One way that illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fish catch is laundered into the seafood market is through transshipments at-sea. This practice, which often occurs on the high seas (the areas of ocean beyond national jurisdiction), allows vessels fishing illegally to evade most monitoring and enforcement measures, offload their cargo, and resume fishing without returning…

Jennifer Jacquet and Sunandan Chakraborty were selected as one of 16 Prize Winning teams in the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge, a USAID initiative that is being implemented in partnership with the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and TRAFFIC.

Five distinguished scientists and conservationists from Costa Rica, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the United States are the 2016 recipients of the Pew fellowship in marine conservation, including Jennifer Jacquet of NYU. The fellowships support research to improve ocean conservation and management. Read more.

We are dismayed that the international commission that oversees the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources has voted against establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) around Antarctica for the fifth consecutive time. These MPAs are designed to protect wildlife hotspots of world significance. Read more here.

The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CAMLR Convention) is the legal doctrine presiding over the exploitation of marine life in the Southern Ocean. At recent Commission (CCAMLR) meetings, some member states have interpreted the term ‘rational use’ in the Convention text as ‘the unrestricted right to fish’ and, most recently, the…

Two New York University faculty have been awarded fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: Michael Halassa, an assistant professor of psychiatry, neuroscience, and physiology at NYU Langone Neuroscience Institute, and Jennifer Jacquet, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies. Read more here.

An urgent, illuminating exploration of the social nature of shame, and of the ways in which it might be used, sparingly and pointedly, to promote political change and social reform. In cultures that champion the individual, guilt is advertised as the cornerstone of conscience. Yet while guilt holds individuals to personal standards, it proves impotent…

The United States wields disproportionate global influence in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and international climate policy. This makes it an especially important context in which to examine the interplay among social, psychological, and political factors in shaping attitudes and behaviors related to climate change. In this article, we review the emerging literature addressing the…

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) was created as a conservation tool – intended to provide “the best environmental choice in seafood” to consumers and to create positive incentives that would improve the status and management of fisheries. During its 15 years, the MSC, which has an annual budget of close to US$20 million, has attached…

In Garrett Hardin’s popular essay on “The Tragedy of the Commons”, he presents a model of a shared commons where herdsmen graze their cattle to illustrate the tension between group and self-interest that characterizes so many social dilemmas. However, Hardin is not explicit that consumption can actually vary widely among herdsman, although later, when discussing…

Artisanal coral reef fisheries provide food and employment to hundreds of millions of people in developing countries, making their sustainability a high priority. However, many of these fisheries are degraded and not yielding their maximum socioeconomic returns. We present a literature review that evaluates foci and trends in research effort on coral reef fisheries. We…

In the face of global overfishing of wild-caught seafood, ocean fish farming has augmented the supply of fresh fish to western markets and become one of the fastest growing global industries. Accurate reporting of quantities of wild-caught fish has been problematic and we questioned whether similar discrepancies in data exist in statistics for farmed fish…

Can the threat of being shamed or the prospect of being honoured lead to greater cooperation? We test this hypothesis with anonymous six-player public goods experiments, an experimental paradigm used to investigate problems related to overusing common resources. We instructed the players that the two individuals who were least generous after 10 rounds would be…

The fisheries data supplied to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) by national agencies have served as the primary tool for many global and regional studies. However, it is recognised that these data are incomplete and often underestimate actual catches, particularly for small-scale fisheries. This study reconstructed total marine fisheries catches…

Over the past decade conservation groups have put considerable effort into educating consumers and changing patterns of household consumption. Many groups aiming to reduce overfishing and encourage sustainable fishing practices have turned to new market-based tools, including consumer awareness campaigns and seafood certification schemes (e.g. the Marine Stewardship Council) that have been well received by…

Good decisions ideally require good data. Here, we present a straightforward typology for the broad classification of fisheries catch data. At each stage in the reporting chain, from fisher to national/international agencies, fisheries catches can be: known and reported; known and underreported; unknown and overreported; or unknown and underreported. Here, we consider largely the data…

This paper is an attempt to synthesize and briefly examine the causes of the marine fisheries crisis, and to speculate about future initiatives. Ultimately, the human appetite is at the root of the marine fisheries crisis. But religion, technology, population pressure, science and our economic systems have provided vehicles for human appetite and thus contributed…

As the global trade and market for seafood has grown, so have the twin problems of renaming and mislabeling. Resource scarcity, the potential for greater profits, and weak legislation have all encouraged incorrect labeling, the results of which include consumer losses, the subversion of eco-marketing, further degradation of fisheries resources, and even adverse effects on…

Since the mid-1990s there has been a concerted effort to encourage fisheries sustainability by targeting large-scale, high-catch fisheries and by raising consumer awareness. Because of the often slow pace of regulatory approaches, this voluntary, market-oriented effort has been structured so as to avoid government involvement. But have small- scale fisheries, our best option for sustainable…

Sharks never stop growing and neither does the Asian demand for sharkfin soup. Ecuador is one nation of many that feeds the demand for fins, and fishers there catch more than 40 different shark species. But shark catches have been considerably underreported worldwide. Until the 2005 update of fisheries data, the United Nations Food and…

The human appetite for seafood has intensified and so has overfishing and damage to marine ecosystems. Recently, the response to the fisheries crisis has included a considerable effort directed toward raising the seafood awareness of consumers in North America and Europe. The resulting campaigns aim to affect the seafood demand and to lead to a…