Climate change and human activity have pressing impacts on the state of our ocean, threatening the integrity of marine ecosystems themselves as well as the services they provide to human communities. Given the inevitable current and future effects of climate change, adaptation by both physical and human systems is crucial.
A new paper, ‘A rapid assessment of co-benefits and trade-offs among Sustainable Development Goals‘, has been published in Marine Policy and includes contributions from various Nereus affiliates. This study highlights how achieving SDG 14: Life Below Water targets contributes to the accomplishment of other SDGs
Seafood is one of the highest valued food items traded among countries around the world. Seafood exceeds the trade value of sugar, maize, coffee, rice and cocoa combined. But where is this seafood going and who is most benefiting?
The main focus of the 2017 symposium was small pelagic fisheries, which includes species such as herring, capelin, anchovy, sardine, and mackerel. Small pelagic fisheries provide about 25% of the world catch and are important for the socio-economic well-being of many coastal societies. The symposium sessions contributed to the goal of revitalizing international cooperation to develop frameworks addressing issues such as the impacts of climate and fishing pressure on small pelagic populations.
Nereus Fellow Rebecca Asch will be attending this symposium, which has the goal of revitalizing nternational cooperation on investigations of small pelagic fishes, and developing a framework to address unresolved questions, such as the impact of climate and fishing pressure on the resilience of small pelagic populations.
This paper proposes that climate change will alter the effects of pollutants in marine food webs by either directly increasing contaminant exposure (for instance due to receding ice caps), or making organisms more vulnerable to other climate change impacts. It discusses two main classes of contaminants that can affect the health of marine organisms: fat-soluble contaminants known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and protein-binding contaminants such as methylmercury (MeHg).
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.
This year, the Nereus Program will hold a seminar series with UBC’s Green College on “Adapting to global changes in oceans and fisheries.” This series will consist of seven lectures looking at how ocean changes are affecting environments and people. The first three Fall seminars are listed below, four more will be announced soon. The seminars are all open to the public free of charge and will be held at UBC, at 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Nereus Program research featured in Global News, CBC Radio Canada, Metro News, and CKNW AM 980.
Global fisheries could lose approximately $10 billion of annual revenues by 2050 if climate change continues at current rates, and countries most dependent on fisheries for food and livelihoods will feel more of the effects, finds new Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program research published today in Scientific Reports.
