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.

Dr. Rashid Sumaila, Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit, presented his research at Oceans Day in Durban, South Africa, on December 3, 2011. His presentation, titled Climate Change Impacts on the Biophysics and Economics of World Fisheries, was part of a session that highlighted the linkages between climate change and food security for African communities.

“It was a great opportunity for different stakeholders to talk to each other,” Dr. Sumaila said of the event.

The third Oceans Day was organized as part of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17).

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.

Below is a short video that looks to be a mashup of clips from around the web including one of Dr. Sumaila. Watch below or click through to the YouTube clip.

Dr. Sumaila appears in a video with several notable celebrities including Leonardo Dicaprio and Prince Charles. In this video concerning the health of the earth’s oceans and climate change Dr. Sumaila says:

Scientists have predicted: every second breath of humans depends on the oceans. So the oceans are central to our livelihoods and our survival on the planet.

For more information about this video with transcription, see the full post at sumprememastertv.com.

For many people, thoughts of fisheries brings to mind images of industrial fleets with sophisticated boats and gear. However, another side of fishing that is rarely seen in many parts of the world is the focus of work by Eny Buchary who is a current PhD candidate working with Dr. Tony Pitcher of the Policy and Ecosystem Restoration in Fisheries (PERF) group at the UBCFisheries Centre.

Eny describes the video, which she believes to be the only one documenting this particular fishery saying:

“[t]his video clip shows crew members

…

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 every subsidy is potentially harmful”

“Subsidies even contribute to widespread illegal fishing”

“there are still complex issues on the negotiating table and it is crucial these are resolved….and soon.”

See the Fisheries Subsidies blog for more discussion of the…

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.

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Source: YouTube Video

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.

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Source: YouTube Video