Saving Seafood

UN, Oceana, insurer issue guidelines to stop IUU fishing

February 28, 2019 — Several environmental advocacy groups including UN Environment and Oceana have partnered with major insurer Allianz to write guidelines that could help the marine insurance industry better detect and prevent instances of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The newly issued risk assessment guidelines to marine insurers include a checklist of 18 warning signs to detect higher risk vessels and contracts, Oceana said in a press release.

In 2017, the UN Environment’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance initiative recruited several major insurers including Allianz, AXA, Generali, Hanseatic Underwriters and The Shipowners’ Club to join a statement to combat IUU.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Aquaculture does little to conserve wild fisheries, according to study

February 11, 2019 — New research finds that aquaculture, or fish farming, does not help conserve wild fisheries.

“Our fundamental question with this study was: does  conserve wild fish?” says Stefano Longo, an associate professor of sociology at North Carolina State University and first author of a paper on the work. “The answer is: not really.”

To determine the impact of  efforts on traditional, or “capture” fisheries, Longo and his collaborators looked at data from the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, from 1970 to 2014. Specifically, the researchers evaluated data that shed light on changes in aquaculture and traditional fisheries, such as aquaculture production numbers and the number of fish harvested by wild fisheries.

“We found that aquaculture has expanded production, but does not appear to be advancing fishery conservation,” Longo says. “In fact, aquaculture may contribute to greater demand for seafood as a result of the social processes that shape production and consumption.

“In other words, aquaculture is not taking the place of traditional fishing efforts, or even necessarily reducing them,” Longo says.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds

January 14, 2019 — Scientists say the world’s oceans are warming far more quickly than previously thought, a finding with dire implications for climate change because almost all the excess heat absorbed by the planet ends up stored in their waters.

A new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that the oceans are heating up 40 percent faster on average than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago. The researchers also concluded that ocean temperatures have broken records for several straight years.

“2018 is going to be the warmest year on record for the Earth’s oceans,” said Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst at the independent climate research group Berkeley Earth and an author of the study. “As 2017 was the warmest year, and 2016 was the warmest year.”

As the planet has warmed, the oceans have provided a critical buffer. They have slowed the effects of climate change by absorbing 93 percent of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases humans pump into the atmosphere.

“If the ocean wasn’t absorbing as much heat, the surface of the land would heat up much faster than it is right now,” said Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the department of ecology, evolution and natural resources at Rutgers University. “In fact, the ocean is saving us from massive warming right now.”

Read the full story at The New York Times

High-seas illegal fishing thwarted by catch documentation schemes

January 9, 2018 — The latest technical paper on catch documentation schemes from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), discusses how such schemes benefit, or could benefit, deep-sea fisheries by protecting them from illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The paper’s author, Giles Hosch, found in his research that catch documentation schemes (CDS) are a useful tool for addressing the IUU fishing practices known to take place in deep-sea fisheries, in the areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ).

Catch documentation schemes are a trade-based measure with the purpose of denying market access to fisheries products that have been obtained illegally. They facilitate the tracking and tracing of fish from the point of capture, through unloading and onwards through the supply chain.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Ocean Shock: The climate crisis beneath the waves

November 13, 2018 — To stand at the edge of an ocean is to face an eternity of waves and water, a shroud covering seven-tenths of the Earth.

Hidden below are mountain ranges and canyons that rival anything on land. There you will find the Earth’s largest habitat, home to billions of plants and animals – the vast majority of the living things on the planet.

In this little-seen world, swirling super-highway currents move warm water thousands of miles north and south from the tropics to cooler latitudes, while cold water pumps from the poles to warmer climes.

It is a system that we take for granted as much as we do the circulation of our own blood. It substantially regulates the Earth’s temperature, and it has been mitigating the recent spike in atmospheric temperatures, soaking up much of human-generated heat and carbon dioxide. Without these ocean gyres to moderate temperatures, the Earth would be uninhabitable.

In the last few decades, however, the oceans have undergone unprecedented warming. Currents have shifted. These changes are for the most part invisible from land, but this hidden climate change has had a disturbing impact on marine life – in effect, creating an epic underwater refugee crisis.

Read the full story from Reuters at MSN

Fish safety goes global

November 5, 2018 — Every fisherman deserves to come home safely at the end of a trip. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has been working for decades not only to track injuries in the U.S. commercial fishing fleet, but also to research and develop targeted safety solutions for specific regions and gear types in cooperation with the fishing industry. Although there has been a decrease in the number of fatalities and vessel disasters in the United States over the last few decades, even one life lost or one career ended is still too many.

This is why NIOSH’s Center for Maritime Safety and Health Studies gathered a group together to organize the fifth International Fishing Industry Safety and Health Conference (IFISH 5).

In June 2018, more than 175 occupational safety and health researchers, safety professionals, industry members and students from 24 countries gathered in St. John’s, Newfoundland, with the goal of improving safety and health in the commercial fishing industry through research, innovation, and the exchange of ideas. That’s double the size and programing of any previous IFISH conference.

One of the recurring themes throughout the conference was that fishermen, while an independent bunch, make safety a priority. They desire solutions that are relevant and practical to their work. What we’ve learned is that the best research, solutions and policies come from listening to fishermen — identify what saves them money, what makes work more efficient, and what makes sense for their specific fleet.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Startling new research finds large buildup of heat in the oceans, suggesting a faster rate of global warming

November 1, 2018 — The world’s oceans have been soaking up far more excess heat in recent decades than scientists realized, suggesting that Earth could be set to warm even faster than predicted in the years ahead, according to new research published Wednesday.

Over the past quarter-century, Earth’s oceans have retained 60 percent more heat each year than scientists previously had thought, said Laure Resplandy, a geoscientist at Princeton University who led the startling study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The difference represents an enormous amount of additional energy, originating from the sun and trapped by Earth’s atmosphere — the yearly amount representing more than eight times the world’s annual energy consumption.

In the scientific realm, the new findings help resolve long-running doubts about the rate of the warming of the oceans before 2007, when reliable measurements from devices called “Argo floats” were put to use worldwide. Before that, differing types of temperature records — and an overall lack of them — contributed to murkiness about how quickly the oceans were heating up.

The higher-than-expected amount of heat in the oceans means more heat is being retained within Earth’s climate system each year, rather than escaping into space. In essence, more heat in the oceans signals that global warming is more advanced than scientists thought.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Over 150 scientists warn of Mediterranean ‘overfishing crisis’

September 24, 2018 — More than 150 international scientists have signed NGO Oceana’s “Mediterranean Statement” urging the EU and its member states to end what it calls an environmental crisis in the Mediterranean, it said.

It cited a recent report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calling it the world’s most overfished sea.

“This environmental crisis is not just a warning – it’s the harsh reality of the Mediterranean Sea. Europe has for decades turned a blind eye to this situation, and this passive stance has brought us today to almost the point of no return,” said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana in Europe.

“The EU must curb overfishing to avoid the worst-case scenario — the collapse of fish stocks — by adopting a science-based management plan in the western Mediterranean,” he said.

Overfishing in the Mediterranean affects around 90% of evaluated fish stocks, with average exploitation rates exceeding more than double the recommended sustainable levels, said Oceana, citing the EU’s own Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Want to Protect the Oceans? Empower Women

September 18, 2018 — Picture someone fishing, and a woman probably doesn’t come to mind. Men are the face of fisheries work, even though women are its backbone in much of the world.

Half of seafood workers are female. Women net fish, spear octopus, dig clams, dive for abalone and pack and process seafood, yet are consistently denied a voice in fisheries management.

That’s more than unfair. Excluding women overlooks half the workforce, and all the fish and shellfish they pull out of the water. Ignoring such a sizable chunk of fishing sets communities up to overexploit their resources, according to a 2006 study from the University of British Columbia. It’s a recipe for overfishing and ocean depletion.

In the Tuvalu Islands, for example, a government initiative to restore edible sea snails failed because it only consulted men. Women also harvest the snails, and continued collecting them as usual, unknowingly trouncing the restoration effort.

Female fishers have deep knowledge of the seafoods they catch and the rhythms of the beaches where they work, often passed down matriarchal lines. They have strong incentives to manage natural resources sustainably, experts say, but first they need a seat at the table.

Read the full story at EcoWatch

U.N. Makes a Bold Move to Protect Marine Life on the High Seas

September 10, 2018 — The bluefin tuna is one of the biggest, fastest fishes in the ocean. Its streamlined body can sprint at up to 45 miles per hour in pursuit of its prey. Reaching some 500 pounds, this giant once dominated the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. But humans have hunted the bluefin for thousands of years. In the last century stocks have been decimated. The Pacific population is now just 2.6 percent of its original size.

Many other species that live in the high seas—the two thirds of Earth’s oceans that lie beyond national waters—are suffering a similar fate. There is no universal law protecting biodiversity. “This is a massive gap, a literal hole in the middle of the ocean,” says Lance Morgan, president of the Marine Conservation Institute, a U.S. nonprofit focused on ocean protection.

That is about to change. The United Nations is pushing to protect marine life on the high seas with a legally binding treaty by 2020. Delegates from 193 nations are working on it at U.N. headquarters in New York City, through September 17. Yet tension is already in the air. Russia, for example, is vocalizing its opposition to global governance of international waters, a position that could delay or even scuttle the process. And certain nations, from Africa and South America in particular, have made it clear any benefits reaped from international waters should be shared with countries worldwide.

The high seas are home to some of the planet’s most charismatic creatures, such as dolphins, sharks, whales and turtles. They contain valuable fisheries and support ecosystems found nowhere else. Yet until last year there was not a single, large marine protected area in international waters. Today, just 1 percent percent of the high seas is off-limits to industry.

Mounting pressure for protection is stemming in part from a new wave of exploitation about to hit the high seas. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has granted licenses to 29 contractors representing 19 countries—from Japan and the U.K. to Kiribati—to explore for minerals at ecologically important sites. These include the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone—a region of seamounts in the central Pacific—and the Lost City, a hydrothermal field in the Atlantic scientists say could hold clues to the evolution of life on Earth. Meanwhile chemical manufacturers are scouring the deep sea for organisms whose genomes could lead to new cosmetics, foods or pharmaceuticals.

Read the full story at Scientific American