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.
Fishing in Ada Foah, Ghana. Photo by jrwebbe, Flickr.
The food and nutrient security of billions of people worldwide depend on fish being treated as a domestic public health asset instead of a commodity.
A new paper by researchers with the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean initiative at the University of Western Australia and the Sea Around Us global initiative at the University of British Columbia reviews evidence to back the urgent need to develop health- and nutrition-focused fisheries policies that drift away from current export-oriented, profit-maximizing policies.
Octopus at a fish market in Indonesia. Photo by Deng Palomares.
Fish market favourites such as orange roughy, common octopus and pink conch are among the species of fish and invertebrates in rapid decline around the world, according to new research.
In the first study of its kind, researchers from the Sea Around Us initiative at UBC, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the University of Western Australia assessed the biomass —the weight of a given population in the water— of more than 1,300 fish and invertebrate populations. They discovered global declines, some severe, of many popularly consumed species.
Fishing boats in Brixham harbour, UK. Photo by Dave_S, Flickr.
The United Kingdom has a unique opportunity to start rebuilding its fish stocks by taking advantage of the slowdown in commercial fishing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Brexit negotiations that should lead to new policy and legislation.
A new paper by researchers with the University of Southampton, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research and the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia presents a science-based pathway for decision-makers to develop a holistic approach in fisheries management by harnessing the present moment in which threatened stocks are seeing fishing pressure reduced to levels not seen since World War II.
More than eight million to 14 million tonnes of unreported fish catches are traded illicitly every year, costing the legitimate market between $9 billion and $17 billion in trade each year, according to new research.
In a paper published in Science Advances, researchers from the Fisheries Economics Research Unit and the Sea Around Us initiative, both based at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, as well as the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean at the University of Western Australia, looked at catch losses for 143 countries and found that significant amounts of seafood are being illicitly taken out of the food supply system of many countries, impacting the nutritional food security and livelihoods of millions.