As many of our readers know by now, the Sea Around Us’ website hosts a publicly accessible database that covers the fisheries of all maritime countries and territories of the world, from 1950 to 2014, and is regularly updated.
This database is founded on the reconstructions of countries’ historical catch data that are generated by over 300 scientists from around the world. Continue reading
On February 17, 2016 the Sea Around Us‘ Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller will be sharing their views on the importance of the Global Atlas of Marine Fisheries, the first book to provide accurate, country-by-country fishery data.
Their presentation is part of the IOF Seminar Series held every Friday at the Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory 120, located at the University of British Columbia 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver. Continue reading
Marine Policy recently published “Comments on FAOs State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA 2016),” authored by the Sea Around Us leaders Drs. Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller.
Both scientists expressed their concern over the implications for resource management and global food security of ignoring information aimed at filling the gaps that exist in the data reported by countries to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
They divide their observations into a few main points:
Photo by Alper Çuğun, Flickr.
Trawl nets, drift nets, longlines, etc. have allowed fleets across the world to turn their fishing operations into massive extractive activities.
In several countries’ Exclusive Economic Zones, such expansion has led to depleted fish stocks. Some of those countries, however, have enough capital to buy access to other countries’ waters, extract their resources and sell them across continents. “They are just exporting the problem,” the Sea Around Us Senior Scientist Dirk Zeller has said.
Lincoln Hood, a research assistant with a passion for diving, shares her views on the importance of the catch data generated by the reconstruction process of the Sea Around Us.