Photo via: Wikimedia Commons

From Ellen’s Twitter stream recently:

“Have you heard of this documentary “End of the Line?” I just heard about it. If you care about the planet, please watch it.”

and again appealing to her fans to go out and watch the film:

“Get more info here: http://endoftheline.com RT @nevergiveup2010 Where can I find this documentary? Is it online?”

The film has even made it into the list of films Ellen loves. It’s great to see this film waking waves in popular culture in the USA while Rashid is currently attending a screening session in Malta. We continue to hope that this film will receive as much buzz in North America as it has enjoyed in Europe.

Photo by Grace Ong

Ahmed is one of several authors on the paper who collaborated to draw attention to some of the current issues in world fisheries. A recent article in The Gazette summarizes some of the key points of the Science paper, and its implication for fisheries governance in Newfoundland; especially for cod recovery.

Ahmed Khan is currently pursuing a PhD with Dr. Ratana Chenpagdee at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada.

Scientists have predicted: every second breath of humans depends on the oceans. So the oceans are central to our livelihoods and our survival on the planet.

For more information about this video with transcription, see the full post at sumprememastertv.com.

Eny describes the video, which she believes to be the only one documenting this particular fishery saying:

“[t]his video clip shows crew members of “Sumber Jaya”, a pair-boat purse seine (called “Slerek”), hauling sardine in the Bali Strait, Indonesia. The fishing activity occurred during the night of September 22, 2004, from about 7PM to 4:30AM. The fleet had 48 crew members, including the skipper/captain (who sat on the ‘high bench’). My two assistants and I were invited by the fleet owner to participate in the fishing activity as observers. We were on the ‘fish boat’ throughout the night. In this clip, my camera was pointing towards the ‘net boat’. Listen to the crew members sang – in a cappella – interlocking notes as they hauled the net.”

You can learn more about Eny Buchary and her PhD research work, of which this video is a part, by visiting her homepage. More about the fishery pictured in the clip above will appear in Eny’s PhD dissertation titled In search of viable policy options for responsible use of sardine resources in the Bali Strait, which she will defend in February of this year. The citation for her dissertation is:

Buchary, E. in press. In search of viable policy options for responsible use of sardine resources in the Bali Strait, Indonesia. PhD dissertation. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. 350p. Unpublished (to be defended in February 2010).

Dr. Huang’s research interests have focused on fisheries topics such as in her job market paper Measuring the Dynamic Efficiency Costs of Common Property Resource Exploitation:A Dynamic Discrete Choice Model of the Fishery as well as energy markets and other topics in economics.

You can learn a little more about Dr. Huang’s research interests, her publications, and contact information on her homepage at Duke University.

Welcome to the group Dr. Huang!

Photo by Eric Robinson

Abstract: Thirty years have passed since Munro published his 1979 work on the potential applications of game theory to fisheries. It is pertinent to ask now: has this potential been realized, and in what forms? This paper highlights progress in the field over the past three decades. We begin our review with the early two-player dynamic game-theoretic analyses. Next, we illustrate how coalition theory has been brought in over the past decade to allow the modeling of games with greater than two players, and how coalitional externalities, a major issue in international and shared fish stocks management, have been incorporated recently. Finally, we highlight new areas for game theory to come into its own in fisheries, which will most definitely include the potential for catch rights in international shared-stock fisheries, as well as ecosystem dynamics to be modeled in a game-theoretic context. As game theory can offer insights into the challenges of achieving cooperative fisheries management, we hope the next decade of fisheries economics research will include a bigger leap from academic game theory exercises to impacting policy decisions.

The paper is available on-line through science direct and will be published in volume 102 of Fisheries Research.

Key concepts excerpted from the video are:

“almost every subsidy is potentially harmful”

“Subsidies even contribute to widespread illegal fishing”

“there are still complex issues on the negotiating table and it is crucial these are resolved….and soon.”

See the Fisheries Subsidies blog for more discussion of the video.

Also see UNEP’s Economics and Trade Branch (ETB) for further information

Photo courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons

The harmful effects of subsidizing fishing fleets is most apparent in deep sea fisheries, such as for the orange roughy pictured above. Deep sea fishing is costly and, therefore, the profit margins are often quite narrow. In fact, if it weren’t for government subsidies, many instances of deep sea overfishing would cease because it would simply be unprofitable. As Natasha over at the Overmatter blog points out:

One of the many depressing things about overfishing is the extent to which taxpayers fund it through subsidies to the industry.

You can read more at the Overmatter blog where author Natasha Loder posts stories from her job at the Economist in London that don’t make it into the magazine.

Photo by Luke Redmond

Just weeks after preliminary results from the Global Ocean Economics project were made available on this site indicating that overfishing has exacerbated problems of undernourishment (PDF), this news from the UN food summit seems to highlight the importance of addressing the issue of overfishing around the globe. While the UN food agency calls for more funding of agriculture programs in developing countries, the International Fund for Agriculture Development’s president Kanyo Nwanze,  says:

“I think it is totally mistaken for us to expect that it is only through financial assistance from the developed world that the developing world is going to grow its own food and feed its own population.”

Indeed, under-nourishment is a global issue. Fisheries is one sector where we can begin to address the problem by investigating policies related to over-fishing in developed and developing countries.

Photo by Telstar Logistic

The central issue in this article is that of the fishmeal trade, where thousands of tonnes of fish are caught and fed to livestock each year. The authors suggest that the practice of using fish to feed livestock is undermining efforts to provide sufficient nourishment to humans. The authors point out that this may be especially true in places like Peru who produce nearly half the world’s fishmeal yet a quarter of Peruvian infants are classified as malnourished.

Propositions that consumers ‘vote-with-their-wallet’ may not practically hold up because, as the authors argue, consumer awareness campaigns often confuse shoppers. Furthermore, these campaigns can be undermined by aforementioned issues surrounding the fishmeal trade. The authors conclude that the conservation movement must emphasize strategies that bring together consumers, producers, and government initiatives.

See the Oryx journal to read the full article.