How sustainable is tuna? New global catch database exposes dangerous fishing trends

How sustainable is tuna? New global catch database exposes dangerous fishing trends

How sustainable is tuna? New global catch database exposes dangerous fishing trends

Tuna at the Tsukiji fish market in Japan. Photo by Humanoid one, Wikimedia Commons.

Appearing in everything from sushi rolls to sandwiches, tuna are among the world’s favourite fish. But are our current tuna fishing habits sustainable?

Probably not, according to a new global database of tuna catches created by researchers at the University of British Columbia and University of Western Australia.

In a study published in Fisheries Research, scientists from the Sea Around Us initiative found that global tuna catches have increased over 1,000 per cent in the past six decades, fueled by a massive expansion of industrial fisheries.

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Clockwise from top left: Matthew Ansell, MSc student;  James Hehre, Associate & Programme Manager – Marine Futures Lab; Dirk Zeller, Director Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean; Jessica Meeuwig, Director Marine Futures Lab;  Gabriel Vianna, Postdoctoral Fellow; Rachel White, Researcher; Hanna Jabour Christ, Associate & Communications and Data Manager – Marine Futures Lab; Lincoln Hood, Senior Researcher; Amy McAlpine MSc Student.

The Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean is growing!

Clockwise from top left: Matthew Ansell, MSc student; James Hehre, Associate & Programme Manager – Marine Futures Lab; Dirk Zeller, Director Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean; Jessica Meeuwig, Director Marine Futures Lab; Gabriel Vianna, Postdoctoral Fellow; Rachel White, Researcher; Hanna Jabour Christ, Associate & Communications and Data Manager – Marine Futures Lab; Lincoln Hood, Senior Researcher; Amy McAlpine MSc Student.

Clockwise from top left: Matthew Ansell, MSc student; James Hehre, Associate & Programme Manager – Marine Futures Lab; Dirk Zeller, Director Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean; Jessica Meeuwig, Director Marine Futures Lab; Gabriel Vianna, Postdoctoral Fellow; Rachel White, Researcher; Hanna Jabour Christ, Associate & Communications and Data Manager – Marine Futures Lab; Lincoln Hood, Senior Researcher; Amy McAlpine MSc Student.

The Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean, founded in 2017 at the University of Western Australia and led by Dr. Dirk Zeller, is starting to grow.

A while back, former members of the Sea Around Us at UBC, Lincoln Hood and Rachel White, followed a tern flock and moved southwards to work with Dr. Zeller on establishing the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean, and to initiate the newest round of updated and improved catch reconstruction database for all maritime countries around the Indian Ocean.

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Instructors and participants at the CMSY workshop in Qingdao.

Sea Around Us co-hosts successful CMSY workshop in Qingdao

Instructors and participants at the CMSY workshop in Qingdao.

Instructors and participants at the CMSY workshop in Qingdao.

In June 2019, the Sea Around Us PI, Dr. Daniel Pauly, and Project Manager, Dr. Deng Palomares, co-hosted a successful, three-day workshop at the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) in Qingdao, a city on China’s Yellow Sea coast. They were assisted by graduate student Lu Zhai and long-time Sea Around Us collaborator Dr. Liang ‘Elsa’ Cui.

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DP bio cover

Daniel Pauly’s biography hits the bookstores

DP bio cover

Un Océan de Combats is the title of the book that recounts the life of the Sea Around Us Principal Investigator, Dr. Daniel Pauly.

The text, brilliantly written by oceanographer David Grémillet over the course of two years and after doing dozens of interviews over four continents, presents the extraordinary life story of a child born just after the Second World War to a working-class Frenchwoman and an African American GI– Daniel Pauly’s trajectory defies every expectation.

Un Océan de Combats brings to the forefront a scientist’s life-long struggle over the course of his extraordinary career to determine the magnitude and significance of overfishing.

The first accessible account of overfishing as a global issue, both for society and for the planet, this book draws the inevitable connection between the environmental crisis and the political and social inequality between the global North and the global South.

DP's bio

“An iconoclastic fisheries scientist who is so decidedly global in his life and outlook that he is nearly a man without a country.” THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Never afraid to ruffle feathers, Pauly is outspoken about ocean conservation and willing to point fingers at the huge multinational companies that control much of the world’s fishing industry.” NATURE

“Pauly’s insights into global fisheries provide an understanding of the root causes of our unsustainable ocean fishery and are an essential guide to sustain this vital resource.” DAVID SUZUKI