Dr. Deng Palomares and Dr. Nicolas Bailly joined this activity. According to Dr. Bailly, it was an informative event for locals on different organisms that are found just right under where they live. He also added that it was not destructive because all organisms taken from the bay was returned to approximately where they were collected.
SeaLifeBase Project Coordinator Dr. Deng Palomares will be one of these volunteer community scientists and she will be talking about fishes and FishBase. So if you're around the area, join her in the 4-hour event of interactive discussions on May 11-12.
The Northern Pacific Right Whale, Eubalaena japonica, is found in Northern Pacific waters around the Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and eastern Aleutian Islands.[1] It is an Endangered species according to the IUCN Red List. Having been a fish species since the 1500s, it was heavily exploited in the 1800s and illegally caught by Soviet whalers in the 1900s.[2] It is currently considered as the world's smallest whale population. For instance, the Bering Sea population is composed of only 8 females and 20 males, and the Western Pacific population may not be larger.[3] Current threats include ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, and possibly disturbance from seismic activities.[3]
To know more about the Northern Pacific Right whale, visit SeaLifeBase.
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[1] Shelden, K.E.W.; Moore, S.E.; Waite, J.M.; Wade, P.R.; Rugh, D.J. (2005) Historic and current habitat use by North Pacific right whales Eubalaena japonica in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.
Mammal Review 35(2):129-155.
[2] Clapham, P.J.; Good, C.; Quinn, S.E.; Reeves, R.R.; Scarff, J.E. (2004) Distribution of North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) as shown by 19th and 20th century whaling catch and sighting records. Publications, Agencies and Staff of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Paper 95.
[3] Wade, P.R., et al. (2011) The world's smallest whale population? Biology Letters 7:83-85.
What is forage fish? In the marine food and energy pyramid, they are the small to medium-sized schooling pelagic fish feeding on phytoplankton, i.e., primary consumers or grazers; or secondary consumers if they feed on zooplankton. Forage fish are prey to bigger fishes, like tuna and sharks; and marine mammals such as whales and sea birds. Because of the growing demand by fisheries, about 30% of the worldwide marine fish landings for aquaculture, livestock, human consumption and fish oil, forage fish are now in trouble of depletion [1]. The question now arises, what would be its ecological impact if this continues?
Over exploitation may result to decline in recruitment or reproductive success of both forage fish and its predators. As evidence, studies on large fish and marine mammals have shown decline, simply because of lower prey abundance [2]. In layman's term, if we continue to exploit the "little fish", sooner or later there will be no more "big fish" for us to catch and consume. So as early as today, we should push through ecosystem-based fishery management that will surely sustain the future generations of our kind.
Let us help spread the knowledge of conservation for a better future.
To know more about fishes, visit FishBase; and to know more about marine mammals, visit SeaLifeBase.
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[1] Alder, J., Campbell, B., Karpouzi, V., Kaschner, K., and Pauly, D. 2008. Forage Fish: From Ecosystems to Markets. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 33:153-166.
[2] Pikitch, E., Boersma, P.D., Boyd, I.L., Conover, D.O., Cury, P., Essington, T., Heppell, S.S., Houde, E.D., Mangel, M., Pauly, D., Plagányi, É., Sainsbury, K., and Steneck, R.S. 2012. Little Fish, Big Impact: Managing a Crucial Link in Ocean Food Webs. Lenfest Ocean Program. Washington, DC. 108 pp.
The adage Honesty is the best policy applies to almost everything, including fisheries sciences. Apparently, more than 90% of the marine catches in the African waters by China's "giant" fishing fleet is not officially reported to UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
This supposed gross misrepresentation of numbers, not only by China but by many countries as well, greatly impacts the creation of management plans that bases its data from FAO. Clearly, using wrongful statistics results to ineffective management plans which can lead to further depletion (and eventually extinction) of fisheries stocks.
