EDFish

Deepening scientific understanding and international collaboration to enhance climate resilience

With a record drought depleting rivers and reservoirs, wildfires burning across the Western U.S., historic floods in Germany and China, landslides in Japan, and my own notoriously wet and dreary hometown of Portland, Oregon hitting 115 degrees recently, it’s hard to avoid thinking about climate change. But while the terrestrial impacts are wide-ranging and obvious, impacts to our oceans — no less disruptive — are generally less visible. Yet, healthy oceans are critical for sustainable fisheries and other vital ecosystem services. Fisheries provide jobs for hundreds of millions of people globally, and billions rely on seafood as an important source of protein and micronutrients.

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Engaging Small-Scale Fishers in the U.N. Food Systems Summit

For nearly a decade, I’ve worked on sustainable fisheries management, traveling to small-scale fishing communities around the world to learn how best to build the capacity of local fishers, scientists and managers to ensure the sustainability of their fisheries. From Mexico to Myanmar, I’ve worked with communities to help them reach their goals so they are not catching too many fish and helping them select gears and fishing areas to ensure their fisheries aren’t damaging key habitats. Read More »

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Celebrating Fishermen’s Day in Peru: a tribute to traditional sailing on the high seas

By Nina Pardo and Hector Soldi

On June 4, a small but mighty fleet of artisanal sailboats from the fishing communities of Cabo Blanco and El Ñuro in northern Peru unfolded their sails and went out to sea — sailing alongside the Peruvian Navy’s sailing vessel La Unión. This annual regatta is a salute to the artisanal fishing fleet of Peru, which uses only the wind in their sails and their ancient traditions of navigation to fish a variety of important species for local seafood markets and restaurants. Read More »

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Finding the ways that work: tech for climate-resilient fisheries

By Chris Cusack and Melissa Mahoney 

It doesn’t take too much scrolling these days to see that our oceans — and our entire natural world — are in peril. Overfishing, habitat destruction, plastic pollution and warming temperatures are BIG challenges. And yet, they all have something in common: they can all be improved by sustainable, responsible use of emerging technologies. Read More »

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How a community-based fishery program is bringing sustainability to Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California

By Alexia Juárez, catch monitor, Golfo de Santa Clara, Mexico

For me, the ocean means hope. As a child, one of the things I enjoyed most was going with my grandfather to seafood processing plants where I would watch many women working. I also cherish the image of going out to sea with my father and coming home with the panga (skiff) full of fish that we would later clean and sell as a family. In other words, the ocean has given us everything: wealth, belonging and spiritual strength. Today, I am a mother of two small children, and I feel the need to give back to the ocean so that my children can continue to live from it in a dignified way. I also want to teach them to love and respect the sea and all the life that lives within it.

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Fisheries resilience in the Humboldt Current: one step closer to achieving sustainability

Credit: EDF/H.Plenge

By Cayetana Aljovín and Erica Cunningham

Evidence abounds showing that our world — and especially our seas — are changing. This is particularly notable in the Humboldt Current Large Marine Ecosystem, where we have seen changes in the distribution of fish stocks, temperature anomalies, wave surges, harmful algal blooms and much more. Yet, the Humboldt Current continues to be a source of fisheries productivity, livelihoods, economic development and food security for the two most important fishing nations in South America: Peru and Chile. The Humboldt Current unites these two countries, which is especially important as climate change impacts require a united front to combat them and a new way to manage fisheries.

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