🚨Advice release - herring management ICES response to the joint request from the EU, Norway, and UK to incorporate the Long-Term Management Strategy option MS3 in the advice for herring in Subarea 4 and divisions 3.a and 7.d, autumn spawners is published: doi.org/10.17895/ice...

🌊 Big news from #Vigo: #OSPAR Ministers agreed they will apply the #PrecautionaryPrinciple on #DeepSeaMining. Norway tried to block it but had to give in. This could seriously complicate their #Arctic mining plans. 👏 A positive step in the right direction. seas-at-risk.org/general-news...

Yellowfin tuna (fifth most fished species globally) gets half its food from the mesopelagic/twilight zone (200-1000m depth), with some getting up to 94%. With calls to start fishing in these zones, this study notes the major effect this could have on tuna & their diets. news.mit.edu/2025/deep-di...

Fisheries managers are legally obligated to maintain healthy ecosystems & balance the needs of fisheries & food webs. This ruling shows we are finally moving towards ecosystem based fisheries management & greater forage fish protection in the Northeast Atlantic: www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

Bottom trawl fisheries are socially complex. Banning them produces obvious ecological gains in pretty much all cases, but those bans have real consequences and governments must manage transitions carefully. Fascinating example of this from Malaysia: www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/g...

Plastic pellets are the building blocks of most plastic products. Small in size, yet harmful. @europarl.europa.eu and @consilium.europa.eu agreed to our proposals to prevent their spill and to cut it by up to 74%. We must protect our ecosystems and health from microplastics ↓ europa.eu/!r8tY4t

The high seas near Argentina are a squid fishing hotspot, with minimal rules in place for a species that we don't know enough about to set catch limits. A new paper proposes setting up a South West Atlantic Fisheries Organization (SWAFO) to tackle the issue: digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ils/vol106/i...

🚨NEW OPEN ACCESS PAPER🚨details how we delineated six #MarineFlyways using #seabird #tracking data & novel analytical methods ➡️ doi.org/10.1111/geb.70004 🧪 #ornithology #migration #BLScience @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social We are grateful to GOBI @iki-germany.bsky.social for funding the project 🧵1/5

Wow. Atlantic cod are wild fish whose population should be determined by ocean conditions, prey availability + other nature-driven phenomena. But instead, FOR *AT LEAST* 600 YEARS, fishing has been the main variable determining how many/what sizes of cod there are. Amazing paper.

Using light to attract + catch marine species isn't new - massive squid fisheries depend on this - but we didn't know til now that this works for scallops. Fascinated to see how this method competes with dredging on yield/cost/efficiency as it's clear on environmental impact, this wins hands down.

Marine ecosystem models: the future of ocean management and protection? Only if governments, private sector etc. understand their "plumbing and piping" i.e. the software and infrastructure that makes them work, enabling them to be adapted and applied #EBFM #EBM

The Ecoscope project blogged about my thesis. A neat summary of what kept me up at night for the past 4 years: ecoscopium.eu/news/article... #Ecoscopium

The frustrating thing is that the paper specifically recognizes that “lost yield” may be due to a specific policy choice to preserve ecosystem health, i.e. Menhaden in the US, but still chooses to “penalize” the US for that choice.

Interesting to see Norway (a prolific forage fishing nation) trying to better protect seabirds with minimal focus on fisheries impacts such as prey depletion. Northeast Atlantic seabirds desperately need better domestic/international forage fish management: for herring, sprat, sandeel, mackerel etc.

Still hope for coral reefs. Using 28-years of data in Seychelles, we find reefs recovering 4-5 years faster from the 2016 bleaching event, than they did after 1998. Also, a reef that had regime-shifted to macroalgae for over 15 years, is recovering to coral. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Great to see better forage fish protection in the Mediterranean through the adoption of two new harvest strategies (pre-agreed decision frameworks to prevent overfishing). This will help the fisheries & biodiversity of this historically overexploited sea basin: harveststrategies.org/blog/2024/11...

Good to see more coverage of the challenging North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission meeting in London. Many of the issues in NEAFC concern problems that have gone too long without being addressed, especially the mismanagement of the region's ecologically critical pelagic fish species. #EBFM

I have a new #EBM paper out in the ICES journal of marine science! This one was a great team effort to develop a performance measure framework for ecosystem-based management. How do we know if we are doing successful ebm? Read here! #OpenAccess #MarineScience academic.oup.com/icesjms/adva...

A fantastic write-up on a difficult meeting of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission by @mongabay.bsky.social. Work to do on reversing mackerel and herring declines, taking more account of ecosystem needs and improving how observers are involved in meetings: news.mongabay.com/2024/11/lead...

International fisheries managers have done a lot to protect marine biodiversity, but there's much more to do. Proud to have been on @deepseaconserve.bsky.social panel on this in the margin of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission annual meeting #EBFM #HighSeas www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-yea...

When making decisions that affect #nature, governments should be asking scientists bigger, bolder and broader questions. Fisheries managers specifically shouldn't just ask "how much yield can we get?" but "how do we restore biodiversity while optimising seafood production?"

Critical step to #MakeEBFMWork as the UK announces a domestic closure to sandeel fishing. Fish species like sandeel (that are central to the diet of many struggling, charismatic predators) need cautious management & this is a move in the right direction: www.gov.uk/government/n...

The world's highest governing body of fisheries (the UN Food & Agriculture Organization) can go beyond business as usual via a new forum launching next week. This group should help ensure fisheries managers play their part to "halt and reverse biodiversity loss". www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-...

Nice coverage of @pewtrusts.org and advances in ecosystem-based fisheries management in the Northeast Atlantic fisheries negotiations last week: www.seafoodsource.com/news/environ...