Becca Franks, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Walter Sanchez-Suarez, and I argue against commercially farming octopus in Issues in Science and Technology. Image credit: ZZYW Studio.
High stakes on the high seas
High seas fisheries play a negligible role in addressing global food security
Authors: Laurenne Schiller, Megan Bailey, Jennifer Jacquet, and Enric Sala
Abstract
Recent international negotiations have highlighted the need to protect marine diversity on the high seas—the ocean area beyond national jurisdiction. However, restricting fishing access on the high seas raises many concerns, including how such restrictions would affect food security. We analyze high seas catches and trade data to determine the contribution of the high seas catch to global seafood production, the main species caught on the high seas, and the primary markets where these species are sold. By volume, the total catch from the high seas accounts for 4.2% of annual marine capture fisheries production and 2.4% of total seafood production, including freshwater fisheries and aquaculture. Thirty-nine fish and invertebrate species account for 99.5% of the high seas targeted catch, but only one species, Antarctic toothfish, is caught exclusively on the high seas. The remaining catch, which is caught both on the high seas and in national jurisdictions, is made up primarily of tunas, billfishes, small pelagic fishes, pelagic squids, toothfish, and krill. Most high seas species are destined for upscale food and supplement markets in developed, food-secure countries, such as Japan, the European Union, and the United States, suggesting that, in aggregate, high seas fisheries play a negligible role in ensuring global food security.
Read more here.
Watch over Antarctic waters
Commentary led by Cassandra Brooks, and also David Ainley, Peter Abrams, Paul Dayton, Robert Hofman, and Donald Siniff at Nature.
In a rapidly changing climate, fisheries in the Southern Ocean must be managed cautiously…
Read it here.
Defining denial and sentient seafood — a response to Sneddon et al.
Sneddon et al. address the scientists who reject the empirical evidence on fish sentience, calling them “sceptics” and their work “denial”. This is the first article to frame the question of fish sentience in these terms, and it provides an obvious opening for social science and humanities research in the science of fish sentience. It is also worth asking what practical changes in the lives of fish might arise from the mounting evidence of their sentience. I suggest that the relationship between sentience and our sense of moral obligation is not as clear as we often assume. Read the full response here.
Continue reading “Defining denial and sentient seafood — a response to Sneddon et al.”
Doom and gloom versus optimism: An assessment of ocean-related U.S. science journalism (2001-2015)
Article with Lisa Johns at Global Environmental Change.
While doom and gloom language was identified in 10% of all articles, optimistic language was present in 27%. Read the full article here.
Guilt and shame in U.S. climate change communication
Article at Oxford Research Encyclopedia.
Guilt has tended to align with the individualization of responsibility for climate change… Shame has been used…as a primary tactic against fossil fuel producers, peddlers of climate denial, and industry-backed politicians.
Read it here.
Potential ecological and social benefits of a moratorium on transshipment on the high seas
Why oysters, mussels and clams could hold the key to more ethical fish farming
To go with this scholarly co-authored article explaining why Bivalves Are Better, a popular piece at The Guardian about why bivalve farming is the future of ethical aquaculture.
Put an end to roadside zoos
Contrary to how it might feel, fondling dangerous animals only accentuates the divide between us and them. Haven’t we done enough to force that divide already? Read more at The Guardian.
The values behind calculating the value of trophy hunting
Response to Naidoo et al.’s article on “Complementary benefits of tourism and hunting to communal conservancies in Namibia” in Conservation Biology.
Conservation decisions are not and should not be driven by economic benefits alone.
Read it here.
Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge Prize Winner
2016 Pew marine research fellowship
It is rational to protect Antarctica
‘Rational use’ in Antarctic waters
On the persistent gray area between teaching and punishment
Response to Kline’s article How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior in humans and other animals in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
One of the challenges to an evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior will be to distinguish, if possible, between teaching… and punishment.
Read more here.
Ocean calamities: hyped litany or legitimate concern?
2015 Sloan research fellowship
Is Shame Necessary? New Uses for an Old Tool
The ideological divide and climate change opinion: “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches
The role of gender in scholarly authorship
A review of formal objections to Marine Stewardship Council fisheries certifications
Asymmetrical contributions to the tragedy of the commons
Trends, current understanding and future research priorities for artisanal coral reef fisheries research
Fish farms at sea: the ground truth from Google Earth
Shame and honor drive cooperation
Seafood stewardship in crisis
Scanning the oceans for solutions
Few data but many fish: marine small scale fisheries catches for Mozambique and Tanzania
Conserving wild fish in a sea of market-based efforts
Counting fish: a typology for fisheries catch data
What can conservationists learn from investor behavior?
How do we encourage personal savings and investment? Answers to this question, revealed through new analyses in experimental economics, provide insight into how to encourage collective savings and investment in our future through ecological conservation. There are three lessons to be learned.
Jacquet, J. (2009) What can conservationists learn from investor behavior? Conservation Biology 23(3): 518-519.
Silent water: a brief examination of the marine fisheries crisis
Trade secrets: renaming and mislabeling of seafood
Funding priorities: big barriers to small-scale fisheries
In hot soup: sharks captured in Ecuador’s waters
The rise of consumer awareness campaigns in an era of collapsing fisheries
