A rejoinder to comments on “Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining”

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

The ‘Bandit 6’ have all been caught

Kunlun
 
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

Interactive graphs include reported catch line

SenegalFunctGroup
 
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.

Mapping Tool: Tutorial

To better understand how the Mapping Tool works, take a look at this 5 minute YouTube tutorial.

The Mapping Tool allows users to:

  • View the catch of multiple countries at the same time.
  • View multiple taxa in the same search.
  • Drag the Map to focus on specific areas of the world.
  • Zoom in and out.
  • Link to accompanying graphs, which show changes of catch per country through time (1950-2010).
  • Search by commercial group or functional group, rather than just taxa.