Impact of climate change on tropical fisheries would create ripples across the world
Tropical oceans and fisheries are threatened by climate change, generating impacts that will affect the sustainable development of both local economies and communities, and regions outside the tropics through ‘telecoupling’ of human-natural systems, such as seafood trade and distant-water fishing, says a scientific review from UBC and international researchers.
Seafood is the most highly traded food commodity globally, with tropical zone marine fisheries contributing more than 50 per cent of the global fish catch, an average of $USD 96 billion annually. Available scientific evidence consistently shows that tropical marine habitats, fish stocks and fisheries are most vulnerable to oceanic changes associated with climate change. However, the scientific review highlights that telecoupling, or linkages between distant human-natural systems, could generate cascades of climate change impacts from the tropics that propagate to other ‘extra-‘ tropical natural systems and human communities globally.
“Telecoupling interactions between two or more linked areas over distance between tropical fisheries and elsewhere include distant-water fishing, the international seafood supply chain, transboundary fisheries resources and their governance would allow benefits derived from tropical fisheries to transfer to the people in the extratropical regions,” said Vicky Lam, lead author and research associate in the UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “Although these linkages could enable the flow of benefits, including food, livelihoods and government revenue, from tropical fisheries to extratropical locations, their dependence on tropical fisheries also exposes them to the negative consequences of climate change in tropical regions. The effects of climate change on tropical fisheries also affect the profitability and employment opportunities of fish-processing industries in extratropical regions.”
Telecoupling linkages between tropical marine fisheries and extratropical regions. ©Lam et al, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
To reduce the effect of climate change on the benefits derived from tropical fisheries, both locally and in extra-tropical regions, the root causes of climate-driven problems in tropical fisheries need to be recognized and rectified. Effective and practical adaptation and mitigation solutions with stakeholder commitment and involvement, as well as supporting policies, are therefore necessary in the tropics.
Economic telecoupling of tropical fisheries. ©Lam et al, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
The article “Climate change, tropical fisheries and prospects for sustainable development” appeared in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.
Tags: climate change, CORU, fish, fish stocks, fisheries economics, food security, marine catches, Nereus Program, Pacific, Rashid Sumaila, Vicky Lam, William Cheung
Popular seafood species in sharp decline around the world
Octopus at a fish market in Indonesia.
© Deng Palomares/Sea Around Us
In the first study of its kind, researchers at UBC, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and the University of Western Australia assessed the biomass—the weight of a given population in the water—of more than 1,300 fish and invertebrate populations. They discovered global declines, some severe, of many popularly consumed species.
Of the populations analyzed, 82 per cent were found to be below levels that can produce maximum sustainable yields, due to being caught at rates exceeding what can be regrown. Of these, 87 populations were found to be in the “very bad” category, with biomass levels at less than 20 per cent of what is needed to maximize sustainable fishery catches. This also means that fishers are catching less and less fish and invertebrates over time, even if they fish longer and harder.
“This is the first-ever global study of long-term trends in the population biomass of exploited marine fish and invertebrates for all coastal areas on the planet,” said Maria “Deng” Palomares, lead author of the study and manager of the Sea Around Us initiative in UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “When we looked at how the populations of major species have been doing in the past 60 years, we discovered that, at present, most of their biomasses are well below the level that can produce optimal catches.”
To reach their findings, the researchers applied computer-intensive stock assessment methods known as CMSY and BSMY to the comprehensive catch data by marine ecosystem reconstructed by the Sea Around Us for the 1950-2014 period.
The greatest declines in stocks were found in the southern temperate and polar Indian Ocean and the southern polar Atlantic Ocean, where populations shrunk by well over 50 per cent since 1950.
While much of globe showed declining trends in fish and invertebrates, the analysis found a few exceptions. One of these was the Northern Pacific Ocean where population biomass increased by 800 per cent in its polar and subpolar zones, and by about 150 per cent in its temperate zone.
Despite these pockets of improvement, the overall picture remains cause for concern, according to co-author Daniel Pauly, principal investigator at Sea Around Us.
“Despite the exceptions, our findings support previous suggestions of systematic and widespread overfishing of the coastal and continental shelf waters in much of the world over the last 60-plus years,” said Pauly. “Thus, pathways for improvements in effective fisheries management are needed, and such measures should be driven not only by clearly set total allowable annual catch limits, but also by well-enforced and sizeable no-take marine protected areas to allow stocks to rebuild.”
“Fishery biomass trends of exploited fish populations in marine ecoregions, climatic zones and ocean basins” was published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.
Tags: Daniel Pauly, Deng Palomares, fish, fish stocks, fisheries management, fishing practices, Research, Sea Around Us, sustainability
IOF joins the Nippon Foundation’s Ocean Nexus Center
The Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia is excited to announce a research partnership with The Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center, a new interdisciplinary research group that studies changes, responses and solutions to societal issues that emerge in relationship with the oceans.
To date, researchers from 20 other universities from around the world, in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Malaysia, and more, have already signed on to new interdisciplinary projects with Ocean Nexus. Project topics will include ocean acidification adaptation, sustainable development of oceans, ocean sovereignty for island nations, and gender in ocean governance.
“This is an evolution of our longstanding relationship with the Nippon Foundation, and we are proud to be part of this research partnership,” said Dr. Evgeny Pakhomov, professor and Director of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “Ocean Nexus research at IOF will focus on marine pollution and ocean acidification, and on social and economic measures related to the ‘Blue Economy’.”
Researchers already know that environmental changes, such as pollution and ocean acidification, can cause health and economic impacts on communities. But scientists and decision-makers still do not have all of the information to implement solutions that take into account those most in need. The ‘Blue Economy’ or sustainable ocean economy, which seeks to harness rising interest in economic expansion in ocean sectors to ensure social equity and benefits come to those who need them most, and who live in coastal areas being developed.
Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor
“Ocean Nexus exists to bridge the gap between decision makers, policy makers and the communities most affected and dependent on the oceans,” said Yoshitaka Ota, the Center’s director and a research assistant professor in UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. “This is a chance to do something bold and really push the boundaries of understanding our relationship with oceans, and that’s what I’m excited to do.”
Based on the philosophy of passing on sustainable oceans to future generations, The Nippon Foundation of Tokyo has been working for over three decades with governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations and research institutions to foster 1,430 ocean professionals from 150 countries.
“The sustenance of humanity depends on our mother ocean,” said Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of The Nippon Foundation. “I am excited that the next generation of thought leaders will be emerging from this center to share their research findings to guide the world toward ocean sustainability.”
The central Ocean Nexus Center will be housed in University of Washington’s EarthLab, an institute established in 2015 to connect UW research with community partners to discover equitable solutions to our most complex environmental challenges.
For more information, contact Dr. Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor, a.cisneros [at] fisheries-2023.sites.olt.ubc.ca
Tags: Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor, Blue economy, Nereus Program, Nippon Foundation, Ocean Nexus, pollution
Recovery of sea otter populations yields more benefits than costs
New model puts dollar value on ecological transformations driven by otters
Photo: ©James Thompson
Since their reintroduction to the Pacific coast in the 1970s, the sea otters’ rapid recovery and voracious appetite for tasty shellfish such as urchins, clams and crabs has brought them into conflict with coastal communities and fishers, who rely on the same valuable fisheries for food and income.
But the long-term benefits of sea otter recovery – such as healthier kelp forests, higher fish catches, carbon storage and tourism – could be worth as much as $53 million per year, according to new UBC research. If well-managed, these economic benefits could offset commercial losses to shellfish fisheries of $7 million per year.
The study, published today in Science, is the first regional economic analysis of the costs and benefits of sea otter recovery along the west coast of Vancouver Island. Critically, it offers a new modeling framework to evaluate the significant long-term ecological changes driven by a top predator like the sea otter.
“Our work offers a glimpse into a future where otter populations have recovered to an estimated 5000 animals, and have fully reoccupied their historic range,” said lead author Edward Gregr, an adjunct professor at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC. “We found that coastal ecosystems with otters present are almost 40 per cent more productive. In the long run, that equates to higher fish catches worth $9 million, carbon storage worth $2 million and tourism opportunities worth $42 million per year.”
That’s because the hungry otters drive huge transformations to their local ecosystems: by keeping urchin populations in check, they allow kelp forests to recover. Healthy kelp forests, in turn, sequester carbon and support abundant marine life, from salmon and lingcod to seals and whales.
For the analysis, researchers integrated local ecological field studies with available economic data and a recent tourism study, and accounted for uncertainties in future values and potential interactions among the species in the coastal ecosystem.
“It’s clear that humanity must reverse the decline in biodiversity if we want to achieve a sustainable future,” said co-author Kai Chan, a professor at IRES and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC. “This study demonstrates that restoring key species to ecosystems can also have great benefits for people, and could serve as a useful framework for evaluating top predator recovery elsewhere.”
Photo ©James Thompson
For example, while commercial fishers are likely to adapt to fewer crabs in shallow waters by fishing in deeper waters, Indigenous or recreational harvesters with more restricted access may not be able to.
“Other costs and benefits – like food security, culture and tradition – are also considerable, but they are more difficult to value in dollars,” said Gregr. “Going forward, we want to scale the model down and incorporate such impacts at the local level.”
The researchers hope that quantifying the impacts of ecological transformations more broadly will help mitigate conflicts, promote public acceptance of ecosystem change and help identify opportunities for local communities.
“Sea otters co-existed with and were managed by the Indigenous Peoples of this region for millennia before they were hunted to near extinction by the maritime fur trade,” said Gregr. “Their recovery is a golden opportunity for the Government of Canada to reconcile coastal fisheries management with local communities and regional stakeholders to ensure strong, healthy coastal communities and thriving otter populations.”
“Cascading social-ecological costs and benefits triggered by a recovering keystone predator” was published in Science.
Tags: faculty, fisheries management, IRES, Kai Chan, ocean ecology, otters, Research, tourism
You are what you eat is as important for BC’s fish as it is for people – UBC study
There is truth in the saying “you are what you eat”; even more so if you are a salmon or herring swimming off the British Columbia coast, a recent UBC study discovered.
Zooplankton from the Strait of Georgia. ©Brian Hunt
A new study by scientists at the University of British Columbia, together with scientists from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, measured the biochemical properties of zooplankton in the Strait of Georgia, including essential fatty acids, specifically to answer questions around nutritional value of different zooplankton species, and its spatial and seasonal variability in British Columbia.
“We showed that seasonal changes in plankton food web pathways drive variability in plankton fatty acid composition,” said Dr. David Costalago, lead author of the study, and, at the time of the study, a MITACS-Pacific Salmon Foundation postdoctoral fellow with the Pelagic Ecosystems Lab at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “This seasonal shift conferred a higher nutritional value to zooplankton in the summer, indicating better quality prey for juvenile salmon and herring during this period. Essentially, juvenile salmon and herring out-migrating from the rivers into the Strait of Georgia late in the season may encounter better food than the bulk of migrants coming out to the ocean in the earlier May-June period.”
In addition to seasonal and spatial differences in zooplankton prey quality, this study found that there are huge differences in nutritional value among zooplankton species. From a juvenile salmon perspective, not all zooplankton are equal.
Salmon Seining at Quadra. ©Grant Callegari/Hakai Institute
The growth and survival of fish are conditioned by the nutritional quality of their food, and the fish that grow quickly during early life stages are more likely to reproduce. This study identified a need for better monitoring of nutrition in the ocean, and further research to understand the nutritional pathways that connect the base of the food-web to the rest of the ecosystem.
“By determining the availability of high-quality prey for these commercially important groups of fish we can improve estimates of herring and salmon productivity and help inform fisheries management of these species in the region,” said Costalago. “Routine surveying of the plankton throughout the Strait of Georgia, using the tools our study described, may be useful in assessing ecosystem health and guiding management of economically and ecologically important marine populations.”
The study Seasonal and spatial dynamics of the planktonic trophic biomarkers in the Strait of Georgia (northeast Pacific) and implications for fish” was published in Scientific Reports, and was part of research being undertaken within the Salish Sea Marine Survival Project.
Tags: Brian Hunt, British Columbia, David Costalago, faculty, food webs, herring, IOF postdoctoral fellows, Pelagic Ecosystems Lab, plankton, Research, salmon
Solidarity with all people protesting police violence in Canada and the US
Dear members of the IOF community,
The Institute for Oceans and Fisheries is proud to stand in solidarity with UBC’s Black Student Union and all people protesting police violence against Black people in Canada and the United States.
Systemic anti-Black racism is not limited to the United States, but also thrives in a Canadian context. Racism is a global issue and one that impacts all of our communities, including here in the IOF and at UBC as a whole. Black people in academia face many barriers that we as a community must actively confront, including lacking a sense of belonging, limited access to outdoor experiential education or field research, and microaggressions on campus.
We join UBC President Santa Ono in denouncing and condemning anti-Black racism, as well as all other forms of racism, including the ongoing oppression of Indigenous peoples, and the anti-Asian racism that has surged as a result of the COVID epidemic.
The IOF is committed to continuing the work we have begun to foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and wellness within and beyond our community. We commit to confronting racism in our classrooms, our hiring practices, our faculty meetings, our labs, our fieldwork, and in the communities in which we live and work.
We look forward to having each of you join us in this journey. If you are interested in helping to shape the directions we take moving forward as a department, please consider joining the IOF Equity, Inclusion and Wellness Committee by emailing Neil MacLean. Graduate students can join the IOF Student Society’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee by emailing Ron Togunov.
Sincerely,
Evgeny Pakhomov
Professor and Director, Institute for Oceans and Fisheries
With the ongoing climate of egregious acts against the Black community all over the United States and Canada, we would like to state that we stand firm, united, and with those indirectly and directly impacted by the recent violence against our communities.
We stand in solidarity with the families and friends of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and many more who were violently murdered by the police.
Despite these acts being clear attempts at further oppressing our community, as history has shown time and time again, the Black community will remain defiant, strong, resilient, ever-growing, and omnipotent. As a community, we will continue to fight until our plights are seen and our people have obtained the justice they deserve.
At this time, we ask you to take action by using your voices and platforms to raise awareness and consciousness on the systems put in place that do not act for us all. We ask that you continue to donate to key organizations that are helping people in our communities during this difficult time. And finally, we also ask that you continue to sign petitions that demand justice.
To our fellow brothers and sisters, remember to take care of yourselves and reach out to those around you. It is okay to disconnect and take some time to breathe. We are all grieving at this time. We are here for you as your community leaders and as your family. We, as a team, will continue to work for us all.
Many condolences and much more love,
The University of British Columbia’s Black Student Union
Tags: Black Lives Matter, Equity and Diversity, faculty, IOF announcement, IOF postdoctoral fellows, IOF Research Associates, IOF Student Society, IOF students