Deep Dives
Thought-provoking research providing extensive learning opportunities

Hidden champion of the ocean: Seaweed as a growth engine for a sustainable European future

Seaweed for Europe Fisheries & Aquaculture

Seaweed for Europe’s new report shows the economic potential of an expanded seaweed market in Europe could be worth €9 billion in just a decade. The report also finds that European seaweed industry could create up to 115,000 jobs in Europe by 2030 and deliver significant environmental and health benefits. Targeted investment, regulatory streamlining, increased research and development of new applications based on seaweed will be needed to unlock this opportunity.

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The Outlaw Ocean: An Exploration of Policy Solutions to Address Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor in the Seafood Industry

Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions (COS) and the Stanford Law School (SLS) Fisheries & Aquaculture Shipping & Ports

Largely out of sight, criminals pillage the oceans. They steal millions of tons of fish each year. That is a huge economic loss to coastal nations, estimated to be somewhere in the tens of billions of dollars. It is an even larger threat to food security; a billion people depend on fish as their source of protein, and in many of the countries that are most dependent, one fish in three is stolen. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing undermines governments’ efforts to manage their resources and undercuts the millions of fishers who are playing by the rules.

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A Sustainable and Equitable Blue Recovery to the COVID-19 Crisis

Eliza Northrop, Manaswita Konar, Nicola Frost and Elizabeth Hollaway, World Resources Institute Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports

This new Ocean Panel–commissioned report, ‘A Sustainable and Equitable Blue Recovery to the COVID-19 Crisis’, offers a timely and practical roadmap featuring five priority blue stimulus opportunities that are ripe for immediate investment of stimulus funding. For policy and financial decision-makers, these are ready-made solutions to unlock much-needed relief and resilience and build a fair, just and sustainable ocean economy fit for everyone’s future. 

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Living Planet Report 2020: Bending the Curve of Biodiversity Loss

Almond, R.E.A., Grooten M. and Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

Biodiversity – the rich diversity of life on Earth – is being lost at an alarming rate. This loss effects our own health and well-being. Today, catastrophic impacts for people and the planet loom closer than ever.

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Sustainable Ocean for All: Harnessing the Benefits of Sustainable Ocean Economies for Developing Countries

OECD, multiple co-authors Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

Adopting more sustainable ways of managing the ocean is a global priority: protecting its health will bring benefits to all.

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Can Blue Bonds Finance a fish stock recovery?

Mosnier F. et al., Planet Tracker Fisheries & Aquaculture

The oceans cannot sustain the ongoing imbalance driven by declining wild fish stocks and rising demand. A period of restraint is needed to allow ecosystems to replenish. We outline a proposal to facilitate this with the creation of a blue bond. 

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A Short History of Aquaculture Innovation

Jude Isabella and Shannon Hunt, Hakai Magazine Fisheries & Aquaculture

For over a century, aquaculturists have tinkered with every part of aquatic animals’ lives, from genetics to diet to where they grow best.

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The future of food from the sea

Costello et al., Nature Fisheries & Aquaculture

Here we examine the main food-producing sectors in the ocean—wild fisheries, finfish mariculture and bivalve mariculture—to estimate ‘sustainable supply curves’ that account for ecological, economic, regulatory and technological constraints.

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A sustainable ocean economy in 2030: Opportunities and challenges

The Economist Group, World Ocean Initiative BrightTalk Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture GreenMoney Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

Drawing on the latest data and in-depth interviews with leading experts in government, business, finance and conservation, this report provides valuable insights for all stakeholders working to achieve a sustainable ocean economy.

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A Sustainable Ocean Economy for 2050: Approximating Its Benefits and Costs

Manaswita Konar and Helen Ding Secretariat of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, World Resources Institute Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

The ocean faces urgent environmental challenges, but taking action to protect oceanbased ecosystems and ensuring the environmental sustainability of ocean-based activities will help deliver a whole host of benefits to society. The key question is how these benefits compare to the costs of action.

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A transition to sustainable ocean governance

Rudolph TB., et al., Nature Communications Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

A new relationship between humanity and the ocean is required to secure the continuity of the diverse life support roles provided by the sea. Ocean governance faces the challenge of reflecting the multi-dimensional and interconnected role that the ocean plays in environmental health, economic prosperity and human well-being including justice and equity.

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The Value of Restored UK Seas

Teresa Fenn et al., WWF Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

Our study attempts to value the economic benefits of an “ocean recovery” scenario based on ambitious action in these four areas between now and 2050, compared to what would happen if current trends continue. But these values are an underestimate: we haven’t attempted to model all the potential benefits, and of course it’s impossible to assign an economic value to the joys and delights our seas give us.

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PODCAST/WEBINAR: Seeing the Ocean as a Solution, Not a Victim

Nicholas Walton Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

The ocean has great potential to become a solution, but only if there's the political will to build a strong ocean economy. 

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Business for Ocean Sustainability

One Ocean Foundation BrightTalk Energy Solutions ESG Fisheries & Aquaculture GreenMoney Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

The ocean matters and has widespread implications beyond the ocean itself.

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The Business Case for Marine Protection and Conservation

Friends of Ocean Action Impact Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

Friends of Ocean Action Impact Report: The Business Case for Marine Protection and Conservation

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Increasing finance for a healthy ocean

The Friends of Ocean Action BrightTalk Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture GreenMoney Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

The Ocean Finance Handbook, is a guide to support an increase in finance flowing towards the sustainable blue economy. The Handbook provides a key resource to enhance understanding of finance for a healthy ocean and generate conversations between financial institutions and marine-based businesses, conservation professionals and ocean project managers.

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The Blue Economy and the United Nations’ sustainable development goals: Challenges and opportunities

Lee, KH et al., Environment International Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

The “Blue Economy (BE)” is an increasingly popular concept as a strategy for safeguarding the world’s oceans and water resources. It may emerge when economic activity is in balance with the long term capacity of ocean ecosystems to support the activity in a sustainable manner.

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The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

The HLP report offers the first comprehensive, integrated assessment of the mitigation potential of a suite of ocean-based activities: renewable energy, transport, food production, and ecosystems, and the potential future contribution from carbon storage if current concerns can be resolved.

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The Future of Food from the Sea

Christopher Costello, Ling Cao and Stefan Gelcich, High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy Fisheries & Aquaculture

This paper considers the status and future trends of food production through fisheries and aquaculture at regional and global scales; the opportunities of ocean-based food in achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger); and recommendations for how current barriers might be overcome to transition to more sustainable and abundant food production from the ocean.

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Maine's Shrimp Crisis Reveals A Big Climate Change Problem We're Not Talking About

Alexander C. Kaufman Fisheries & Aquaculture

When winter fell on this quiet, wooded island, instinct took over. Birds flew south. Trees shed leaves. Dain Bichrest set his alarm for 3 a.m. Reaching a calloused hand through the frigid darkness, he silenced the device, stretched and started a routine that finished with the sea captain boarding his 42-foot boat and voyaging two hours into the Gulf of Maine to fishing grounds teeming with Northern shrimp. It became so routine he’d start to wake automatically. 

Read more → (14 minute read)