Hammerhead shark. Photo by Kris Mikael Krister, Wikimedia Commons.
Recreational fishers are increasingly targeting sharks and rays, a situation that is causing concern among researchers.
A new study by an international team of scientists reveals that recreational catches of these fishes have gradually increased over the last six decades around the world, now accounting for 5-6 per cent of the total catches taken for leisure or pleasure.
The Sea Around Us has joined forces with the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, UBC’s School of Journalism, the Global Reporting Centre, and Trace Foundation to host an event titled The Outlaw Ocean: A conversation with Ian Urbina.
The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier, is Urbina’s most recent book and across its 540 pages, the New York Times investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world’s economies rely.
The white stumpnose stock in southern Africa was amongst those assessed for the first time. The species has been red-listed by IUCN. Image by Brian Gratwicke, Flickr.
A newly developed method for assessing how abundant fish populations are and how fishing is affecting them revealed that several fish stocks across oceans are far below internationally agreed minimum levels and in urgent need of sustainable management.
Largehead hairtail. Public domain photo.
Fish that are highly valued by Chinese consumers, such as largehead hairtail, would grow in value and in the amounts that are caught if industrial fisheries increased the mesh size of their nets.
New research by the Sea Around Us initiative at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries found that trawlers operating in China’s coastal waters are overfishing 21 economically important species because the mesh size is so small that, together with large, desirable fish, undersized fish are also getting caught. This means that fish are being taken out before they are able to reproduce.
Daniel Pauly. Photo by Paul Joseph, UBC.
The Sea Around Us Principal Investigator, Dr. Daniel Pauly, is amongst the top 0.01% of the world’s scientists based on the impact of his publications.