United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) discusses the way forward for fishery subsidies
A short new video posted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on video sharing site YouTube is an excellent quick introduction to fisheries subsidies and why it is an important issue. Watch for appearances by Dr. Sumaila at 1:22, 2:37, and 2:59 in the video below. Key concepts excerpted from the video are: “almost […]
We all pay to overfish the oceans
Many of the world’s fish stocks are currently over-exploited and some, such as Canada’s Atlantic cod, have collapsed completely without much hope for renewal. There are many reasons why these stocks are in decline, however, there is one major factor that we have direct control over, yet fail to take action — government subsidies. The […]
Overfishing amplifies world hunger
A recent United Nations food summit in Rome alerts the world that the number of under-fed people is now more than 15% the world’s estimated 6 billion population. It is now believed that the number of under-nourished people around the globe exceeds 1 billion for the first time in history. Just weeks after preliminary results […]
Questioning the effectiveness of consumer awareness campaigns in fisheries
The Vancouver Sun reports yesterday on a paper by the Sea Around Us project’s Jennifer Jacquet and co-authored by Rashid Sumaila of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit. Coverage by that news organization is just one of several who have picked up on the story that consumer awareness programs, such as the Marine Stewardship Council’s product […]
Fisheries subsidies negotiated at the WTO
The Economist magazine reports on developments from the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) where delegates are hoping to hash out an agreement on fisheries subsidies. The article summarizes some of the issues surrounding an agreement on fisheries subsidies within the WTO including the idea that a deal on fisheries subsidies may be delayed […]
Fisheries subsidies discussed by MacLean's magazine
Nancy Macdonald of MacLean’s magazine uses some information from Catching more bait: a bottom-up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies in a recent article available on-line. She references our estimate of more than $US 30 billion in subsidies to global fishing fleets annually. Photo by: Grantsviews (via Flickr) Macdonald accurately suggests that low food prices are […]
Climate change to cost global fisheries US$ 10 billion per year according to new World Bank report
A new World Bank study, authored with contributions by Rashid Sumaila and William Cheung, predicts that the global fisheries sector is likely to lose an estimated $US 9.64 billion in revenues in the year 2050 due to climate change. A draft version of the full report, available here, explains that under one possible climate change […]
Sustainable development session appearance
Recently Dr. Sumaila was in Germany to present some of his work at a session for the European Commission’s 2009 Sustainable Development conference. An audio recording of the session titled “Enhancing global sustainability through international cooperation” is available in it’s entirety. You can listen for Dr. Sumaila’s presentation between 01:40:30 and 02:01:59 of the downloadable […]
Short Fishery Subsidy Interview at AAAS 2007
Although this is an older (2007) video, it is worthy of mention since Dr. Sumaila expands a little further on the impact of subsidies in the high seas, difficulties associated with removing subsidies, and mentions an estimate of total subsidies to the world’s fisheries from Sumaila et al. (2006) — more than USD $30 billion. […]
YouTube: Dr. Rashid Sumaila on overfishing
Dr. Sumaila has long been a vocal critic of the established practice of subsidizing fisheries around the globe. This video focuses on the Ghanaian economy, however, the idea that fishery subsidies negatively affect global fish stocks can be extrapolated to many, if not all, other regions. ———————————————— Source: YouTube Video