15. Fisheries on the brink background and issues

Resources for discussion next time

NGOs

World Wildlife Fund

Environmental Defense Fund

Oceana

In the media

Chinese Overfishing Highlights Environmental Crisis in the Taiwan Strait, massive numbers of fishing boats near Matsu are only the tip of the iceberg.

China’s Appetite Pushes Fisheries to the Brink (NY Times), the deplete of tuna.

Overfishing driving dozens of species into extinction threatening African food crisis, warn experts (The Independent)

Taking the Oceans’ Temperature, Scientists Find Unexpected Heat (NY Times), it’s not just fishing.

Science resources

Tuna and swordfish catch in the U.S. northwest Atlantic longline fishery in relation to mesoscale eddies, the long-line fishing data set

Data Descriptor: A database of global marine commercial, small-scale, illegal and unreported fisheries catch 1950–2014, trends in catch

Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining, declining catch.

Over 90 endangered fish and invertebrates are caught in industrial fisheries

ICCAT Must Commit to Rebuilding Stocks and Enacting Fisheries Reforms (PEW trust), A call for action on fisheries reform.

NOAA’s endangered species list

Objectives

• Introduce background issues on declining fish populations globally

• Gain an exposure to the types of data being evaluated and what they show

Today

In groups, skim the background readings for next class and complete the following:

1. Select a discussion leader.

2. All group members will read two of the three media articles and two of the four science articles. Divide this up to insure that you have all articles covered. Consider also consulting NGO sites.

For next class

Each group member will prepare a brief summary of their two science papers that states at least the following, the question being addressed, the main result of the study, and your critique. You will have about 2 paragraphs per paper.

Place an outline of the additional info that you will cover in the brief presentataion on sakai. This will consist of several bullets with links to references.

The discussion that follows will touch on at least the following questions:

1. Where are the threats and why they are occurring?

2. How good are the data? Are there big holes in our understanding?

3. How might the interaction between fishing and other variables, such as temperature change, affect the results?

4. What are some of the ways to mitigate the problem of overfishing?