My guest today is Illegal Fishing and Transparency Analyst for Oceana, Emma Gee. I’ve been wanting to have someone on the show to chat about IUU fishing, and I’m so excited to share this episode with you! In today’s episode, we chat about how Emma’s non-marine biology degrees are helping to save the oceans, how we can look at historical ecology- what used to be in the ocean- and all about pirate fishing.
Connect with Emma: Twitter|Oceana Campaign
Quick Links
Barbara Block
Francesco Ferretti
Shifting baselines
Longlines
Bycatch
Shark finning
Catch per unit effort (CPUE)
Regional fisheries management organization (RFMOs)
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Indian Ocean Tuna Convention (IOTC)
Generalist v. specialist species
Shark denticles
Japanese fish printing
Stanford at Sea program
Sea Education Association
Hydrocast
Oceana
Global Fishing Watch (GFW)
Automatic Identification System (AIS)
Fishing trawler vessel
Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU)
Deep sea corals
Billfish
Baited Remote Underwater Video Stations
Blue shark
Shortfin mako shark
Show Notes
5:32 – Emma explains her thesis and how it relates to re-establishing baselines for various marine populations, especially for sharks.
6:21 – When determining healthy population goals, it’s helpful to look at the past, and avoid the shifting baseline syndrome.
7:12 – Sharks are caught often in industrial fishing processes. For her thesis, Emma is looking at how the populations of certain species of sharks have changed since the 1960s, as well as how the nearby community has changed since then.
8:43 – An historical study was conducted by the Soviet Union from the 1960s through the 1980s to determine where the most biologically productive spots were for longlining (so that they could direct their fisheries to go to those spots), but they were recording the species of sharks that they caught at a very high species resolution (to the species level), which is unusual and helpful for what Emma is doing now for her thesis.
14:13 – What has Emma found during her species work? Has there been a 70% decline in sharks like several papers have mentioned?
16:45 – Emma explains various ways scientists today can determine what shark populations were like in the past using historical ecology. Three practices she mentions are examining shark denticles, looking at shark attack records, and looking at Gyotaku — the ancient Japanese art of fish printing.
20:24 – As an undergrad, Emma participated in Stanford at Sea. Her project for SAS involved comparing coral reef bleaching to giant clam bleaching in the Pacific Ocean.
24:35 – Emma was a fellow at Oceana after she finished undergraduate school. Kara and Emma discuss some differences between the fellowship program and the internship opportunities at Oceana.
25:40 – In her current role with Oceana as an Illegal Fishing and Transparency Analyst, Emma tracks IUUs or Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing vessels. Emma explains certain behaviors that may potentially indicate a vessel is an IUU.
29:35 – Kara gives a breakdown on what exactly is meant by Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing.
38:46 – Emma and Kara discuss how issues with IUUs tie into other concerns with the fishing industry like labor issues and marine pollution.
43:35 – If Emma were given a blank check to use on any research or project, she’d consider researching billfish in the Indian Ocean, because there are fish like the black marlin that are caught for eco-tourism and there hasn’t been a lot of research on how that has affected their population.
45:21 – Emma’s field story involves a blue shark at night. After doing a lot of research that focused on dead blue sharks and blue sharks from decades ago, it meant a lot to see one live and in person.
49:05 – Emma has a short, two-minute conservation ask for listeners and as well as a longer, ongoing one. For the short one: Look up a video of a swordfish or a tuna, “because they’re such beautiful, magnificent, impressive species.” She admits that before doing research involving tuna, she just thought of them as “something in a can.” Emma’s longer ask is for listeners to ask where their seafood is coming from.