Humpback red snapper. Photo by Julien Bidet for MDC Seamarc, Wikimedia Commons.
Warming waters, king tides and storm surges are not the only things affecting the availability of seafood in the Marshall Islands. Incomplete reporting of fisheries catches and, therefore, of how much is being taken out of the oceans also is.
The Sea Around Us has joined forces with the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, UBC’s School of Journalism, the Global Reporting Centre, and Trace Foundation to host an event titled The Outlaw Ocean: A conversation with Ian Urbina.
The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier, is Urbina’s most recent book and across its 540 pages, the New York Times investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil and shipping industries, and on which the world’s economies rely.
Japanase sardinella. Image by Totti, Wikimedia Commons.
Smaller fish and invertebrates, such as gazami crab or Japanese sardinella, are replacing larger, more commercially valuable fish such as largehead hairtail in the Bohai Sea in northeastern China.
A new study by scientists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries shows that industrial fisheries have severely affected food webs in the Bohai Sea, with organisms that occupy lower levels in the food web becoming more common than larger predators.
Tuna at the Tsukiji fish market in Japan. Photo by Humanoid one, Wikimedia Commons.
Appearing in everything from sushi rolls to sandwiches, tuna are among the world’s favourite fish. But are our current tuna fishing habits sustainable?
Probably not, according to a new global database of tuna catches created by researchers at the University of British Columbia and University of Western Australia.
In a study published in Fisheries Research, scientists from the Sea Around Us initiative found that global tuna catches have increased over 1,000 per cent in the past six decades, fueled by a massive expansion of industrial fisheries.
Fishmarket in Panama City. Photo by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud.
Tricky question that is unlikely to be answered by a Sea Around Us researcher.