EDFish

Selected tag(s): Climate change

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 / Also tagged Antarctic, Blue Carbon, 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 / Also tagged 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

Blue carbon: A better tomorrow begins below

By EDF Oceans / Published: April 5, 2022

By: Kristin M. Kleisner and Jamie Collins

As we embark this year on the United Nations Ocean Decade, you may be hearing quite a bit about blue carbon. But what is it, and why is it so important for the future of our planet? Well, the oceans play a critical role in trapping carbon, and they have absorbed about a third of all human-generated carbon emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution. This is important because the carbon that human activity has released into the atmosphere acts as an accelerator of climate change.

When carbon is stored naturally in the various parts of ocean and coastal ecosystems — sequestering it, or taking it out of the atmosphere, where it could contribute to warming — we call it blue carbon. The blue carbon storage reservoir includes waters, sediments, and marine plants and animals. Unfortunately, loss of habitat, overfishing and other human impacts, including those from climate change, are reducing the ability of the oceans to trap carbon. That’s why we are exploring pathways to restore these benefits now and help to secure a better future for us all. You can learn more about blue carbon and some of the ways in which we may be able to restore key pathways using this interactive site. Read More »

Posted in Science/Research / Also tagged biodiversity, Blue Carbon, carbon, carbon sequestration, Coastal Communities, coasts, Ecosystems, emissions, Food Security, mangroves, mesopelagic fish, Natural Climate Solutions, Oceans, Overfishing, restoration, salt marshes, seaweed, seaweed farms, seaweed forests, Whales | Comments are closed

Women fishers are vital to the livelihoods, food security, health and culture of billions worldwide

By EDF Oceans / Published: March 8, 2022

By Karly Kelso, Director of Climate Resilient Food Systems at EDF, and Michelle Tigchelaar, Research Scientist at Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions

Three billion people depend on our oceans, rivers and lakes for nutritious blue foods. By 2050, our global population is expected to reach 10 billion and global demand for blue foods is expected to roughly double. Blue foods, including fish, shellfish and seaweeds, provide vital nutrients like protein, zinc, vitamin A and omega-3 fatty acids — nutrients important for all sexes and ages but especially for young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. We must ensure that blue food systems are environmentally sustainable in a changing climate, that they can continue to nourish our global population, and that they contribute to thriving coastal communities and gender equality. Read More »

Posted in Global Fisheries, Policy / Also tagged Aquaculture, Aquatic Foods, blue economy, Blue Food Assessment, Blue Foods, Fisheries, Food Systems, gender equity, International Women's Day, International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, IYAFA, U.N. Food Systems Summit, women in fisheries | Comments are closed

Indonesia-Philippines learning exchange: International collaboration for fisheries management

By Edwina Garchitorena / Published: December 17, 2021

Effective fisheries management is critical to food security, livelihoods for millions of people and vibrant marine life and biodiversity. By empowering communities to sustainably manage marine resources, we can build resilience to climate change, secure healthy oceans and better protect communities that are vulnerable to extreme weather events. This is especially true in the Philippines, where science-based and participatory fisheries management is still in its infancy. Read More »

Posted in International, Policy / Also tagged blue swimming crab, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Dinagat Sound, EDF Indonesia, EDF Philippines, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Defense Fund Oceans, extreme weather, Fisheries, Fisheries Management, Fisheries Management Area, FMA 8, Food Security, Indonesia, Lampung, Leyte Gulf, multispecies fishery management, Oceans, Philippines, storm surge, Surigao Strait, typhoons, West Java, women in fisheries | Comments are closed

Natural climate solutions cut a steady course through a sea of proposals for ocean carbon dioxide reduction

By Jamie Collins / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: December 8, 2021

When it comes to slowing the warming of our planet, there is no substitute for immediate, dramatic reductions in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. But emissions reductions alone won’t be enough to limit warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal at the heart of the 2015 Paris Agreement, or even to the Agreement’s upper limit of 2 degrees Celsius. In fact, we’ll almost certainly need to complement emissions reductions with big investments in carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, to capture and lock away some of the carbon dioxide we’ve already emitted.

Posted in International, Science/Research / Also tagged Blue Carbon, carbon, carbon credits, carbon dioxide removal, carbon sequestration, coastal ecosystems, coasts, Engineering and Medicine, geoengineering, greenhouse gases, mangroves, mesopelagic fish, National Academy of Sciences, Natural Climate Solutions, Oceans, salt marshes, twilight zone, whales seaweed | Comments are closed