talking points
UPWELLFlourishing Fisheries?
Now here’s a study that goes against
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Europe, South America, and Africa are
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practices.
The study, an international project
led by the University of Washington
(UW), is based on an analysis of data
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researchers paired information about
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published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences in January, concluded
that more intense management led
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while little-to-no management led to
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are declining around the world, that
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need new solutions — and it’s totally
wrong,” says the study’s lead author Ray
Hilborn, a professor in the UW School
of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “Fish
stocks are not all declining around the
world. They are increasing in many
places, and we already know how
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But Hilborn — who has been
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in the past for his controversial views
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to marine protected areas — might
be overstating the case a bit. The
good news only goes so far. There’s
little information out there about
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and Southeast Asia that aren’t being
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countries like India, Indonesia, and
China, which alone represent 30 to 40
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And as demand for seafood
continues to rise worldwide, it’s very
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are being overexploited.
“Many of the countries that have
made progress domestically still import
from countries where the situation isn’t
as nice. That is something else we should
be conscious of,” Beth Fulton, a marinescientist with the Commonwealth
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Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia,
who was not involved with the new
study, told the publication Chinadialogue
Ocean.
The study’s authors admit that
there are still major gaps in the data
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the available information on smaller
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standardized, and is harder to collate,
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are not regularly monitored,” says co-
author Ana Parma, a principal scientist
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Technical Research Council.
But, the researchers say, their
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a solution for sustaining worldwide
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ment approach and that management
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regions.