Global conservation organization Ocean Wise recently launched its new campaign, "Invest in the Ocean," as a call for action to the world's governments and industries - with a particular focus on Canada - to invest in ocean conservation and sustainability solutions.
Ocean Wise CEO Lasse Gustavsson told SeafoodSource it's also a call to action to secure the future of food production and fisheries amid the impacts of climate change.
Ocean Wise got its start in 1951 and works to address a range of issues affecting the ocean including pollution, overfishing, and climate change. Gustavsson said the latest campaign continues that work and that the seafood industry is a central player in it.
"This is not excluding the industry at all. Ocean Wise is an ocean conservation group; we are working on developing and executing solutions for overfishing, for pollution, and for climate change, and we are a pro-fishing conservation group in the sense that we would like our fisheries to be managed and our oceans to be managed so that we can eat more fish in the future," he said.
Gustavsson said there are already efforts underway in fisheries across the world to enhance management, which can in turn increase the productivity of fisheries. However, he said there needs to be a greater focus on the potential of the ocean in the long term.
"If you look at the investment, or lack thereof, in rebuilding fish stocks in Canada, for instance, we have legislation in place but it's not moving as fast as it should," he said.
Gustavsson has had experience attempting to achieve these goals before. He commissioned a study in Spain nearly a decade ago that asked fisheries biologists to analyze what the overall productivity of Europe's waters could be if those fisheries were managed to maximum sustainable yields (MSY).
"How much fish could we have in European waters if we actually fished at the real MSY - the genuine and not the politicized?" Gustavsson said. "How much fish could we have?"
Gustavsson said the result of that study found if countries across Europe all agreed to fish at the biological MSY without compromising for political wrangling, after just 10 years, the output of Europe's fisheries could increase by as much as 60 percent.
He said that study found increasing yields by 60 percent required three things: catch limits based on scientific advice, not political compromise; protection of essential fish habits; and stopping the most destructive fishing technologies.
Gustavsson said if those steps are taken, fisheries ...