Developing scenarios — projections of the future — may help individuals, communities, corporations, and nations develop a capacity for dealing with the future. Scenarios are an important tool for proactively thinking about, and acting in a way that anticipates, things to come.
Meeting the Paris Agreement global warming target of 1.5°C will have large benefits to fisheries, finds a new Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program study published in Science. For every degree Celsius decrease in global warming, potential fish catches could increase by more than three million tonnes per year.
Fisheries Economics Research Unit (UBC) Research Associate Louise Teh, Nereus Director of Science William Cheung, and OceanCanada Director and Nereus Research Associate (Honourary) Rashid Sumaila recently had a paper (“Scenarios for investigating the future of Canada’s oceans and marine fisheries under environmental and socioeconomic change“) published in Regional Environmental Change, wherein they review existing methods of scenario analysis (preparing for future response based on multiple potential outcomes) in the marine conservation and fisheries sectors in Canada.
Dr. Elsie Sunderland of Harvard will present this third seminar in a series offered jointly by the Nereus Program and Green College at UBC. The seminar will take place at…
We know the oceans are quickly changing; we are at a point in time where very different future oceans could be laid out in front of us.
Nereus Program Alumnus Andrew Merrie, Stockholm Resilience Centre, is curious about how those futures might differ. Using an innovative method called science fiction prototyping, he’s devised a set of four radical futures for global oceans and fisheries. Two of the scenarios represent more utopian futures, the other two are more dystopian. They are written as speculative fiction in different, engaging narrative styles: a travel magazine article, an obituary, the transcript of a “TED”-like talk, and a series of recovered journal entries.
The Nereus Scientific & Technical Briefs on ABNJ series was developed out of a workshop held prior to this year’s 4th International Marine Conservation Congress in St. John’s, Newfoundland (July-August 2016). They were prepared for the second meeting of the BBNJ Preparatory Committee meeting, held from August 26 – September 9, at the UN. The PrepComm is developing an international legally binding instrument under the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. These policy briefs are meant to inform this process and different aspects of high seas conservation and use.
Nereus Alumni Thomas Fröelicher (ETH Zurich) has been invited to give a joint seminar at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Hungary, on June 8th. Abstract: Heat and…
Based on the current trajectory of human-induced impacts on the environment, it is clear that we are pushing the oceans and marine ecosystems to unprecedented limits. Environmental changes in ocean properties have led to an array of ecological responses, from shifts in the composition of the ocean’s phytoplankton to changing distributions of fish species.
Godzilla. Bruce Lee. The names for this year’s El Nino are growing, as are the fears that this might be the biggest one yet. But what is an El Nino and what effects do they have on oceans and fisheries?
Ryan Rykaczewski, Nereus Program alumni and assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, focuses his research on the responses of ecosystem and fisheries production to past and future climate variability and climate change and has published on the impacts of past El Ninos. Here he explains the basics of El Ninos and why this upcoming one could have destructive impacts on ocean ecosystems, fisheries, and fish and mammal species.
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.
