You’ve seen the headlines – tuna is in trouble. “Bleak outlook for sushi favourite as bluefin tuna levels drop 97 per cent,” writes the Telegraph. CBS News says: “Sushi eaters pushing Pacific bluefin tuna to brink of extinction”. Does this mean that you should be putting down those tuna sandwiches and spicy tuna rolls? Not necessarily.
The Nereus Program facilitated a side event on February 16 entitled: “Co-Benefits of Achieving SDG Goal 14 to Wider SDGs: Prioritizing Action Given Climate Change and Social Inequity”. The theme of the event was implications of changing oceans on the advancement of SDG’s, with an emphasis on the co-benefits of achieving ocean targets on other environmental, economic, and social equity goals.
Variations in climate lead to fluctuations and changes in fish stocks; they can have effects on such things as fish behaviour, distributions and growth. Because of this, fisheries management has to respond dynamically to these fluctuations. If management decisions are made primarily on past patterns, the negative impacts can be exacerbated, especially with climate change.
West Africa may be one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change. The region is highly dependent on fisheries for livelihoods and as an important food source. The marine resources of West Africa are currently threatened by overfishing and climate change-induced ocean warming could see fish stocks migrate away from the area and into cooler waters. If CO2 emissions continue at their current levels, the region could see a 50% decline in fisheries-related jobs and a total annual loss of US$311 million, found a study by Nereus Program researchers.
Nereus Senior Research Fellow Daniel Dunn (Duke) hosted a workshop on global migratory connectivity with the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI) and the International Climate Initiative (IKI) February 15 to 17 at Duke University, North Carolina.
Nereus Program Principal Investigator Alex Oude Elferiink (Utrecht), Principal Investigator Erik Molenaar (Utrecht), and Fellow Richard Caddell (Utrecht) co-facilitated the workshop “Strengthening International Fisheries Law in an Era of Changing Oceans” on February 7 and 8. The event was hosted by the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS) and the Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law (UCWOSL), Utrecht University.
Nereus Senior Research Fellow Daniel Dunn (Duke) and Fellow Guillermo Ortuño Crespo (Duke) attended the “Workshop to Share Experience of Support to Small-Scale Fisheries” February 7 to 8 at Duke University.
Jessica Spijkers, Nereus Fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, attended a workshop on the Fundamentals of Structural Equation Modelling at the University of Melbourne from January 30 to February 3. The workshop, organized by the Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research, provided an overview of structural equation modelling (SEM) and its many applications and capabilities.
Nereus Program studies and researchers featured in Newsweek, The Conversation, Vice, and The Circle.
The Nereus Program and Green College jointly hosted its first public seminar of the year on January 19 on the topic of indigenous fisheries. Two Nereus UBC affiliates, Yoshitaka Ota (Director of Policy) and Suzanne von der Porten (Research Associate), and guest Marjo Vierros (United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies) each gave a presentation on their research on indigenous fisheries use and challenges of implementing effective policy on domestic and international scales.
