June 1, 2021
Though fishing with fish aggregating devices (FADs, or more generally, floating objects) has been in practice for hundreds of years, the amount of FADs being used by purse seine vessels has increased steadily in the last two decades. In 2019, the last year for which we have complete data,…
Scientists, like almost everyone else, were forced to accept a new normal in 2020. We found ourselves sharing workspaces with our remote-learning children. Traveling much less often, as movement restrictions rendered certain projects downright unfeasible. And collaborating with colleagues virtually, rather than face-to-face—which meant missing…
Mobula rays (manta and devil rays) are some of the ocean’s slowest-growing and most vulnerable species, and are facing global pressure from multiple threats, including bycatch in fisheries. However, there is hope for these charismatic giants: preliminary evidence suggests that the methods of capturing and…
A new report, “Minimum standards for designing and implementing Electronic Monitoring systems in Indian Ocean tuna fisheries,” co-authored by scientists from ISSF, AZTI-Tecnalia and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), was recently presented to the IOTC Scientific Committee as an important step in accelerating the…
COVID-19 blindsided everyone in 2020. Yet crisis can galvanize people and institutions to rise to meet challenges and be their “best selves.” In important ways, the global catastrophe of COVID-19 has indeed spurred information-sharing, problem-solving, and other essential collaboration across borders and oceans. In that…
The action by IATTC at its emergency Commission meeting held on December 22 — a meeting and decision that ISSF and its stakeholders called for earlier this month — keeps crucial “status quo” fishing effort and catch limit provisions and active FAD limits in place for 2021. This decision ensures that the…
Dec. 22, 2020: See an update about IATTC’s Dec. 22 emergency meeting. This year has tested all of us, including decision-makers at the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) that manage commercial tuna stocks. All tuna RFMOs were forced to hold their annual meetings virtually or…
Last month, ISSF and its partners appealed to the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) to, at a minimum, act to ensure its current measures on tuna conservation and management do not lapse and stay in place for 2021. ISSF outlined its science-based recommendations to IATTC…
In early November, nearly 200 participants took to their computers for a week-long virtual discussion about Indian Ocean fishery management needs and how to address the growing chorus of concern around effective tuna conservation in the region. The yellowfin tuna stock, the health of which…
With the global pandemic impacting the work of human fisheries observers, electronic monitoring (EM) in global tuna fisheries is in the spotlight more than ever. Here are three ways fisheries managers can act to fully embrace EM today, while enabling a long and successful future…
