“Fish do not need passports or visas. They don’t stay within a specific EEZ. Climate change is affecting our fisheries and what we set out to do in one country has little effect if we do not work together as a region.”

– Salifu Ceesay, PRCM forum, Praia (Cabo-Verde) 2015

Earlier this month I embarked on an exciting adventure to West Africa, to participate in a conversation on climate change and West African fisheries, together with Dr. Dyhia Belhabib, the Sea Around Us West Africa Lead, and Dr. Vicky Lam, a Sea Around Us-Nereus Post-Doctoral Research Fellow.

Our whirlwind journey spanned 16 days and 4 countries, including a Sea Around Us side-event on climate change impacts and adaptation at the PRCM 2015 (Regional Marine and Coastal Conservation Programme for West Africa), and a catch reconstruction-focused workshop in The Gambia.

Armed with countless bottles of mosquito repellant, a suitcase filled with Sea Around Us brochures and a promising itinerary, we touched down at our first destination in Africa , Praia in Cape Verde (this was mine and Vicky’s first time in the African hemisphere). At the week-long PRCM 2015 conference we had the pleasure of meeting many interesting people and hosting a side-event, chaired by Dyhia, alongside some of our West African collaborators, Salifu Ceesay (The Gambia) and Elimane Abou Kane (Mauritania).

The Sea Around Us side event, titled “Climate change impacts in West Africa and possible routes of adaptation,” was very well attended and the room was full. In attendance were representatives from the Mauritanian Institute for Fisheries Research (IMROP), The Gambian National Fisheries Department (including the director and the ministry secretary), IUCN West Africa, several NGO’s, the United Nations Environmental Program, fisher’s organizations (e.g., CAOPA), and fishers themselves, as well as our partner the MAVA Foundation, among many others. After the presentation, all participants passionately shared their experiences at a round-table discussion. With representation from most West African countries, spanning Mauritania to Sierra Leone, topics for discussion included the impacts of foreign fishing vessels, climate change observations, and the decline and migration of fish stocks. Several delegates highlighted the need to think of fisheries management in a more regional manner.

The remainder of the week was spent engaging in discussions with the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), SRFC (Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission), MESA (Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa) and other groups. Outside the conference, we enjoyed delicious seafood, and touring around Santiago island on an excursion organized by the PRCM. The 8^th PRCM concluded with an urgent call for a more unified and collective approach in fisheries management strategies.

Following the PRCM conference, Vicky began her journey back to Vancouver, en route to China for another conference, while Dyhia took a short trip to Gland, Switzerland, for a MAVA Foundation strategic meeting, before re-joining me in Dakar, Senegal, for the next major Sea Around Us engagement event of our trip. Together with Dyhia’s husband Allan and her baby Ilyas, we drove from Dakar to Banjul (The Gambia). What was originally supposed to be a short three hour drive, turned into an eventful twelve hour journey, featuring an interesting episode at the Senegalese-Gambian border crossing, multiple police checkpoints and one extremely chaotic ferry crossing in Barra. Exhausted but relieved to arrive in Banjul, we were eager to immerse ourselves in the joint workshop on catch reconstructions between the Department of Fisheries of the Gambia and the Sea Around Us.

The workshop was attended by over 40 participants from diverse backgrounds, including various governmental departments, research units, educational institutions, industry members, media staff and the country representative of the FAO in The Gambia. The primary objective was to discuss the Sea Around Us Gambian catch reconstruction and approaches to further improve the overall fisheries catch reporting in the country. We conversed on the importance of fisheries observers and the protection and effectiveness of these observers, as well as the effect that desensitization may have on accurate reporting and data collection at sea.

James Gomez, the Director of Research from the Ministry of Education in The Gambia, highlighted the importance of interdepartmental collaboration. He urged for better policy to facilitate information sharing, stating: “Data that is useful for the nation should not be hard to access.” I thought the workshop was a success, with recommendations ranging from updating data collection forms to better reflect the fish species currently caught, to building capacity and provide data collection training to staff, to validating fisheries catch data with all stakeholders to reduce discrepancies.

Although our West Africa trip had quickly come to an end, and we find ourselves back within the Global Fisheries Cluster (www.global-FC.ubc.ca) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the engagement aspect of the project continues and our partnerships in West Africa are today more integrated.

A collaborative research initiative between the Sea Around Us and the various Departments of Fisheries from the seven West African countries is expected to launch in early 2016. Each country will nominate candidates to visit the Sea Around Us for 10-15 days on a scholarship. Candidates will attend training seminars, work on catch reconstructions and other related issues identified, and work towards a peer reviewed publication. The partnership, funded by the MAVA Foundation, will provide valuable training to West African fisheries researchers, and facilitate an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach to examining fisheries issues, furthering collaboration between researchers at the Sea Around Us and in West Africa.

 

Last October Dr. Daniel Pauly and Dr. Dyhia Belhabib gave a presentation in Seattle to a group of Sea Around Us website users, describing new data tools and reiterating past and current research.

Dr. Pauly described why catch reconstructions are important and how they are conducted, and Dr. Belhabib  narrowed in on a specific case study in Gabon.

The case study in Gabon — as Dr. Pauly described — “could be replicated over 200 times” as numerous other case studies have been completed globally.

The video presentation was accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, available here.

Water spills from the edge of a giant, melting iceberg on the cover of the November 2015 issue of Science.

The special issue focused on the effects of climate change on our ocean systems, and highlighted research by Dr. William Cheung, an Associate Professor with the Changing Ocean Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, and Director (Science) of the Nereus Program. The journal used a map Dr. Cheung and his team created that describes the effects of changing water temperatures on fish species migration.

“This is the first global map that projects changes in species distribution and its impacts on marine biodiversity under climate change,” said Dr. Cheung in an email.

The map depicts the projected increase of fish species found in waters in higher latitudes as global waters warm. But while the number of species increases near the poles, many would disappear from equatorial waters.

The map was used in an article about boarfish – a bright orange, small and spiny fish that is exploding in numbers in the north Atlantic. As author Marianne Lavelle writes in Science:

“The boarfish has become one symbol of an emerging global issue: the often surprising disruptions that climate change can create in the world’s fisheries, as marine populations move, flourish, and wither as a result of warming seas.”

But the boarfish is only one among many species that are changing migration patterns due to climate change.

A study conducted by researchers at Rutgers University, who analyzed more than 40 years of census data on 350 species off North America, found that some 70% of species were shifting their ranges or moving to shallower or deeper waters because of changing water temperatures.

A previous study by Dr. Cheung – which was co-authored by Dr. Daniel Pauly from the Sea Around Us, and published as a letter in Nature – found that as water temperatures in high latitudes warm, an increase of tropical fish should be found in fishermen’s nets.

With the Paris climate change conference starting on November 30^th, Dr. Cheung wants to see ocean warming on the agenda.

As scientists, politicians, and media from around the world descend on the capital city to try and forge a consensus on how to battle climate change, he believes warming of the oceans should be a priority in the discussions.

“Any solution without considering the ocean is incomplete,” he said.

The Sea Around Us Catch Allocation Map is an interactive tool that allows users to view global catch using different parameters, like country, year, functional or commercial group, and taxa, from 1950 until 2010. Two or more countries can also be viewed at the same time.

The embedded video is a short and concise guide on how to use the tool.

Click here to try the tool out yourself.

And if you have further questions as to how it works, click here for more information. You will find diagrams like the one below that are complimentary to the video.

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The Sea Around Us is gaining feedback from its scientific and research users to create more robust tools and stronger web content.

On Tuesday October 26, several researchers met in Seattle, Washington to discuss improved methods for disseminating and displaying data on the Sea Around Us website.

Scientists from the Ocean Health Index, the University of Washington, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), among several other organizations, provided practical feedback about improvements that could enhance the utility of the web services provided by the Sea Around Us.

“Everyone was interested in the process by which the Sea Around Us reconstructs catch data, and how they can optimize the extraction of data for their research needs from the website,” said Dr. Deng Palomares, senior scientist with the Sea Around Us.

The researchers provided feedback for potential additions to the tools and data – like a user’s guide for maps; an easier system for providing feedback on data or potential corrections; and even an area for policy suggestions for non-scientific users.

Many of the researchers were impressed with the mapping tool. The tool creates visual impressions of where fish are caught and what countries are catching them – throughout time from 1950 to 2010.

“They were very impressed by the mapping tool and its potentials and said it was the most powerful tool we have ,” said Palomares.

“It was important to receive feedback today from user groups, and how they appreciate and utilize the Sea Around Us website,” she added.