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Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/beaufort-sea-environmental-assessment-1.3490983

The Inuvialuit are pitching a far-reaching scientific and traditional knowledge study that would help researchers better understand how Arctic ecosystems will be affected by climate change, increased shipping and oil and gas development.

"We see ourselves as part of the ecosystem, so anything that is going to affect that is going to affect us as well," said Duane Smith, chair and CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.

... The letter, co-authored by the Inuvialuit Game Council, says the Arctic Ocean, compared to Canada's other coastlines, is the least studied. It also calls for long-term monitoring and reports considerable gaps when it comes to understanding issues such as the amount of fish and their food sources.

UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries researcher Rashid Sumaila said he thinks the Beaufort Sea would be appropriate for a broad study such as an RSEA.

"There's a lot of changes coming. This makes the place really special," said Sumaila.

On March 10, 2016 Canada and the US released a major bilateral announcement on the Arctic to coincide with Prime Minister Trudeau’s visit to Washington. The announcement includes an initiative to re-examine new conservation goals for the Arctic and a commitment to engage all Arctic nations in the development of a pan-Arctic marine protection area network. Read more about the announcement.

UBC Fisheries Economic Research Unit Doctoral student Anna Schuhbauer and OceanCanada Research Director Rashid Sumaila have published a paper in Ecological Economics. The authors report that globally, over 90% of all fishing vessels and about 22 million fishers are considered small-scale. Yet, small-scale fisheries are often understudied, economically and politically marginalized, and therefore vulnerable to large-scale threats.

OceanCanada Research Director Rashid Sumaila and his collaborators from the UBC Global Fisheries Cluster (Sea Around Us and NEREUS) have published an updated estimate of global fisheries subsidies in Marine Policy, the researchers found that the global fishing industry is being supported by $35 billion yearly in government subsidies of which upwards of $20 billion annually promote increased capacity that can lead to overfishing.

OceanCanada – Too Big To Ignore Symposium. Wednesday, March 30th 2016, 1-5pm Liu Institute for Global Issues; Caseroom. UBC, 6476 NW Marine Drive

Learn about the exciting work being done by these projects, find out how to get involved, and participate in the discussion on ways to encourage further collaboration. The meeting is open to everyone, no prior registration is necessary.

Climate change is expected to impact Arctic marine mammals, as they may be particularly vulnerable to large annual variability in the environment. Beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) occupy the circumpolar Arctic year-round, and seasonal movement patterns in this landscape are closely linked to sea ice and changing conditions. Here, we examine the association between beluga spring locations along the Mackenzie Shelf and three relevant habitat variables: sea ice (total concentration, floe size, and distance to ice edge), bathymetry and turbidity. Beluga locations in 2012 and 2013 were analyzed across the study area, as well as in three discrete subareas of the Mackenzie Shelf: Shallow Bay, Kugmallit Bay and Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula. In both years, beluga were found more than expected by chance in locations of open water/light ice concentrations and medium ice floes, and displayed a significant association with turbid water (i.e., increased freshwater flow). Largely ice-free conditions in 2012 led to a wide variation in habitat use in all three subareas. Beluga whales in 2012 preferred the ice edge and were found in heavier ice concentrations, larger floes and high turbidity water in the Shallow Bay subarea. Open water environments were preferred by beluga found in the Kugmallit Bay subarea. In contrast, heavy ice conditions in 2013 resulted in restricted habitat use and selection of shallow depth (<50 m) and low levels of turbidity. These results provide knowledge on spring habitat selection as well as insight into the adaptability of beluga under expected changes associated with climate and human activity in the Beaufort Sea.

The Winter 2015 edition of the OceanCanada Newsletter includes updates on adaptive capacity research, the Pond Inlet ocean initiative, and core research highlights.

The aim of this paper is to provide an updated estimate of global fisheries subsidies. It builds on earlier estimates and methodologies to re-estimate and discuss the various types of subsidies provided by governments around the world. The results suggests that total subsidies were about USD 35 billion in 2009 dollars, which is close to the earlier estimate of 2003 subsidies once they are adjusted for inflation. Capacity-enhancing subsidies constituted the highest category at over USD 20 billion. For all regions, the amount of capacity-enhancing subsidies is higher than other categories, except for North America, which has higher beneficial subsidies. The analysis reveals that fuel subsidies constitute the greatest part of the total subsidy (22% of the total), followed by subsidies for management (20% of the total) and ports and harbors (10% of the total). Subsidies provided by developed countries are far greater (65% of the total) than those by developing countries (35% of the total) even though the latter lands well above 50% of total global catch. Asia is by far the greatest subsidizing region (43% of total), followed by Europe (25% of total) and North America (16% of total). Japan provides the highest amount of subsidies (19.7% of total), followed by the United States and China at 19.6% of total.

The conservation community is increasingly focusing on the monitoring and evaluation of management, governance, ecological, and social considerations as part of a broader move toward adaptive management and evidence-based conservation. Evidence is any information that can be used to come to a conclusion and support a judgment or, in this case, to make decisions that will improve conservation policies, actions, and outcomes. Perceptions are one type of information that is often dismissed as anecdotal by those arguing for evidence-based conservation. In this paper, I clarify the contributions of research on perceptions of conservation to improving adaptive and evidence-based conservation. Studies of the perceptions of local people can provide important insights into observations, understandings and interpretations of the social impacts, and ecological outcomes of conservation; the legitimacy of conservation governance; and the social acceptability of environmental management. Perceptions of these factors contribute to positive or negative local evaluations of conservation initiatives. It is positive perceptions, not just objective scientific evidence of effectiveness, that ultimately ensure the support of local constituents thus enabling the long-term success of conservation. Research on perceptions can inform courses of action to improve conservation and governance at scales ranging from individual initiatives to national and international policies. Better incorporation of evidence from across the social and natural sciences and integration of a plurality of methods into monitoring and evaluation will provide a more complete picture on which to base conservation decisions and environmental management.

This paper surveys the current state and major trends in global fisheries; the environmental and social dimensions of fisheries; and explains how the international community has tried to meet the policy challenges associated with oceans and fisheries. The ocean and the freshwater ecosystems of the world make significant contributions to people’s well-being via the many vital social and environmental services they provide (for example, food and nutrition, employment and incomes, carbon cycling and sequestration). The impact that the increase in fishing since the 1950s has had on wild fish stocks, and the significant increase in aquaculture production in the 20th century, have resulted in severe environmental impacts. This has significant effects on marine ecosystems and the health of oceans. The erosion of the resource undermines communities’ long-term interests, including food security, employment, and income. Attempts by the global community to address challenges of sustainable production by improving the governance and management of fisheries resources range from national management of fisheries resources, to regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) for international fisheries stocks. These attempts have not always successfully met the challenge of balancing current and future use of fisheries.