Impacts | Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries

The impacts of the Institute’s research on aquatic issues extend far beyond our academic home at UBC. Our research has influenced public policy concerning the management of fisheries, the establishment of marine protected areas, industrial fishing practices, and the economic structure of fisheries. We also undertake a wide variety of educational and public outreach initiatives within Canada and beyond.

UBC Blue Whale Project

Researchers from UBC’s Marine Mammal Research Unit and partners led the university’s Blue Whale Project, a national effort to locate and articulate a 25-metre blue whale skeleton for display in the glass atrium of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. It is the largest skeleton ever suspended without external reinforcement and is a centrepiece of UBC’s biodiversity collection.

Ecopath with Ecosim

Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE), a free ecological modeling software suite, has been used and improved for over 30 years. It is the first ecosystem-level simulation software to be widely and freely accessible, and its applications are widespread throughout the world. Ecopath was devised by Jeff Polovina for NOAA, while Ecosim and Ecospace were developed by Carl Walters and Villy Christensen at the UBC Fisheries Centre (the antecedent of IOF). Important and innovative applications of EwE have also been pioneered by the Policy and Ecosystem Restoration in Fisheries group and the Sea Around Us Project. NOAA recently included EwE in its list of the top ten scientific breakthroughs of the last 200 years.

Marine Protection and Reserves

Since 1993, Project Seahorse has generated 34 locally managed marine protected areas in the Philippines to protect marine life. The team has also fostered an alliance of 1,000 families of small-scale fishers that is leading the establishment of marine reserves and enforcement against illegal fishing in Asia. The Policy and Ecosystem Restoration in Fisheries group successfully used Ecospace to analyze the optimal placing, size and shape of marine protected areas in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia and Indonesia.

Major Contributions to Intergovernmental Assessments of Ocean Systems, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Institute scientists — including William Cheung, Villy Christensen, and Rashid Sumaila — and their research outputs have played a major role in intergovernmental assessments of ocean systems, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Work from the Changing Ocean Research Unit and NF-UBC Nereus Program are highlighted in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports on ocean systems. IOF researchers served as coordinating lead authors of Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services assessments. Rashid Sumaila serves as the member of the High-level Panel for the Convention of Biological Diversity.

Using biological traits to understand and predict fishes’ vulnerabilities to human stressors

Research undertaken by the Changing Oceans Research Unit contributed to the understanding of how the biological traits of fishes and their vulnerabilities are affected by climate change. Using fuzzy logic expert system to calculate an index of vulnerability of fishes to fishing they showed that fishing-induced changes in community structure of exploited species are predictable from such index and that some assemblages such as those in seamounts and the deep sea have the highest vulnerability. This index is reported in FishBase and used by NGOs to develop sustainable seafood guides. The team further extended this method to study the vulnerability of fishes to multiple climatic stressors, for example, showing that deep sea species have exceptionally high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity to climate change. This expanded the trait-based approach to the examination of the interactions between climate change and fishing on conservation risks of fishes and their adaptive capacity to warming and hypoxia.

Thailand suspends seahorse exports

Thailand is by far the world’s largest exporter of wild seahorses, representing 90% of the trade. In September 2016 Thailand announced at the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting is that they are suspending all of its international trade in these fishes until it can sort out an effective, sustainable way to sell them abroad without damaging their wild populations. Project Seahorse played a major role in assisting Thailand as they decided to tackle this important conservation issue head on, and are eager to help Thailand obtain what it needs in terms of tools, resources, and support to manage seahorse exports sustainably.

Toward Sustainable Chinese Medicine

Project Seahorse has reconciled disparate interest groups to make traditional Chinese medicine more ecologically sustainable. The group also helped catalyzed the first global export controls for any marine fish of commercial importance, under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

iSeahorse

In 2014, Project Seahorse launched iSeahorse, a citizen science website and smartphone app that allows anyone to contribute to seahorse science and conservation from anywhere in the world.

Hong Kong Bottom Trawling Ban

This landmark conservation decision was adopted based on analysis led by Tony Pitcher of the Policy and Ecosystem Restoration in Fisheries group.