News

CLOSING DATE: 17 SEPTEMBER 2023

The Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) Ocean Nexus Program at the University of Wollongong is recruiting an innovative post-doc researcher to undertake research into equity and transboundary fisheries governance, focusing on tuna fisheries in the Indo-Pacific region.

Quentin Hanich and Laura Osborne recently wrote and presented a paper in Busan, Korea that discusses illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing through the lens of social equity. Watch their presentation here!

Ocean governance is characterised by a lack of equity in terms of inclusivity and meaningful participation by diverse actors. Our Perspective paper uses four different case studies to demonstrate how the exercise of power can lead to inequitable outcomes in ocean governance. In doing so, we acknowledge and validate the experience of those who are on the receiving end of exercised power and are regularly facing the challenges described in this paper.

From the 8th to the 12th of May the members of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) met for the 27th Session in Mauritius and ANCORS attended this meeting as an observer. This year’s key issues were the management of drifting Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and the need to reduce the allocated catch for yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna, which are both currently overfished and overfishing is occurring.

The study, published in Science Advances, found that these squid fishing vessels fished largely (86%) in unregulated areas, equating to 4.4 million total hours of fishing time between 2017-2020. While unregulated fishing is not necessarily illegal, it presents challenges for fisheries sustainability and resource equity, and has been connected to questionable human rights and labor practices.

ANCORS attends the first face-to-face Commission meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission since COVID-19

ANCORS attends the first face-to-face Commission meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission since COVID-19

ANCORS researchers Kamal Azmi and Quentin Hanich, together with Global Fishing Watch, held a workshop in July 2022 with vessel operators and other experts to strengthen understanding of these sensitivities around data sharing and to ensure that efforts to improve transparency do not undermine these concerns.

The 2022 meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was held from 24 October to 4 November at the Commission headquarters in Hobart. This was the first meeting for Ecuador as a member of the Commission. Ecuador’s admission brings the total number of Commission members to 27.