An article titled Conserving wild fish in a sea of market-based efforts appeared last week in Oryx: The International Journal of Conservation authored by Jennifer Jacquet, Daniel Pauly, Rashid Sumaila, and Sherman Lai of the Sea Around Us Project, along with five additional colleagues. Its publication led to an article in the Vancouver Sun on how domestic farm animals are devouring the world’s fish stocks and an AFP piece explaining that consumer campaigns don’t save endangered fish. The article addresses the effects of consumer campaigns in an increasingly globalized market for seafood.
Category: New & Notable
Satellite Imagery Can Improve Ocean Data
How much the oceans are protected? How much of the globe is covered in coral reefs? These are important questions that require decent data. A new study led by Sea Around Us Project member Colette Wabnitz and just released online by the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment reveals that the current data available are too poor for them to be used to evaluate progress toward conservation targets, such as international goals to set aside 20-30% of the oceans as marine protected areas. Technological advances in satellite imagery, like this image of the North Male atoll in the Maldives, can help us better determine the true size of coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass, spawning grounds, and other vulnerable marine habitats. Read the full study here.
Climate Change Will Affect Ocean Food Supply
Major shifts in fisheries distribution due to climate change will affect food security in tropical regions most adversely, according to a new study led by the Sea Around Us Project’s William Cheung (now based at the University of East Anglia in the UK). The study, published today Global Change Biology, finds that climate change will produce major shifts in productivity of the world’s fisheries, affecting ocean food supply throughout the world, most particularly in the tropics. Read the full press release here and a summary of scientific findings and some of the major maps and graphs from the climate change study here . The Pew Environment Group also put out a report on the study in their Ocean Science Series.
Aquacalypse Now
Daniel Pauly writes an article on overfishing for The New Republic. Read the full piece here.
End of the Line Premiere
The End of the Line, a film that documents overfishing, premiered today at the Sundance Film Festival. Sea Around Us members Daniel Pauly and Rashid Sumaila take leading roles in this documentary based on Charles Clover’s book with the same title.