EDFish

Selected tag(s): ocean conservation

For fisheries in the Caribbean, life revolves around the climate… and our climate resilience

By EDF Oceans / Published: June 28, 2022

By:

Eduardo “Lalo” Boné Morón, Senior Manager, EDF Cuba Oceans Program
Juan Carlos Duque, Project Manager of the Biological Corridor in the Caribbean of UNEP
José “Pepe” Gerhartz, Conservation Specialist of the CBC Secretariat

“Life revolves around the climate,” says José Luis “Pepe” Gerhartz, a senior conservation specialist from the Caribbean Biological Corridor Initiative, or CBC, a joint initiative between Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico. The scientific knowledge generated by Pepe, among many other experts dedicated to studying climate, indicates that climate change is causing drastic alterations to our oceans. These alterations are inevitably affecting marine ecosystems and the millions of people who depend on them. Fisheries are already suffering as changes in sea temperature, sea currents and many other processes in the oceans affect the abundance and distribution of marine species. Certain organisms will be able to adapt, moving in search of better conditions. However, many others will not, potentially reducing the oceans’ ability to thrive and nourish the world. Read More »

Posted in Cuba, International / Also tagged adaptive fisheries management, Belize, caribbean, Caribbean Biological Corridor Initiative, Climate change, Coastal Communities, Cuba, Dominican Republic, FAO, Fisheries, Food Security, Haiti, International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, IYAFA, learning exchange, marine ecosystems, multispecies fisheries management, ocean temperature, Oceans, Puerto Rico, sharks, small-scale fisheries, stock distributions, sustainability, tropical islands, UN | Comments are closed

Cooperation beats competition

By Sarah Poon / Published: November 8, 2013

By Sarah Poon

Whether in school, at work, or at play, we’ve all experienced the value of working collectively to achieve a common goal. Many fisheries around the world are successfully managed by providing a structure for collaboration between fishermen via Cooperative catch shares.

In a Cooperative catch share, one or more groups of fishing participants, or “Cooperatives”, are allocated a secure portion of the catch or a dedicated fishing area. In exchange, they are responsible for accepting certain management responsibilities. Many fishing communities around the world have traditionally managed their coastal resources cooperatively, leveraging their local knowledge and relationships to achieve common goals. Recognizing the success of this approach, many fisheries are building upon this traditional practice, while also adapting to the realities of today’s increasingly global fishery markets.

There are hundreds of Cooperatives around the world. They have formed in different ways and have various functions and capacities. But when it comes to their ability to manage fisheries, they share a common (perhaps obvious) theme: Cooperatives work best when people cooperate. Cooperatives have demonstrated that fishermen working together (often hand-in-hand with fishery managers) can improve fishery science, tailor management to local conditions, increase profits and respond to complex management challenges such as discarding and habitat impacts. Read More »

Posted in Global Fisheries, Science/Research / Also tagged Catch Shares, co-management, cooperative management, Fisheries Management, sustainability | Comments are closed

Seafood Selector helps you have your hake (and eat it too)

By Tim Fitzgerald / Bio / Published: June 4, 2013

Environmental Defense Fund recently released the latest version of its popular Seafood Selector, a tool to help make consumers aware of critical ocean conservation issues through the fish that they and their families eat. Today I want to take a moment to remember what life was like in 2001, when our first version came out as a small black-and-white paper cutout in the organization’s quarterly member newsletter. (I know it’s hard to believe, but most people still received their environmental news by snail mail back in those days).

Back then, most people still didn’t have cell phones, and those that did just kept them in their gloveboxes for emergencies. I was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii, studying shark ecology and physiology. Even as a young marine biologist, I was largely unaware of the impacts of our personal choices on the health of the oceans.

Raising consumer awareness of ocean conservation issues was no easy task 12 years ago – and is still a challenge today – given the complexity of how most fish makes it to our plates. For example, here are some interesting facts you might not know about the U.S. seafood market: Read More »

Posted in Seafood / Also tagged Seafood, Seafood Selector, Sustainable Seafood | Comments are closed

Ocean Conservation Should not be a Partisan Issue

By Matt Rand / Bio / Published: November 6, 2012

Stetson Bank Coral and Sponges. Photo credit: Frank and Joyce Burek

No matter what happens at the polls today, the ocean and the fish that live in it will still require our attention and conservation efforts. With all the politics and rhetoric circulating throughout the media, the fact that oceans and other vital ecosystems provide invaluable resources and benefits to the billions of people on this planet tends to go unnoticed. Even worse, there is a tendency to paint the environment as a partisan issue, when regardless of your political beliefs—ensuring we have a healthy natural world is essential to your survival and happiness for the future.

The oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface and contain 97% of the world’s water. An estimated 20,000 species of marine fish swim beneath the largely unexplored waters, along with complex plant and animal life including coral reefs, sea grasses, whales and sharks. Billions of people globally depend on fish as their primary source of protein, and the economic value of fishing for their livelihood. Many of these people live in poor, undeveloped countries and will rely more heavily on the ocean as populations increase and global warming impacts their ability to cultivate food on land. The reality of our global dependence on the ecosystem services that the ocean provides becomes more evident with studies such one which recently came out in Science, citing that 80% of the world’s un-assessed fisheries are in worse shape than previously thought. But there is hope if we act now to align the right incentives and increase the economic value of fisheries, while putting fishermen at the forefront of conservation. Ensuring that the world’s fish stocks are replenished is a human imperative, not a political talking point. Read More »

Posted in International, Policy / Also tagged Catch Shares, Domestic, ecosystem benefits, Ecosystems, Fish, global partnership for oceans, Ocean | Read 1 Response

Neuroconservation: Your Brain on Ocean

By Rod Fujita / Bio / Published: January 3, 2012

Roaring Ocean, Oregon Coast. Photo by Charles Seaborn.

The fate of the oceans is now in human hands, yet most of us ocean conservationists don’t know much about why people do things that harm the ocean, or how to motivate behavior that is good for the ocean. As I note in my book, Heal the Ocean, the re-connection of people to the sea will be key to pervasive conservation and intelligent resource use. But how can we do that?

I recently had the opportunity to learn about how humans relate to the ocean by moderating the Blue Mind: Your Brain on Ocean panel of scientists, futurists and communicators as part of the inaugural Bay Area Science Festival. We also explored how conservationists might be able to apply the insights of neuroscience, behavioral science, and psychology to improve conservation strategies and outcomes.

BLUEMiND Graphic from Inaugural Summit, June, 2011.

The panel line-up included marine biologist and research associate at the California Academy of Sciences, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, who also has an economics degree from Duke University, and hybrid and communications expert Sarah Kornfeld. “J.”, as Dr. Nichols likes to be called, and Sarah hosted a groundbreaking conference in June at the Academy of Sciences called BLUEMiND to explore the response of the human brain to the ocean. Read More »

Posted in Pacific, Seafood / Also tagged ecology, marine biology, neuroscience, ocean health | Comments are closed