Traditional fishing pirogue in Madagascar. Photo by Jonathan Talbot, World Resources Institute, Flickr
Substantial growth in the number of motorized vessels operating in the Mozambique Channel region between East Africa and Madagascar in the past 65 years has led to a 60-fold increase in effective small-scale fishing effort and a 91 per cent decline in Catch Per Unit of Effort (CPUE).
November 21st marks World Fisheries Day.
According to the Institute for Fisheries Resources, this day has been celebrated since November 21st, 1997, when the World Fisheries Forum (WFF) was officially established in New Delhi, India. This non-profit organization is now known as the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fishworkers.
Bonga shad (Ethmalosa fimbriat) taken from the waters of Guinea Bissau. Photo by Falia, Wikimedia Commons.
Twenty-six fish and invertebrate populations that live in the waters of eight West African countries are likely overfished or at risk of being overfished, a new Fisheries Centre Research Report reveals.
Preliminary results from the application of the CMSY and LBB stock assessment methods to fish populations in the EEZs of Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, indicate that some stocks – such as that of cassava croaker off the coast of Liberia – are strongly overexploited.
The Sea Around Us is pleased to announce that the marine fisheries catch data and derived indicators have been updated to the year 2016.
After months of intensive work by our teams in Canada, the Philippines and Australia, we can now proudly say that time series with 67 years’ worth of data (1950-2016) are available for free on www.seaaroundus.org.
Bluefin tuna. Image from Pxhere, CC0.
Bluefin tuna, swordfish and Atlantic mackerel are among the fish species considered commercially extinct or extirpated on the Turkish side of the Marmara and Black Seas.
A new study by researchers with the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia, Mersea Marine Conservation Consulting, Turkey’s Central Fisheries Research Institute and the Institute of Marine Sciences and Management at the University of Istanbul, found that 17 fish species have been extirpated and 17 are commercially extinct in Turkey’s Black Sea, while 19 have been extirpated and 22 went commercially extinct in the Sea of Marmara.