Ocean Issues: Seafood sustainability

California State University, Channel Islands ESRM 462: Coastal and Marine Management - Fisheries Biology


The Monterey Bay Aquaruim Seafood Watch Program provides tools to help everyone choose more sustainable sources of seafood. Here's a link to their great website.





As we discussed in class, recent studies have quantified the global economic contribution of fisheries and examined the negative social and economic impacts of overfishing. Here's the link to some studies of the importance of global fisheries. You'll also find links there to excellent summaries of this work in the Pew Ocean Science Series.

In class we'll mostly be discussing wild capture fisheries, but if you're interested in aquaculture, here is a link to a recent article that discusses recent advances in aquaculture. You might also want to check out links to books and articles found on the suggested reading page.


Amazing predator-prey interactions here:

Ocean Issues: Island conservation

This month I'll be guest lecturing at California State University, Channel Islands in the Environmental Sciences and Resource Management department. In the ESRM 313 Conservation Biology class we'll be discussing Island Conservation and Management, focusing on specific case studies of resource use and conservation on islands.


Photo via The Nature Conservancy


One of the case studies we will be discussing is the Santa Cruz Island Restoration in the California Channel Islands.

• Watch the "Restoring Balance: Santa Cruz Island" video here. 

• Feral pigs facilitate hyperpredation by golden eagles and
  indirectly cause the decline of the island fox Roemer et al. 2001 

Another case study we will explore is the conservation of the Crested Iguana in Fiji.

Here's a link to an interesting story of conservation conflicts in the Galapagos islands.

Dr Clare Wormald

Ocean Inspiration: Pacific barreleye

As we discuss during our class, the diversity of fishes is amazing. See this photo gallery and video of the curious barreleye at the National Geographic website.

Ocean Issues: Aquaculture

Are we at "the end of the line" of ocean exploitation? Is aquaculture the solution to the problem of overfishing? Here's a link to an article by Bryan Walsh published in Time magazine that discusses the issues.




Other interesting books and articles can be found and linked to at the Suggested Reading page.