Tony J Pitcher | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Oxford University |
| Known for | Founding director: UBC Fisheries Centre Founder: Fish and Fisheries Founder: Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries Fishing down the deep [1] |
| Awards | 2003: Beverton Medal 2005: Distinguished Service Award of the AFS [2] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Marine biology, fisheries science |
| Institutions | UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries University of British Columbia Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies |
Tony J Pitcher is a fisheries scientist, well known for his work on the impacts of fishing, the management appraisal of fisheries, and how shoaling behaviour impacts fisheries.
He is the founding director of the UBC Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia, which was dissolved in 2015 and incorporated into the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, where he is currently a professor.
In 1989, Pitcher founded the journal Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries. [3] In 2000, he founded another journal, the quarterly Fish and Fisheries. [4] This journal has the highest impact factor in its field fisheries. [5] [6]
In 2003 Pitcher was awarded the Beverton Medal by the Fisheries Society of the British Isles for his contributions to the understanding of fish and fisheries. [7] In 2005 he was given the Distinguished Service Award by the American Fisheries Society for his work as Chair of the Programme Committee of the 4th World Fisheries Congress. [8] In 2008 he was Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
Pitcher has been a visiting professor at the University of Concepcion, Chile and a member of the Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Ploen.. He was the Senior Scientific Advisor and Chair of the Advisory Council of the FishSource initiative. [6] [9]
In October 2017 the NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries wrote an open letter to the journal Marine Policy [10] about a published paper co-authored by Pitcher which suggested the U.S. exports to Japan a significant amount of seafood products from illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU). [11] The NOAA letter said it "strongly objects to the authors’ claims regarding U.S. seafood exports to Japan and doubts the validity of the methodology used to make such estimates." [10] In January 2019 it was reported that Marine Policy had retracted the study, [12] and the article was formally retracted by the editor of Marine Policy in September 2019. [13] The following month a revised version of the article was published in the same journal. [14] In the same issue Ray Hilborn et al. contested the credibility of the estimates in the revised paper, on the grounds that, "their estimates are not substantiated by any known facts from the fishery". [15] Pitcher et al. countered by saying that instead of relying solely on public information supplied by the fishery, they had used "necessarily confidential sources (over 120 interviews) [which described] the procedures being used in laundering 27 IUU fish products". [16]
Pitcher has authored or co-authored 17 books or edited volumes, 250 peer-reviewed research papers and 251 other published contributions. As of 22 January 2021, Google Scholar reports his H-factor is 78 and he has 28,870 citations to his work. [17]
| Fisheries |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Fishing | ||
| Industry | ||
| Recreation | ||
| Techniques | ||
| Tackle | ||
| Locations | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
Bycatch, in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while fishing for specific species or sizes of wildlife. Bycatch is either the wrong species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juveniles of the target species. The term "bycatch" is also sometimes used for untargeted catch in other forms of animal harvesting or collecting. Non-marine species that are caught but regarded as generally "undesirable" are referred to as "rough fish" and "coarse fish".
The Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean seabass, mero, icefish, and Antarctic cod, is a species of notothen found in cold waters between depths of 45 and 3,850 m in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most Subantarctic islands.
Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally, resulting in the species becoming increasingly underpopulated in that area. Overfishing can occur in water bodies of any sizes, such as ponds, wetlands, rivers, lakes or oceans, and can result in resource depletion, reduced biological growth rates and low biomass levels. Sustained overfishing can lead to critical depensation, where the fish population is no longer able to sustain itself. Some forms of overfishing, such as the overfishing of sharks, has led to the upset of entire marine ecosystems. Types of overfishing include: growth overfishing, recruitment overfishing, ecosystem overfishing.
A conventional idea of a sustainable fishery is that it is one that is harvested at a sustainable rate, where the fish population does not decline over time because of fishing practices. Sustainability in fisheries combines theoretical disciplines, such as the population dynamics of fisheries, with practical strategies, such as avoiding overfishing through techniques such as individual fishing quotas, curtailing destructive and illegal fishing practices by lobbying for appropriate law and policy, setting up protected areas, restoring collapsed fisheries, incorporating all externalities involved in harvesting marine ecosystems into fishery economics, educating stakeholders and the wider public, and developing independent certification programs.
The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including recreational, subsistence and commercial fishing, as well as the related harvesting, processing, and marketing sectors. The commercial activity is aimed at the delivery of fish and other seafood products for human consumption or as input factors in other industrial processes. The livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends directly or indirectly on fisheries and aquaculture.
The goal of fisheries management is to produce sustainable biological, environmental and socioeconomic benefits from renewable aquatic resources. Wild fisheries are classified as renewable when the organisms of interest produce an annual biological surplus that with judicious management can be harvested without reducing future productivity. Fishery management employs activities that protect fishery resources so sustainable exploitation is possible, drawing on fisheries science and possibly including the precautionary principle.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stewardship of U.S. national marine resources. It conserves and manages fisheries to promote sustainability and prevent lost economic potential associated with overfishing, declining species, and degraded habitats.
Unsustainable fishing methods refers to the utilization of the various fishing methods in order to capture or harvest fish at a rate which sees the declining of fish populations over time. These methods are observed to facilitate the destructive fishing practices that destroy ecosystems within the ocean, and more readily results in overfishing, the depletion of fish populations at a rate that cannot be sustained.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries.
Sustainable seafood is seafood that is caught or farmed in ways that consider the long-term vitality of harvested species and the well-being of the oceans, as well as the livelihoods of fisheries-dependent communities. It was first promoted through the sustainable seafood movement which began in the 1990s. This operation highlights overfishing and environmentally destructive fishing methods. Through a number of initiatives, the movement has increased awareness and raised concerns over the way our seafood is obtained.
Discards are the portion of a catch of fish which is not retained on board during commercial fishing operations and is returned, often dead or dying, to the sea. The practice of discarding is driven by economic and political factors; fish which are discarded are often unmarketable species, individuals which are below minimum landing sizes and catches of species which fishermen are not allowed to land, for instance due to quota restrictions. Discards form part of the bycatch of a fishing operation, although bycatch includes marketable species caught unintentionally. Discarding can be highly variable in time and space as a consequence of changing economic, sociological, environmental and biological factors.
China has one-fifth of the world's population and accounts for one-third of the world's reported fish production as well as two-thirds of the world's reported aquaculture production. It is also a major importer of seafood and the country's seafood market is estimated to grow to a market size worth US$53.5 Billion by 2027.
Ray Hilborn is a marine biologist and fisheries scientist, known for his work on conservation and natural resource management in the context of fisheries. He is currently professor of aquatic and fishery science at the University of Washington. He focuses on conservation, natural resource management, fisheries stock assessment and risk analysis, and advises several international fisheries commissions and agencies.
Dissostichus, the toothfish, is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Nototheniidae, the notothens or cod icefish. These fish are found in the Southern Hemisphere. Toothfish are marketed in the United States as Chilean sea bass or less frequently as white cod. "Chilean sea bass" is a marketing name coined in 1977 by Lee Lantz, a fish wholesaler who wanted a more attractive name for selling the Patagonian toothfish to Americans. In 1994, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted "Chilean sea bass" as an "alternative market name" for Patagonian toothfish. The toothfish was remarkably successful in the United States, Europe and Asia, and earned the nickname "white gold" within the market. Toothfish are vital to the ecological structure of Southern Ocean ecosystems. For this reason, on 4 September a national day is dedicated to the toothfish in South Georgia.
Raymond (Ray) John Heaphy Beverton CBE FRS was an important founder of fisheries science. He is best known for the book On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations (1957) which he wrote with Sidney Holt. The book is a cornerstone of modern fisheries science and remains much used today. Beverton's life and achievements are described in detail in several obituaries written by prominent figures in fisheries science.
The Directorate General of Marine and Fisheries Resources Surveillance is a government agency under the management of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia. Formally established on 23 November 2000 according to Presidential Decree No. 165/2000, the PSDKP is the agency responsible for supervising the marine and fishery resources of the Republic of Indonesia. The main mission of PSDKP is the prevention of Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Indonesian waters, which has caused a substantial loss for Indonesia's fishing industry. In its mission to prevent illegal fishing, PSDKP has conducted joint-operations with the Indonesian Navy, Water Police, Sea and Coast Guard, the Maritime Security Agency and Customs. PSDKP is however is not associated with these agencies.
African illegal fishing is the unlawful activity of obtaining fish and other aquatic species for various purposes in African waters. Fishing outside local, national, and international regulations causes the disturbance of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in the countries of Africa. People living in local African communities may fish illegally in order to improve their income and lifestyle. On a larger scale, illegal fishing in Africa takes place when vessels from foreign countries are stationed on African waters without any legal documentation that allows fishing. Illegal fishing in Africa is one of the main causes of overfishing, and increases the spread of diseases.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) in the Arctic is an under researched scientific field. The most recent academic articles about IUU in the Arctic mainly concerns the mid-2000s.
Transshipment or transhipment at sea is done by transferring goods such as cargo, personnel, and equipment from one ship to another. It is a common practice in global fisheries and typically takes place between smaller fishing vessels and large specialized refrigerated transport vessels, also referred to as “reefers” that onload catch and deliver supplies if necessary.
The Fishing industry in Thailand, in accordance with usage by The World Bank, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other multinational bodies, refers to and encompasses recreational fishing, aquaculture, and wild fisheries both onshore and offshore.
