Category: New & Notable

Photo by vjpaul, Flickr.

Vanuatu’s hidden stats: small-scale fisheries’ catch 200% higher than reported

Photo by vjpaul, Flickr.

Photo by vjpaul, Flickr.

Vanuatu’s small-scale fisheries’ catch is over 200 per cent higher than the numbers reported between 1950 and 2014 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization on behalf of the country.

According to a new study by the Sea Around Us and several French and Vanuatu scientists, almost eight out of 10 residents of the archipelagic country are involved in at least one form of fishing and most of what truly local fisheries catch goes to their own household consumption.

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Photo by Jens Bludau, Wikimedia Commons.

World’s largest marine reserve to protect high-value species from climate change-driven exploitation: research

Photo by Jens Bludau, Wikimedia Commons.

Photo by Jens Bludau, Wikimedia Commons.

Famous through the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, one of the most remote places in the world may play a crucial role for future marine resource sustainability. Projected increases in sea surface temperature, ocean acidification and shifts in the current strength in the South Pacific gyre are projected to enlarge tuna populations around the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Islands.

These are the findings of a recent study published in Frontiers in Marine Science by scientists with the Sea Around Us, a research initiative at the University of British Columbia and the University of Western Australia.

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Photo by Pixabay

Malta’s missing catch: 700 tonnes of fish go unreported every year

Photo by Pixabay

Photo: Pixabay

Almost 700 tonnes of fish have gone unreported from Malta’s statistical system every year for the past decade, a new study by the Sea Around Us reveals.

As industrial fleets expand their activities in the country’s Exclusive Fishing Zone, the amount of discards that they generate also grows. In recent times, fishers have been dumping approximately 380 tonnes of fish every year, which is the equivalent to the amount of seafood needed to feed 19,000 people for a 12-month period.

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