Ted Talk from 2010:

The ocean has degraded within our lifetimes, as shown in the decreasing average size of fish. And yet, as Daniel Pauly shows us onstage at Mission Blue, each time the baseline drops, we call it the new “normal.” At what point do we stop readjusting downward?

 
The last vessel of the infamous ‘Bandit 6’ poaching ships will no longer be illegally catching toothfish, after the Kunlun, a large rusting boat, was recently seized by Senegalese authorities.

The Bandit 6 consist of six basically Spanish-owned fishing vessels long wanted by Interpol for fish poaching and piracy. The Kunlun was discovered in early February, 2016, abandoned and sinking in a Dakar port. Continue reading →

 
The Sea Around Us interactive graphs now have a new feature.

A black line that indicates reported catch is now visible in the graphs..

This can be used to better gauge the difference between reported and reconstructed catch.

A review previously done by FAO staff recommended that a line be included to indicate what the reported catch was, and for it to overlay the reconstructed catch graphs.

As can be seen in the following graph, in the waters of Senegal in 1980, where multiple countries fish, the reported catch was around 550,000 metric tonnes, while the reconstructed catch was 1,200,000 metric tonnes. A difference of close to 650,000 metric tonnes.

For more information on the Senegal EEZ,  click here to view the reconstructed catch data.