FERU Director Dr. Rashid Sumaila is among ten people chosen to speak at the Prince’s Charities International Sustainability Unit (ISU) Marine Programme Launch in London on Friday, February 3, 2012. The event will launch a major international campaign to “halt the destruction of the oceans through overfishing”.

For more information about the event, check out this article in The Telegraph. Details about the ISU are available on the ISU website.

In his speech at the event, the Prince will warn of “dire” long-term consequences unless action is…

By Rashid Sumaila, Special to the Sun
The sad story of Newfoundland’s cod industry is well known: When the region’s once-thriving cod population collapsed in 1992, 40,000 jobs vanished along with a way of life. Atlantic cod, previously abundant, became an endangered species.

Char species, so critical to first nations communities, now face similar threats. Globally, fisheries are at risk because of overfishing exacerbated by climate change. Human apathy may be the biggest threat to declining fish species, though, as too many governments and individuals remain in denial about the urgency of the problem.

The warning signs of…

Dr. Rashid Sumaila has proposed a new approach to managing global fisheries that could finally put an end to international disputes over fisheries subsidies: manage domestic and international fisheries separately.

His proposal, published in the January 2012 issue of Nature, could solve the problem faced by World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiators, whose efforts to broker an all-inclusive deal that encompasses domestic and international, small- and large-scale fisheries, have stalled. Efforts, he says, that have been hindered by national interests.

Read the article in Nature.

Rashid Sumaila, Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit (FERU) and the UBC Fisheries Centre spoke with Radio Canada International about the economic impacts of climate change on global oceans and fisheries on November 21, 2011. The interview highlights the results of a new study by Sumaila et. al., Climate change impacts on the biophysics and economics of world fisheries, published this week in the journal Nature.

Listen to the interview: Rashid Sumaila on the economic impacts of climate change on global oceans and fisheries.

FERU Director Rashid Sumaila will be presenting his analysis of the ecological and economic deficits of nations at the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC. Linking data from the Global Footprint Network (http://www.footprintnetwork.org) and the International Monetary Fund, Dr. Sumalia will provide data and analysis about ecological and economic deficits and reveal a simple “ecolonomic index” to rank the performance of nations around the world. Ecological and Financial Deficits: A Double Whammy for Future Generations will be delivered as part the session titled Whole-Ocean Economics: Global Fisheries Analysis Potential for Policy Action.

FERU Director Rashid Sumaila will be one of the speakers at the World Oceans Summit held in Singapore on 22-24 February, 2012. For more information,visit the World Oceans Summit website.

Global climate change is altering the physical and chemical conditions of the ocean. This in turn affects marine ecosystems in ways that ultimately exacts a toll on fisheries and human well-being. To ensure sustainable marine fisheries well into the future, we need to develop effective mitigation and adaptation strategies. These policies will require credible scientific assessments of the close linkages between the physical, ecological, and socioeconomic systems on which fisheries depend. Specifically, we need to forecast future ocean conditions based on climate change scenarios, and…

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE OCEAN, GREEN SHIPPING AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

Apr 28-29, 2011

Location:

Institut Oceanographique de Paris
195 Rue Saint-Jacques
75005 Paris

OBJECTIVES:

Interdisciplinary in nature, the symposium will provide an opportunity to reflect on the policy and strategic
implications of growing integration between four systems of central importance for the sustainable
development of the planet:
- the ocean considered as a global ecosystem,
- the marine transportation system,
- the energy system,
- the global regulation system.

METHODOLOGY:
To promote a cross-disciplinary, cross-sector dialogue,…

May 31 – June 3, 2009: United States Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) Conference 2009 Symposium.

Symposium Abstract: Modern fisheries constitute a quintessential ecological-economic problem, wherein 60 years of “rational” management has led to unimaginable erosion of fish stocks along with their habitats, food webs, and ecosystems. Unless fishing behaviors are altered, we face an unprecedented, global collapse of a critical source of protein for an increasing human population. In this symposium, we expose the pathologies of current practices, and explore approaches that will restore, revive, and sustain ecosystem support for fisheries.

While planning for the Global Ocean Economics Project began as early as December 2007, the project picked up speed in spring of 2008 when a group of nineteen biologists, economists, and students took part in a three-day planning workshop. The event which was scheduled for April 21-22, 2008 was important in laying the foundation, theoretic and practical, for the future of the project.