EDFish

Prioritizing Climate Resilience in United States Fisheries

By Reggie Paros / Published: February 23, 2023

The impacts of climate change are already apparent in U. S. offshore waters, creating challenges for fisheries, fishing communities and fisheries management. Examples of climate impacts are prevalent across all regions of the coastal U.S. As ocean temperatures warm, species distributions are shifting. For instance, market squid moving up the West Coast from Baja California to Oregon spurred a harvest boom in the Pacific Northwest. Species, including blue crabs and black sea bass, are shifting northward on the Atlantic coast. Read More »

Posted in Gulf of Mexico, Mid-Atlantic, New England, Policy, Seafood / Tagged Climate change, climate-resilient fisheries, fishery solutions center, Harvest Control Rules, US fisheries | 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.

Posted in International, Science/Research, Seafood / Tagged China, Crustacean, Crustacean Task Force, Fisheries, Indonesia, Philippines, United States | Comments are closed

Expert Q&A: What we need to know to ensure aquaculture in offshore US waters is done right

By EDF Oceans / Published: February 16, 2023

As global populations grow and fish populations shift or even shrink, one thing is clear: offshore aquaculture in the United States is a matter of when not if. But it’s also a matter of how. Because as demand for safe, delicious, low-carbon seafood grows, we must also ensure that offshore seafood farming in United States waters does not negatively impact marine ecosystems or wild capture fisheries. And according to a new report, Toward an environmentally responsible offshore aquaculture industry in the United States: Ecological risks, remedies, and knowledge gaps, building a robust regulatory framework to ensure that requires more studies and more data.

We talked to some of the report’s authors to better understand what we know, what we need to know, and where we go from here:

Posted in Seafood / Tagged Aquaculture, Blue Foods, Fisheries, gap analysis, Offshore Aquaculture, Seafood, sustainable fisheries, Sustainable Seafood, United States | Comments are closed

Building international collaboration in a remote world: Finding the resilience within to build resilience in crustacean fisheries

By EDF Oceans / Published: February 14, 2023

By Jeff Young, Kristin Kleisner and Yong Chen

As climate change and overfishing continue to impact coastal communities worldwide, crustacean fisheries provide an opportunity for hope. Crustacean fisheries, consisting of species such as crabs, shrimps, prawns and lobster, provide a critical source of food, jobs, and income for coastal communities worldwide. These species tend to reproduce quickly and therefore have traditionally been considered more resilient to overfishing, which has contributed to crustaceans representing an increasing share of the global catch in many parts of the world. With overfishing and climate change continuing to pose threats to fisheries worldwide, crustaceans provide a critical opportunity for diversification and greater stability in livelihoods, assuming they can be managed well. Read More »

Posted in International, Science/Research, Seafood / Tagged China, collaboration, Crustacean, Crustacean Task Force, Fisheries, Indonesia, learning network, Philippines, resilience, United States | Comments are closed

What the BBNJ negotiations could mean for the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’

By EDF Oceans / Published: January 9, 2023

By Vrinda Suresh, Julia Mason and Doug Rader

During the last two weeks of August 2022, delegates from across the globe gathered in New York City for the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Conference, or IGC5, to develop a new treaty to protect biodiversity in offshore waters, called the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, or BBNJ Agreement. The BBNJ Agreement specifically addresses high seas waters, which include all areas more than 200 nautical miles from coastlines and fall outside the management authority of individual countries. The high seas make up nearly 60% of Earth’s oceans. Read More »

Posted in International, Policy / Tagged Climate change, Fishery Management, twilight zone | Comments are closed

Looking to the oceans for answers to the climate crisis

By EDF Oceans / Published: November 11, 2022

Three new reports examine the potential of blue carbon pathways to act as natural climate solutions.

By Kristin Kleisner, Monica Moritsch and Jamie Collins

Posted in International, Science/Research / Tagged Blue Carbon, Climate change, climate-resilient fisheries, collaboration, Conservation, Domestic, Marine Protection, Oceans, sustainability, technology | Comments are closed