How Fish Breathe


Water holds about 30 times less oxygen than air—and water that’s being warmed holds even less for fish to breathe.

In the video above — produced by Oceana — hear Daniel Pauly describe how warming waters worldwide are driving fish toward more oxygen-rich waters near poles.

“A changing planet affects all of us,” he says, “including the fish who are finding it harder and harder to take a breath.”

Invasive Species, The Mediterranean, and Sea Around Us Research

Silverside puffer fish (photo: FishBase)

Silverside puffer fish (photo: FishBase)

The recent expansion of the Suez Canal in August 2015 doubled its shipping capacity, yet many scientists are worried that an increased flood of invasive species will enter the Mediterranean along with the increased marine traffic.

A recent New York Times op-ed, written by Rachael Bishop, included two Sea Around Us collaborators who study the devastating effects of invasive fish in Mediterranean waters. Continue reading

Try our interactive graphs

Greenland Graph (2)

The Sea Around Us provides interactive graphs that display a wide variety of catch information.

Users are able to view, analyze and download data and references across multiple regions, including Exclusive Economic Zones, Regional Fisheries Management Operations, Fishing Country, FAO areas and Large Marine Ecosystems.

Mapping Graph-min

Users can also view trends across time — from 1950-2010 — within each area, as they relate to taxon, commercial group, and functional group, among many others.

All allocated catch data are available for download via CSV file. For further information on how to use the graphs, click here.

And to sign up for our email News Alert for more Sea Around Us information, click here!

Try our Mapping Tool


Want to see where countries fish around the world? And where they fished globally through time — from 1950-2010?

Watch the above tutorial on how to use our interactive Mapping Tool.

And to use the Mapping Tool — click the link here.

Media following Global Paper

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

On Janurary 21st the Sea Around Us published in the journal Nature Communications the results of over a decade of research.

Data were collected from over 200 countries and territories to reconstruct the amount of fish that is being pulled out of our oceans.

After the research was published, media from around the world reported on the story. Here is just a sampling of those stories:

The GuardianOverfishing causing global catches to fall three times faster than estimated

The Washington PostWhy we’ve been hugely underestimating the overfishing of the oceans

BBCGlobal fishing catch significantly under-reported, says study

Nature NewsIndependent study tallies ‘true catch’ of global fishing

Le Monde (France) – La surpêche et le déclin des ressources ont été largement sous-estimés

El Pais (Spain) – La humanidad pesca 32 millones de toneladas de peces a escondidas

O Globo (Brazil) – Peso do pescado global é subestimado, diz pesquisa