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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Service Organizations
Nassau, Bahamas – Dr. Daniel Pauly, a preeminent authority on global fisheries, will be the featured speaker at the Bahamas National Trust’s (BNT) public meeting on June 17th at 7:00 pm at the Retreat on Village Rd. Pauly will speak on ‘The Impact of Fisheries Catches and Global Warming on Marine Ecosystems.’ Daniel Pauly has devoted his life to studying the effects of fishing on the world’s oceans and has identified overfishing as a major threat to global food security. He is the founder and principal investigator on the ‘Sea Around Us Project’ at the University of British Columbia, which analyzes the impact of the world’s fisheries on marine ecosystems. He has developed software and new ways to view complex ocean data. This information is used by marine experts to model and track the extent to which global fish stocks are exploited or depleted. “The average person doesn’t care about fisheries data but they do care about having fish to eat” says Daniel Pauly, of the University of British Columbia, who is leading the catch reconstruction effort. “Accurate catch information is critical for understanding the pressures on fish populations.” He has vigorously denounced the damage done by heavily subsidized industrial fishing fleets and their use of technology such as bottom trawling. He is also leading voice for taking corrective action by establishing and enforcing marine protected areas to allow fisheries and ecosystems to recover. Nicola Smith is a marine ecologist from Nassau and a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, working with Dr. Pauly to “reconstruct” the catch by all fisheries sectors in The Bahamas from 1950 through 2010. This is part of a global project focused on identifying total fish catch, including previously uncounted data from many countries and spanning several decades. BNT was thrilled when Ms Smith approached the organization with regards to having Dr. Pauly speak at a lecture while he was in The Bahamas. “We hope that everyone who is interested in The Bahamas having fish for the future will make an effort to attend this lecture by Dr. Pauly, a recognized expert on global fisheries” said Lynn Gape, BNT Deputy Executive Director.
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