Galápagos as a living laboratory for the Anthropocene

Galápagos as a living laboratory for the Anthropocene

Galápagos. Image by averno_ph, Needpix.

Galápagos. Image by averno_ph, Needpix.

An international team of researchers led by experts at the Charles Darwin Foundation and with the collaboration of the Sea Around Us principal investigator, Daniel Pauly, and William Cheung, from the Changing Ocean Research Unit at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, just published a commentary in Nature Climate Change proposing the idea of Galápagos as a living laboratory for the Anthropocene.

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A new use for museum fish specimens

A new use for museum fish specimens

A new use for museum fish specimens

Preserved specimens. Image by Merryjack, Flickr.

The discoloured fish that rest in glass jars in museums across the world are normally used by specialists as references to study the traits that identify certain species. But a new study proposes an additional use for such ‘samples.’

Published in the Journal of Applied Ichthyology, the paper proposes using such specimens to estimate the length-weight relationships of fish that are hard to find alive in their natural environment.

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Fisherwomen contribute tonnes of fish, billions of dollars to global fisheries

Fisherwomen contribute tonnes of fish, billions of dollars to global fisheries

Haenyeo, woman diver of Jeju Island, South Korea. Photo by Andrew Trites.

Women’s fishing activities around the world amount to an estimated 3 million tonnes of marine fish and other seafood per year, contributing significantly to food and livelihood security in all regions of the world. However, these contributions often go unnoticed.

A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia aims to address this oversight by assembling and presenting the first quantitative estimates of catch by women and the associated value of what is brought to shore, on a global scale.

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