EDFish

Seaweed to Slow Down Climate Change: Ready? Or Not?

By Rod Fujita / Bio / Published: August 15, 2023

Seaweed is a hot solution for mitigating climate change. Can this carbon-absorbing powerhouse really help?

Seaweed is having a moment. I’ve been working on seaweed for 40 years, and I’ve never seen so many headlines about how seaweed can save the planet.

I can understand why. The need to save the planet is more pressing than ever. We must now dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and, at the same time, increase the planet’s capacity to remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere to prevent even more catastrophic impacts of global warming.

Also posted in Seafood / Tagged Aquaculture, Blue Carbon, carbon, climate, Climate change, research, science, seaweed, seaweed farming, sustainability | Comments are closed

UN Food Systems Summit: Why we need more ambition and more action

By EDF Oceans / Published: August 3, 2023

Jose Luis Chicoma reflects on what needs to happen to create a sustainable food system.

By Jose Luis Chicoma and Karly Kelso

Last week, global leaders gathered in Rome for the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) +2 Stocktaking Moment, a follow-up event to evaluate commitments to transforming their food systems and progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) made in 2021. In short, it was a time to gather and take stock of where we are – and where we should go next.

How did it shape up?

In this interview, Jose Luis Chicoma, former Peru Minister of Production, Yale World Fellow and Senior Advisor to EDF Climate-Resilient Food Systems, who was present in Rome, shares personal reflections and his insights, concerns and hopes for the future. Food systems and ocean health go hand in hand, and reflections on aquatic blue food in concert with terrestrial food systems are key.

Also posted in Climate and Fisheries Series, International, Policy, Seafood / Tagged Aquaculture, Climate change, climate-resilient fisheries, Fisheries, Fisheries Management, food, Food Security, Food Systems, Seafood, sustainability, Sustainable Seafood, UN Food Systems Summit | Comments are closed

Using sound to improve fishery management study sardines in the Philippines

By EDF Oceans / Published: June 8, 2023

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 »

Also posted in International / Tagged acoustic, climate-resilient fisheries, data, Fisheries, Fisheries Management, Fishery Management, Philippines, research, Sardines, Seafood, sustainable fisheries | Comments are closed

Working with partners to evaluate the potential of blue foods in climate adaptation and mitigation strategies

By Karly Kelso / Bio / Published: May 25, 2023

Fresh seafood at the market in the City of Tacloban, Eastern Visayas region. Photo credit Marcial Bolen.

Over the last couple of years, EDF has actively worked to raise the contributions of aquatic foods in transforming food systems and making progress on 9 of the 17 the Sustainable Development Goals—global goals established under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a universal call to action to end poverty, to protect the planet, and to ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

Also posted in International / Tagged blue food, Blue Food Assessment, Care USA, Climate change, climate-resilient fisheries, collaboration, Stanford, Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions, Stockholm Resilience Centre, World Fish | Comments are closed

SmartPass and Smartphones: An Innovative Approach to Small-Scale Fisheries Monitoring in Lampung Province, Indonesia

By EDF Oceans / Published: April 13, 2023

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 »

Also posted in International, Policy, Seafood / Tagged blue swimming crab, climate resilience, Indonesia, Lampung, small-scale fishery, SmartPass | Comments are closed

Finding the lowest-hanging fruits to improve crustacean fisheries with limited data and capacity

By EDF Oceans / Published: February 21, 2023

By Nathan Willse, Stony Brook University, and Harlisa Harlisa, Environmental Defense Fund

Crustacean fisheries offer enormous opportunities as high-value and potentially resilient alternatives to over-exploited finfish stocks. However, rising global demand for crustacean products and rapid environmental change call for an increased focus on the sustainable management of crustacean stocks. While landings, the catch received from a harvester, of crustaceans are on the rise globally as traditional finfish landings are declining, effective fishery management is hampered in many geographies by limited data availability and capacity for data collection and processing.

Also posted in International, Seafood / Tagged China, Crustacean, Crustacean Task Force, Fisheries, Indonesia, Philippines, United States | Comments are closed