Chinese fishing vessel FV Tian Yu 8 in the Indian Ocean. Photo by the U.S. Navy, Picryl.
Industrial fleets from top fishing countries operating in the Indian Ocean and targeting export-market species such as tuna and squid are likely to disable monitoring systems to fish more than allowed and evade authorities, new research has found.
Sardines at the Rameswaram fishing port in India. Image by Rudolph A. Furtado, Wikimedia Commons
Indian Ocean marine fisheries catches have been consistently rising since the 1950s, a recent study by researchers with the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean initiative at the University of Western Australia shows. This contrasts with global trends.
Yellowfin tuna fishing in Seychelles. Photo by Joe Laurence, Seychelles News Agency, Wikimedia Commons.
Researchers at the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean, based at the University of Western Australia, are urging the European Union to fully support the ban on drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) in the Indian Ocean tuna fisheries declared by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) on February 5th, 2023.
Photo from Max Pixel,CC0.
The Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean under the lead of Professor Dirk Zeller at the University of Western Australia is looking for outstanding PhD candidates interested in conducting ‘big-data’ and meta-analysis research on fisheries and fisheries conservation issues at the ocean-basin scale. If this is of interest to you, then consider applying for a PhD Scholarship at the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth. The mid-year 2018 round for domestic (Australian) candidates opens from 1 June 2018 until 13 July 2018, while the international candidates only round 1 for 2019 opens from 2 July 2018 until 31 August 2018. Please only apply after consultation with Professor Zeller.