Menhaden fisheries in Louisiana, USA. Photo by Louisiana Sea Grant College Program Louisiana State University, Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
Fishing companies operating worldwide are missing between $51 billion and $83 billion in unrealized net economic benefits every year due to the overexploitation and underperformance of fish stocks. For these fishing companies, that means they are spending too much and getting fewer fish, revenues and profits than they could.
By combining fisheries data from the Sea Around Us initiative at UBC with country-level data on modern slavery, the researchers found that countries whose fleets rely heavily on government subsidies, fish far away from home ports, and fail to comprehensively report their actual catch, tend to fish beyond sustainable limits and are at higher risk of labour abuses.
Photo by WWF.
Humanity and the way we feed, fuel and finance our societies and economies are pushing nature and the services that power and sustain us to the brink, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2018. The report, released today, presents a sobering picture of the impact of human activity on the world’s wildlife, forests, oceans, rivers and climate, underlining the rapidly closing window for action and the urgent need for the global community to collectively rethink and redefine how we value, protect and restore nature.
The Living Planet Report 2018 presents a comprehensive overview of the state of our natural world, twenty years after the flagship report was first published. Through indicators such as the Living Planet Index (LPI) provided by the Zoological Society of London, the Species Habitat Index (SHI), the IUCN Red List Index (RLI), the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) and the Sea Around Us fisheries data, as well as Planetary Boundaries and the Ecological Footprint, the report paints a singular disturbing picture: human activity is pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on earth to the edge.
It is with great sadness that the Sea Around Us team received the news about the passing of Mr. Paul G. Allen.
As informed by his company and our project’s partner, Vulcan Inc., Allen passed on Monday, October 15, 2018. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and coworkers.
In his role as philanthropist, community builder, and conservationist, Allen supported the Sea Around Us for three years. We are thankful for having had the opportunity to work alongside such a generous person.
Photo by RSiS.
In September 2018, the Sea Around Us Principal Investigator, Daniel Pauly, traveled to Singapore to take part in a conference titled “The South China Sea Fisheries Cooperation: Progress, Problems and Prospect,” which was organized by Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
As keynote speaker, Dr. Pauly gave an overview of the fisheries in the South China Sea. Using the Sea Around Us catch reconstructions of the countries in the area, he explained who is catching what, and outlined major trends in catch composition and catch per effort.