Through collaboration and action, US fisheries can be managed with methods to enhance climate resilience.
By Julia Mason and Sarah Weisberg
What will it take to create climate-resilient fisheries?
Fisheries scientists and managers across the US have been sensing a change in the air — and not just the highest temperatures ever recorded, although they probably contribute. There’s a growing sense of climate urgency in fishery management conversations and agendas.
At Capitol Hill Ocean Week, EDF discussed the intersections between ocean and climate – and the potential for change.
By Lucy Vogt, EDF Seafood Policy Intern
Last month, Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW) welcomed environmental businesses, leaders, and shakers — and one brand-new intern.
CHOW investigated the intersection between the ocean and the climate by facilitating conversations about ocean opportunities. Even though the ocean covers more than 70% of the earth, produces 50% of the oxygen we need and absorbs 25% of the carbon emissions we produce, it is often perceived solely as a victim of climate change. But this massive ecosystem holds a wealth of potential climate solutions, and CHOW conversations ranged from offshore wind to maritime shipping to partnerships with coastal communities.
Workshop participants watching the echosounder identify schools of pelagics. Photo credit Joe Warren.
By EDF’s Jose Ingles, Jimely Flores and Rod Fujita, and Joseph Warren, Stony Brook University
Small fish have a big role. Fisheries for sardine, herring and anchovy species collectively produce more yield than any other fisheries worldwide and account for about one-third of total global catches arriving in ports. These fisheries span the globe and are critical for supporting livelihoods, aquaculture, food security, ecotourism and terrestrial animal husbandry (many catches are used to make fishmeal and fish oil). Read More
Photo credit: Perry Institute for Marine Science
By Gemma Carroll, Jacob Eurich and Krista Sherman
Shervin Tate is a recreational fishing guide in The Bahamas, known locally as the Bonefish Specialist. He takes visiting anglers by boat to fish remote beaches and shallow water flats flanked by mangroves. The ultimate prize for his guests is landing and releasing a bonefish: pound for pound, one of the strongest sportfish in the world. Shervin assesses the conditions to select the perfect place to fish, then he and the angler scan the flats for where to target the next cast. Read More
Photo credit: Wahyu Mulyono/EDF
By Harlisa and Dustin Colson Leaning
In Lampung province, Indonesia, a few smartphones and three well-placed cameras are revolutionizing the way that small-scale fisheries are monitored. In a previous blog post, we introduced how smartphone-based catch reporting and the SmartPass camera system could have the potential to play a fundamental role in sustaining small-scale fisheries. A few years later, these two technologies have been implemented to generate reliable estimates of total effort and total catch in Lampung’s blue swimming crab fishery – metrics often hard to come by in a small-scale fishery characterized by limited resources and many fishers. Read More
By Ming Sun, Stony Brook University, and Adityo Setiawan, Environmental Defense Fund
From warming ocean waters to increased acidification and rising sea levels, it’s no wonder that fish are on the move to find suitable habitat! Climate change is creating dramatic shifts in species’ distributions and affecting their productivity. Fisheries managers who try to ensure sustainable fishing efforts find their jobs more difficult as fish are changing how and where they live. Now more than ever, managing mobile fish stocks is even more of a challenge. Read More
