EDFish

To solve our food problems, we must look to the oceans

By EDF Oceans / Published: July 12, 2022

By Christopher Free and Willow Battista

Earlier this spring, 1.5 million livestock died in the Horn of Africa. The immediate culprit was a severe, prolonged drought spurred by the growing effects of climate change. It’s a sign of weakening food systems in a warming world. But while land-based food systems are carbon-intensive and increasingly unstable, research shows aquatic food presents real, tangible opportunities to feed more people with fewer climate impacts and a clear message: to solve our food problems, we must look to the oceans. Read More »

Posted in International, Science/Research / Tagged Aquaculture, Blue Foods, Climate change, Environmental Defense Fund, Fisheries, Food Systems, Lobster, mariculture, Oceans, Seafood, sustainable fisheries, tropical fisheries, UC Santa Barbara Bren School | Comments are closed

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 / 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 conservation, ocean temperature, Oceans, Puerto Rico, sharks, small-scale fisheries, stock distributions, sustainability, tropical islands, UN | Comments are closed

Supporting climate-resilient fisheries during the UN Decade of Ocean Science

By EDF Oceans / Published: June 21, 2022

By EDF’s Jacob Eurich and Kristin Kleisner, and Kathy Mills, Gulf of Maine Research Institute

Fisheries, including the systems for harvesting, processing and marketing blue foods, are an important pillar of many economies, supporting hundreds of millions of livelihoods. Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture produce more than half of the global fish catch and two-thirds of all the blue foods we eat. Climate change continues to threaten fisheries, altering ocean ecosystems and transforming fish stocks, with climate-induced losses disproportionately impacting the regions and people most dependent on fish for protein and micronutrients—predominantly small-scale fishers in developing, small-island nations in the tropics. Read More »

Posted in International, Science/Research / Tagged Climate change, climate-resilient fisheries, equity, fish stocks, Fisheries, Fisheries Management, Food Security, ocean ecosystems, ocean science, Oceans, Sustainable development goals, tropics, UN Ocean Decade | Comments are closed

Leadership in focus — building to a more sustainable future for small-scale fisheries

By EDF Oceans / Published: June 7, 2022

By Bavidra Mohan, Director of Acumen Academy, and Jeff Young, Senior Manager, Global Capacity Development, Environmental Defense Fund

The small-scale fisheries sector is a powerful example of our interconnectedness. Small-scale fisheries employ 90% of all fishworkers globally, supplying nearly half of the world’s fish catch each year. In addition to feeding coastal communities, seafood harvested by small-scale fishers ends up on the plates of consumers from Bogotá to Beijing. Read More »

Posted in International, Policy, Science/Research / Tagged Acumen Academy, Chile, COVID, COVID-19, Fisheries, fishing communities, Food Security, International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, IYAFA, Mexico, Overfishing, Philippines, resilience, Seafood, small-scale fisheries, sustainable fishing, World Ocean Day | Comments are closed

The oceans’ twilight zone? More important than you can imagine!

By EDF Oceans / Published: May 31, 2022

By Douglas Rader, Jamie Collins and Edith Widder, CEO & Senior Scientist, Ocean Research & Conservation Association

People of a certain age will recall being mesmerized—perhaps terrified!—by a television series called “The Twilight Zone,” which ran 156 episodes from 1959 to 1964. The show, which focused on people’s experiences at the edge of reality, is among the best loved and highest rated television productions of all time. Today, the edge of the unknown exists closer than you many think—in the sea, at the wonderful and strange, just-dark middle depths, where light fades and strange creatures lurk. Read More »

Posted in International, Policy, Science/Research / Tagged Antarctic, Blue Carbon, Climate change, Fisheries, krill, mesopelagic fish, Oceans, Seafood, squid, swordfish, tuna, twilight zone | Comments are closed

Climate change is causing fishery problems, but we can solve them

By EDF Oceans / Published: April 21, 2022

By Eric Schwaab, Rod Fujita and Jacqui Vogel

Climate change is already transforming the distribution and abundance of fish stocks around the world. Warming temperatures, lower pH levels and many other factors are causing many fish species to shift to better habitats and others to shrink in abundance. This is problematic for the communities that rely on these stocks, especially when the shifts cross jurisdictional boundaries, such as those between fishery management zones or national exclusive economic zones, known as EEZs.

Climate-induced stock shifts are causing more overfishing, illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, discarding, higher fuel use, injustice and even armed conflict. Unless fishery management and fisheries become more adaptive and resilient to climate change, these problems will only worsen, but it’s not too late for solutions like flexible allocation systems, dynamic spatial management, ocean observing systems and international collaboration. Read More »

Posted in International, Policy / Tagged Climate change, climate-resilient fisheries, dynamic spatial management, EEZs, exclusive economic zones, Fisheries, Fishery Management, Food Security, injustice, international collaboration, IUU Fishing, Marine Protected Areas, ocean health, Overfishing, SAPO, stock shifts, sustainability | Comments are closed