The Lubin Files

Common Fisheries Policy Reform

Last month, the European Parliament voted for a reform of Common Fisheries Policy.  This policy has been criticized by fishermen, who claim that it threatens their livelihoods, and by environmental groups, who claim that the policy negatively affects the environment.

The reform includes measures intended to protect endangered stocks, and measures aimed at ending the practice of discards-- throwing dead fish back into the sea when a catch exceeds a quota limit.

Read about Common Fisheries Policy reform on the site of the European Union.

 

SAFE Seafood Act to Combat Fish Fraud

You may recall the post that I made last week, regarding the prevalance of seafood fraud in the United States.

On Wednesday, US Representative Ed Markey reintroduced a previously introduced bill aimed at combatting this fraud.  According to Markey:

"Fish fraud is a national problem that needs a national solution. This bill finally tells the seafood swindlers and fish fraudsters that we will protect America’s fishermen and consumers from Massachusetts to Alaska ... From tackle to table, this bill makes the entire seafood supply chain more transparent and trustworthy.”

Read more about the SAFE Seafood Act on the Food Safety News portal.

Are you eating what you think you're eating?

Fish consumers across the United States might be surprised.  And we're not talking about established marketing techniques like selling Patagonian Toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) under the name of "Chilean Sea bass" in the US.

The advocacy group Oceana recently published the results of a study conducted in New York city that revealed that fish sold to consumers in New York is frequently mislabelled. 

The most frequently mislabelled fish in New York was red snapper.  Sometimes the red snapper was substituted with a cheaper relative in the snapper family, and sometimes it was substituted with a completely unrelated species like farm-raised tilapia.  In some cases, red snapper was also substituted with tilefish.  Tilefish is discouraged by the United States FDA for consumption by children and pregnant women due to the high levels of mercury it contains.

According to the study, the highest occurence of mislabelled fish can be found in sushi bars. Restaurants were the second most likely place to find substitutions. Fish sold in grocery stores is more likely to be labelled correctly.

Read the entire Oceana report here. 

Retrospective on 45 years of fisheries research -- John Caddy, former FAO staff member

Dr. John Caddy, former chief of FAO's Marine Resources Service, has compiled a blog of reflections on his 45 year career as a fisheries scientist-- providing interesting insight into the history of fisheries research from the late 60's until the present.

Farming fish and rice together in China, benefits productivity of both.

A study shows that cultivating fish and rice together provides several benefits in China.  The fish provide fertilizer for and protection from disease and insects to the rice, while the rice provides shade and attracts insects that the fish eat.  The dual crops of rice and carp (a delicacy in China) could double farmer's incomes as well as greatly increase food production.  Learn more from the article in Nature, entitled "Fish and rice flourish together in paddies."

 

Changing the Face of the Waters: The Promise and Challenge of Sustainable Aquaculture

The following publication is available to FAO staff members via library subscription to the World Bank E-Library:

Aquaculture lies at a crossroads. One direction points toward the giant strides in productivity, industry concentration, and product diversification. Another direction points toward the dangers of environmental degradation and the marginalization of small fish farmers. Yet another direction invites aquaculture to champion the poor and provide vital environmental services to stressed aquatic environments...

View the entire publication here.

Reduced Catch Means Net Gain for Fishers—And Fish

Economist R. Quentin Grafton at The Australian National University in Canberra and his colleagues have found that reducing fishing yields in the short term boosts fishing profits in the long run. A review of four different fisheries showed that the highest fishing profits come from allowing a species to recover. "It's not economic to exploit fisheries to extinction," says Grafton...

Read the article at Scientific American (freely accessible)

Read the referenced study in Science Magazine (FAO staff only)

Development of the Aquatic Commons: open access to inland fisheries and aquaculture information

Jean Collins, Fisheries librarian, organized and facilitated a one day workshop on the Aquatic Commons at Bunda College of Agriculture in  Lilongwe, Malawi.  This workshop was held on 13 September, 2007 in collaboration with the Third Annual AfriAMSLIC Conference (10-12 September, 2007)

For more information about the Aquatic Commons, contact Jean Collins.

Ancient mariners

When did human beings first attempt to venture out into the oceans and why? The earliest indirect evidence for sea crossings in Europe dates back to around 12,000-13,000 years ago. 

Ancient archaeological sites in Oceania and the South Pacific suggest sea voyages of around 45,000 years ago, around the time modern humans first left Africa...

Why did they do it?  Did homo sapiens set out to sea on purpose, or did it all happen by accident?

Read the Full article in Science.

Invasive crabs cancel each other out?

Scientists imagined that two different non-native crab species along the coast of New England would cause twice the damage to the native ecosystem.  Instead the two species-- The European crab (Carcinus maenas) and the Asian shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus)-- seem to have focused on each other, each species limiting the expansion of the other...

More at Science magazine.  Access to FAO staff members via library subscription.