• Ocean

New Study: Protect 30% of Ocean by 2030, Boost Fisheries, and Sequester Carbon

• #30x30
• carbon sequestration
• carbon sink
• fisheries
• food security
• ocean conservation

A new study published in Nature by 26 authors from around the world details the overlooked benefits of ocean protections that would be secured if countries protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 — and provides a blueprint of the best areas for conservation. 

Why This Matters: Protecting 30% of our oceans by 2030 could ensure the health of key biomes while also boosting ocean-reliant economies, many of which need a jumpstart due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Ocean

Portraits of Change: Climate Change Is Challenging Fishing in the U.S.

• #EDF
• climate change
• fisheries
• ocean
• ocean warming
• shifts

This week, we have featured this series of videos by the Environmental Defense Fund about the impacts climate change is having on the ocean as observed by the people who live and work there — fishermen and women. Their stories have been compelling and provided a sense of the ways that climate change is harming and shifting global fish stocks. 

Why This Matters:  On Tuesday, pursuant to President Biden’s climate executive order, NOAA announced: “an agency-wide effort to gather initial public input” on “how to make fisheries, including aquaculture, and protected resources more resilient to climate change.

• People

First Woman and African To Lead World Trade Organizations Starts With Fisheries Subsidies

• fisheries
• fishing subsidies
• Natural Resources
• subsidies
• sustainability
• United Nations
• women
• World Trade Organization

The new Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an economist from Nigeria, made ending fishing subsidies by governments her first priority on Monday, according to E&E News.  This has long been a priority for the WTO, but her decision also reflects the importance of women in promoting and ensuring sustainable fishing globally.

Why This Matters:  As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we wanted to shine a light on women’s contributions to the natural resource economy.

• Climate Change

Atlantic Ocean Currents Appear To Be Changing; So May Hurricane Season

• climate change
• cold blob
• fisheries
• Gulf of Maine
• Gulf Stream
• hurricane season
• ocean currents
• ocean warming

In a little-noticed report that could have major implications for both the Eastern U.S. and Europe, scientists announced last week that Atlantic Ocean currents are thought to be 15% weaker than in 1950.  The Washington Post explained, saying that the “system of currents that includes the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream, is now ‘in its weakest state in over a millennium.'”

Why This Matters: We need to understand both these phenomena better to predict climate events.  They are quite a coincidence.

• Animals

Freshwater Fish in Peril, New WWF Report States

• fish
• fisheries
• freshwater

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer A new report entitled The World’s Forgotten Fishes from the World Wildlife Fund has found that there has been a “catastrophic” decline in freshwater fish, with nearly a third of all freshwater fish species coming perilously close to extinction.  The statistics paint a sobering picture: 26% of all critically […]

• Ocean

President Biden Stands Up for the Ocean

• corals
• fisheries
• fishing
• marine mammals
• monument
• Northeast Canyons and Seamounts
• ocean
• whales

By Priscilla Brooks Common sense and science appear to have returned to United States environmental policy. In a flurry of executive orders during his first weeks in office, President Biden has committed to pausing oil and gas leasing on federal lands and offshore areas, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, reviewing the Trump Administration’s efforts to […]