Participants of the EcoScope general meeting at the Balearic Oceanographic Centre of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in Palma de Mallorca

Sea Around Us joins EcoScope 2024 general assembly

Participants of the EcoScope general meeting at the Balearic Oceanographic Centre of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in Palma de Mallorca

Participants of the EcoScope general meeting at the Balearic Oceanographic Centre of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in Palma de Mallorca. Photo by EcoScope.

The Sea Around Us project manager, Dr. Maria ‘Deng’ Palomares, and Advisory Board vice-chair, Athanasios Tsikliras, participated in the 2024 general assembly of the project Ecocentric Management for Sustainable Fisheries and Healthy Marine Ecosystems (EcoScope).

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Hoi An fish market in Vietnam.

The nutritional toll of climate change on communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific

Hoi An fish market in Vietnam.

Hoi An fish market in Vietnam. Image by Jean-Marie Hullot, Flickr.


Fish populations and the humans that depend on them for food will continue to feel the brunt of warming waters from climate change.

A recent study by researchers at the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean, based at the University of Western Australia, the Changing Ocean Research Unit at the University of British Columbia and the University of Miami, shows that even with strong climate mitigation efforts, maximum catch potential is expected to fall by 58–92 per cent in the Pacific Islands and 65–86 per cent in Southeast Asia by the mid to end of the 21st century. These losses will likely result in fisheries failing to meet key micronutrient requirements in these regions’ coastal populations.

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Farming Atlantic Salmon in Tasmania

Global North’s growing appetite for farmed salmon imperils communities’ access to local fish

Farming Atlantic Salmon in Tasmania

Farming Atlantic Salmon in Tasmania. Photo by Arthur Chapman, Flickr.

The growing appetite for expensive farmed salmon can leave coastal communities struggling to access affordable local fish like sardines and anchovies, new research published in Science Advances shows.

The paper, co-authored by researchers with Oceana and the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, exposes the global aquaculture sector’s growing dependence on wild, small pelagic fishes which are frequently caught, processed, and ‘reduced’ to fishmeal and fish oil. Almost the entirety of the production of fishmeal and fish oil, that is, 87 per cent and 74 per cent respectively, is used to feed farmed fish.

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