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…

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 by the slow progress of non-fisheries related topics at the Doha Round.

Photo by AaronC

Some of the recent work on fisheries subsidies by Rashid Sumaila and others in the Fisheries Economics Research Unit is…

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 a direct result of subsidies to agriculture and fisheries, which, distort the consumer choices. The author aptly summarizes the problem of subsidies in Canada saying:

[t]oo often, subsidies shield Canadians from the true

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On the back of a recent paper lauding transparency in fisheries management as a key component in keeping fisheries sustainable is the debut of a new website that aims to enhance transparency with regards to the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy.

The website, http://www.fishsubsidy.org/, allows visitors to search and browse for payments originating from the EU Common Fisheries Fund by country, subsidy type (scheme), or even vessel. The site references previous subsidies work from the Fisheries Economics Research Unit in the categorization of different subsidy types into Good, Bad and…