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The Nippon Foundation - University of British ColumbiaNEREUS PROGRAMPredicting Future Oceans

Wilf Swartz

Global Fishing Watch Research Workshop with Google Earth Outreach

| Latest News

The Nereus Program presented at a Global Fishing Watch Research Workshop on June 6th and 7th at Google’s offices in San Francisco, California, United States.

Global Fishing Watch is a technology-based partnership that started between digital mapping non-profit SkyTruth, oceans advocacy foundation Oceana, and Google’s Google Earth Outreach program, “designed to show all of the trackable fishing activity in the ocean” via an interactive web tool. With the goal of combating fisheries decline, the project will “reveal the intensity of fishing effort around the world” and help citizens hold world leaders accountable for the maintenance of an abundant ocean.

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7th World Fisheries Congress in Busan, Korea

The Nereus Program is participating in the 7th World Fisheries Congress in Busan, South Korea, including organizing the session “Future of marine fisheries under climate change: Exploring uncertainties, future scenarios…

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Fish of the day: Why does seafood seasonality matter?

| Policy Forum, Fisheries, Economics

By Wilf Swartz, Nereus Program Manager/Research Associate

Japanese call it shun (旬), the seasonality of food. It refers to the time of year when a specific type of food is at its peak, either in terms of harvest or flavour. It is not unique to Japanese culture, as The Byrds reminded us in the mid-1960s with their, now classic, rendition of “Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season).”

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Ask an Expert: Why is the global fishing industry given $35 billion in subsidies each year?

| Policy Forum, Fisheries, Economics

OceanCanada Research Director Rashid Sumaila and his collaborators from the UBC Global Fisheries Cluster (Sea Around Us and the Nereus Program) have published an updated estimate of global fisheries subsidies in the international journal Marine Policy. The researchers found that the global fishing industry is being supported by $35 billion yearly in government subsidies, the majority of these, upwards of $20 billion annually, promote increased capacity that can lead to harmful impacts such as overfishing.

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Climate change effects on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

| Latest News

A range of human pressures is threatening the sustainability of marine fisheries. Amongst those, overfishing, partly driven by Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, is a major stressor. Thirty percent of global fish catch goes unreported, found a recent study by Nereus Program collaborator Sea Around Us.

But the relationship between IUU fishing and climate change is a new topic. I speculate that climate change impacts on fisheries may indirectly increase IUU fishing.

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The status and future of bluefin tunas in our global ocean: The Bluefin Futures Symposium

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by Guillermo Ortuño Crespo

For three days from January 18th to 20th, Monterey, California, has become an aggregation hotspot for more than 100 of the world’s foremost experts on the conservation and management of the three bluefin tuna species that inhabit our global ocean. The Bluefin Futures Symposium represents the first-ever international gathering of leading science, policy, industry and conservation leaders to address the current stock status, research efforts and management uncertainties, topics which hold the key to ensuring the future sustainability of harvesting these ocean predators.

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Bluefin Futures Symposium

Nereus Director (Policy) Yoshitaka Ota, Program Manager/Research Associate Wilf Swartz, and Alumnus Andre Boustany will attend the Bluefin Futures Symposium in Monterey, California. Boustany will present on “Migration Patterns and…

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Ask an Expert: What impacts will the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have on the trade of fish and seafood?

| Policy Forum, Fisheries, Economics

On October 5th, twelve countries reached an agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would create the world’s largest free-trade zone. The countries involved — Canada, Japan, the USA, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Mexico, Vietnam, Australia, Peru and Malaysia — represent 40 percent of the world’s economy. The TPP would see tariffs on fish and seafood being eliminated, allowing for potentially more exports and imports between partnering countries, and new environmental and labour standards put in place.

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From ocean to consumer: Wilf Swartz on public awareness and transparency down the supply chain

| Policy Forum, Fisheries, Economics

When you find a fish at a decent price, there’s more than meets the eye. Behind that price tag lies a whole supply chain that remains untraceable and unseen to the average consumer, which can create the illusion of sustainable practices.

Wilf Swartz, Research Associate with the Nereus Program, is calling for a more transparent system— as well as increased public awareness and corporate social responsibility surrounding sustainability.

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THE NEREUS PROGRAM

The Nereus Program strives to explore a broad range of perspectives and scientific opinions on ocean sustainability, and to create an inclusive community of researchers and other marine professionals. This principle is founded on the Nippon Foundation’s vision of global capacity building to ensure that our oceans’ legacy is preserved and potential is protected for future generations.

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