Formation | 1992 |
---|---|
Type | non-profit organisation |
Headquarters | Bethesda, Maryland, USA [1] |
President | Bronwyn Gillanders [2] |
Website | wcfs |
The World Council of Fisheries Societies is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation intended to promote international cooperation in fisheries science, conservation and management. [1] The Council consists of 10 member organisations, and arose from the 1st World Fisheries Congress in Athens, Greece in 1992.
The council currently comprises 10 member organisations: [3]
Every four years, the World Council of Fisheries Societies runs an international conference event called the World Fisheries Congress. [4]
Congress | Year | Host city |
---|---|---|
1st | 1992 | |
2nd | 1996 | |
3rd | 2000 | |
4th | 2004 | |
5th | 2008 | |
6th | 2012 | |
7th | 2016 | |
8th [upper-alpha 1] | 2021 | |
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable".
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place. Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both in freshwater waterbodies and the oceans. About 500 million people worldwide are economically dependent on fisheries. 171 million tonnes of fish were produced in 2016, but overfishing is an increasing problem, causing declines in some populations.
World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA, is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competitions in water sports. It is one of several international federations which administer a given sport or discipline for both the IOC and the international community. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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 Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is the fisheries policy of the European Union (EU). It sets quotas for which member states are allowed to catch each type of fish, as well as encouraging the fishing industry by various market interventions. In 2004 it had a budget of €931 million, approximately 0.75% of the EU budget.
Fisheries science is the academic discipline of managing and understanding fisheries. It is a multidisciplinary science, which draws on the disciplines of limnology, oceanography, freshwater biology, marine biology, meteorology, conservation, ecology, population dynamics, economics, statistics, decision analysis, management, and many others in an attempt to provide an integrated picture of fisheries. In some cases new disciplines have emerged, as in the case of bioeconomics and fisheries law. Because fisheries science is such an all-encompassing field, fisheries scientists often use methods from a broad array of academic disciplines. Over the most recent several decades, there have been declines in fish stocks (populations) in many regions along with increasing concern about the impact of intensive fishing on marine and freshwater biodiversity.
The Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCMA), commonly referred to as the Magnuson–Stevens Act (MSA), is the legislation providing for the management of marine fisheries in U.S. waters. Originally enacted in 1976 to assert control of foreign fisheries that were operating within 200 nautical miles off the U.S. coast, the legislation has since been amended, in 1996 and 2007, to better address the twin problems of overfishing and overcapacity. These ecological and economic problems arose in the domestic fishing industry as it grew to fill the vacuum left by departing foreign fishing fleets.
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.
The European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) that co-ordinates the national operational activities in the area of fisheries, and assists the member states in their application of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The agency is based in Vigo,, Spain.
A regional fishery body (RFB) is a type of international organization that is part of an international fishery agreement or arrangement to cooperate on the sustainable use and conservation of marine living resources and/or the development of marine capture fisheries whose such capacity has been recognized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
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.
The International Council on Archives is an international non-governmental organization which exists to promote international cooperation for archives and archivists. It was set up in 1948, with Charles Samaran, the then director of the Archives nationales de France, as chairman, and membership is open to national and international organisations, professional groups and individuals. In 2015, it grouped together about 1400 institutional members in 199 countries and territories. Its mission is to promote the conservation, development and use of the world's archives.
Amanda Vincent is a Canadian marine biologist and conservationist, one of the world's leading experts on seahorses and their relatives. She currently holds the chair of the IUCN SSC Seahorse, Pipefish and Seadragon Specialist Group and is the marine representative on the IUCN's International Red List Committee as well as being the chair of its Marine Conservation Committee. She previously held the Canada Research Chair in Marine Conservation at the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada from 2002 to 2012. Vincent co-founded and directs Project Seahorse, an interdisciplinary and international organization committed to conservation and sustainable use of the world's coastal marine ecosystems. In 2020 she became the first marine conservationist to win the world's leading prize for animal conservation, the Indianapolis Prize.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to fisheries:
Steven J. Cooke is a Canadian biologist specializing in ecology and conservation physiology of fish. He is best known for his integrative work on fish physiology, behaviour, ecology, and human-dimensions to understand and solve complex environmental problems. He currently is a Canada Research Professor in Environmental Science and Biology at Carleton University and the Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Conservation Physiology.
Narayana Balakrishnan Nair (1927–2010) was a marine biologist, ecologist and the founder president of Kerala Science Congress. He was known for his advocacy of trawling ban during monsoon seasons which was later accepted and imposed by the Government of Kerala. A Jawaharlal Nehru fellow, Nair was an elected fellow of all the major Indian science academies as well as the Zoological Society of London. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1971, for his contributions to biological sciences. He received the fourth highest Indian civilian honor of the Padma Shri in 1984.
The Australian Society for Fish Biology (ASFB) is a professional organisation of fish and fisheries researchers. Founded in 1971, the society describes itself as a "professional, independent, non-profit, non-commercial and non-aligned organisation." The Australian Society for Fish Biology holds annual conferences for its members, sometimes in partnership with related organisations such as the Oceania Chondrichthyan Society and the Australian Society for Limnology. Former presidents of the society include Hamar Midgley (1977–79), Gerry Allen (1979–81), Julian Pepperell (1991–93) and Bronwyn Gillanders (2012–13).
The Marine Policy of the Barack Obama administration comprises several significant environmental policy decisions for the oceans made during his two terms in office from 2009 to 2017. By executive action, US President Barack Obama increased fourfold the amount of protected marine space in waters under United States control, setting a major precedent for global ocean conservation. Using the U.S. president's authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906, he expanded to 200 nautical miles the seaward limits of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument around the U.S. island possessions in the Central Pacific. In the Atlantic, Obama created the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, the first marine monument in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Atlantic.
The American Fisheries Society, is the "world’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to strengthening the fisheries profession, advancing fisheries science, and conserving fisheries resources." It is a member-driven 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization governed by an executive director, a governing board, and officers who are guided by the AFS's organizational documents, a constitution, and a set of rules. Their stated mission is "to improve the conservation and sustainability of fishery resources and aquatic ecosystems by advancing fisheries and aquatic science and promoting the development of fisheries professionals." AFS publishes five peer-reviewed fish journals, books, and the magazine Fisheries, organizes seminars and workshops that promote scientific research and fisheries management, and encourages fisheries education through 58 university-based student subunits. AFS has 48 chapters comprising four geographic regions in North America — North Central, Northeastern, Southern, and Western — and includes two "bi‐national" chapters and a Mexico chapter.