Lake Victoria illustrates one of the quintessential dilemmas of today’s world: how much short-term gain can humans continue to eek out of a system that is being driven to a potential breaking point?
In the small fishing village of Punta Bonita, peoples’ livelihoods are based on collecting piangua, a mollusk that lives under the nutrient-rich intertidal mudflats in coastal mangrove forests. Punta Bonita is tucked away on Colombia’s Pacific coast, and women comprise the majority of piangua fishers. I was lucky enough to meet these resilient fishers.
On February 18, the US sent naval ships to the South China Seas, an area of armed tension over rich but dwindling fishing grounds (among other things).
The city of Buenaventura is a busy and lively seaport on Colombia’s Pacific coast and the largest port city in Colombia, accounting for nearly 60% of all domestic sea trade.
As part of our sister program Shuraako's Somaliland Investment Forum, I facilitated a discussion on challenges and solutions for fisheries in Somaliland.
Fish is an important food for over 400 million Africans. Yet this essential resource is threatened by overfishing due to the lack of strong policies and regulations. Managing fisheries and preventing overfishing has proven difficult when there is open access to water resources, which inherently promotes competition and, in many cases, leads to a tragedy.
Across one continent, two similar countries—Mauritania and Somalia—have diverged in their fisheries development. The Somali region may be positioned to follow in the footsteps of Mauritania, a country that has received a great deal of revenue through fisheries agreements. But will that help or hurt Somalis? Before they accept the cash, it will be useful to consider what Mauritanians have sacrificed in the process.
From sandwiches to sushi, tuna is a global staple. World tuna catch is worth more than $42 billion annually, making the tuna industry a giant in the fishing world. It supports millions of jobs and provides food security for people in developed and developing countries alike.
The Australian Navy confiscated an unlikely fishing haul in February, 2016: 2,000 AK-47s, 100 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 49 machine guns and spare barrels, and 20 mortar tubes.