In thinking about February as Valentine’s Month, we invited our social media followers to “swipe right for healthy oceans.”
In a series of four posts showcasing country snapshots and designed to mimic a dating app interface, we presented how the Sea Around Us‘ fisheries data help us explore what ocean health looks like in different parts of the world. Each post highlights key strengths and challenges, grounded in catch reconstructions, stock assessments, and nutrition data.
Fisherman casting net at sunset in Mandalay. Photo by Pyae Phyo Aung, Pexels.
Official statistics from most coastal countries only account for a fraction of what their fisheries catch, the Sea Around Us data and analyses have demonstrated.
As we observe World Fisheries Day 2025, which aims to highlight the importance of promoting sustainable fish stocks and the rights of small-scale fishing communities, it is crucial to remember that without comprehensive data, managing sustainable fisheries is akin to flying blind.
Daniel Pauly, Anna Luna Rossi and Fabrice Teletchea at the 2025 International Congress on Aquatic Sciences in Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Photo by Studio Briand Photographe | Archipel Développement.
The Sea Around Us principal investigator, Dr. Daniel Pauly, and master’s student, Anna Luna Rossi, made a splash in Saint Pierre and Miquelon by participating in the fifth edition of the International Congress on Aquatic Sciences, which took place from September 28th to October 2nd, 2025.
The congress was structured around four main themes—fishing and aquaculture, citizen science and education, aquatic biodiversity, and maritime transport —and hosted 48 presentations, all of them meant to foster exchanges between researchers, businesses, and citizens, with a particular focus on young people.
Starting in the second half of 2024, the Sea Around Us team embarked on a large-scale project aimed at reviewing the catch reconstructions available in the database for every maritime country and territory, and updating them to 2022.
Port of Dakar. Photo by Garth Cripps ©, Coalition for Fisheries Transparency.
The decades-long overexploitation of the marine fisheries resources of most West African countries is one of the top drivers of illegal immigration to Europe via deadly routes through the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Strait of Gibraltar.