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– Lab news and field updates –
Scientists push WTO to ban fisheries subsidies
15 February 2024
Published in the journal npj Ocean Sustainability, a recent commentary underscores the detrimental impact of harmful fisheries subsidies, jeopardizing the vital role of well-managed wild fisheries in sustaining food security, livelihoods, and cultural heritage. Global fisheries experts and marine biologists urge the World Trade Organisation to address these subsidies at the forthcoming Ministerial Conference.
Dire straits of yellowfin tuna
4 December 2023
Our new publication highlights the dire straits of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean, for the first time using baited remote underwater video systems as a fisheries independent methodology. This has applications to other exploited pelagic wildlife for which stock assessments do not exist.
AMSA 2023 Rottnest Student Workshop
23 June 2023
The 2023 AMSA Student Workshop on Rottnest Island was held from the 21st to the 23rd of June. The workshops were attended by University students pursuing higher degrees, along with guest speakers who specialize in Marine Science. Nico Fassbender and Thomas Tothill have earned 1st and 2nd place, respectively, for the 15-minute presentation award. Congratulations to both of them!
Trends in Indian Ocean marine fisheries since 1950: synthesis of reconstructed catch and effort data
10 June 2023
Indian Ocean marine fisheries catches have been consistently rising since the 1950s, in contrast to declines in all other ocean basins in recent decades. Indian Ocean small-scale catches grew by 300 per cent from 1950 to 2018, reaching 6.5 million tonnes of fish per year in recent years. This is equivalent to almost 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with fish.
Professor Meeuwig appointed as the Wen Family Chair in Conservation
15 February 2023
The Wen Family have endowed a Chair in Conservation in perpetuity, the goal of which is to foster research that has a direct policy impact on conservation outcomes. As the inaugural Chair, Professor Meeuwig will continue her research on empirical approaches to understanding our oceans, with a focus on open-ocean wildlife and her advocacy for improved ocean conservation.
Sharks are the preferred scraping surface for large pelagic fishes: Possible implications for parasite removal and fitness in a changing ocean
25 October 2022
Mutualistic and commensal interactions can have significant positive impacts on animal fitness and survival. However, behavioural interactions between pelagic animals living in offshore oceanic environments are little studied. Here we provide records of scraping behaviour of several pelagic teleost species…
Assessing progress in data reporting by tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations
09 June 2022
An understanding of the scope and availability of data provided by tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations is timely, given the expected establishment of a new legally binding high seas agreement to protect marine biodiversity in the Exclusive Economic Zones and Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.