The Link Between People And The Sea

Nippon Foundation
Nereus Science Conference:
Predicting Future Oceans

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Sea-ing the People

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Best Practices for Regional Fisheries Conservation and Management

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The Sargassum Mass-Bloom of 2018

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Legal Considerations Around Japan’s Announcement That it Will Leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC)

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News

People at a Workshop
In light on the new UN ocean treaty, Nereus member Harriet Harden-Davies and other co-authors highlight the need to address questions about capacity building as a key part of the development of new legal instruments under the BBNJ Agreement (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).
Bee on flower
Nereus member Matilda Petersson & Peter Stoett review articles published in the INEA journal to determine the lessons learnt in global biodiversity governance from 2000-2020. This work paints a picture of the main barriers to efficient biodiversity governance, and brings to light key issues to address in order to accelerate the process of protecting global biodiversity.
Fishing
Nereus member Julia Mason et al., have developed and applied a novel framework to build climate resilient fisheries worldwide. The authors claim this framework is a valuable starting point for critical application of resilience concepts to fisheries socio-ecological systems.
WTO building
In November 2021, the WTO (World Trade Organization), drafted and agreement on how to tackle harmful fisheries subsidies. Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor et al., provide a constructive critique to make this draft agreement more realistic and specific, and therefore applicable.
Tyler Eddy and several other Nereus members give yet another reason for the urgent need to meet climate change emission targets. Specifically, to reduce stress on coral reefs and restore their capacity to provide essential ecosystem services upon which millions of people rely on worldwide.
In spite of a pressing Sustainable Ocean Economy plan, Norway seems to be choosing a 'business as usual' route expanding oil and gas exploration. Accountability is crucial to attain sustainable ocean management by 2025.
Conservation of fish and other marine life migrating from warming ocean waters will be more effective and also protect commercial fisheries if plans are made now to cope with climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Science Advances.
The new Blue Paper "The Human Relationship With Our Ocean Planet", co-authored by Dr. Yoshitaka Ota, commissioned by the Ocean Panel urges us to recognize the ocean’s role in not just providing material goods, but different forms of wellbeing including cultural identity, knowledge & sense of place and belonging.
People at a Workshop
In light on the new UN ocean treaty, Nereus member Harriet Harden-Davies and other co-authors highlight the need to address questions about capacity building as a key part of the development of new legal instruments under the BBNJ Agreement (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).
Bee on flower
Nereus member Matilda Petersson & Peter Stoett review articles published in the INEA journal to determine the lessons learnt in global biodiversity governance from 2000-2020. This work paints a picture of the main barriers to efficient biodiversity governance, and brings to light key issues to address in order to accelerate the process of protecting global biodiversity.
Fishing
Nereus member Julia Mason et al., have developed and applied a novel framework to build climate resilient fisheries worldwide. The authors claim this framework is a valuable starting point for critical application of resilience concepts to fisheries socio-ecological systems.
WTO building
In November 2021, the WTO (World Trade Organization), drafted and agreement on how to tackle harmful fisheries subsidies. Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor et al., provide a constructive critique to make this draft agreement more realistic and specific, and therefore applicable.
Tyler Eddy and several other Nereus members give yet another reason for the urgent need to meet climate change emission targets. Specifically, to reduce stress on coral reefs and restore their capacity to provide essential ecosystem services upon which millions of people rely on worldwide.
Conservation of fish and other marine life migrating from warming ocean waters will be more effective and also protect commercial fisheries if plans are made now to cope with climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Science Advances.
The new Blue Paper "The Human Relationship With Our Ocean Planet", co-authored by Dr. Yoshitaka Ota, commissioned by the Ocean Panel urges us to recognize the ocean’s role in not just providing material goods, but different forms of wellbeing including cultural identity, knowledge & sense of place and belonging.
Solène Guggisberg was awarded the Gerard J. Mangone Prize 2019 for her article “The EU’s Regulation on the Sustainable Management of External Fishing Fleets: International and European Law perspectives”.
In spite of a pressing Sustainable Ocean Economy plan, Norway seems to be choosing a 'business as usual' route expanding oil and gas exploration. Accountability is crucial to attain sustainable ocean management by 2025.
Nereus alumnus Robert Blasiak (Stockholm Resilience Centre) wrote an article for The Conversation about the newest publication he co-authored concerning the Blue Acceleration. You can read it and access the original article here.
Nereus Program research associate Juan José Alava (UBC) wrote a blog for The Conversation about the rise in mercury concentrations in top marine predators due to climate change and overfishing, and the effect this has on human health, the fishing industry, and marine food webs.
School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA) master's student Sallie Lau (University of Washington) wrote a blog about her experience at the recent Nippon Foundation Nereus Science Conference. Both English and Chinese versions are posted here.
School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA) master's student Karin Otsuka (University of Washington) wrote a blog about her experience at the Nippon Foundation Nereus Program Ocean Science Conference in September, as well as her research this past summer in Miyakojima, Okinawa, Japan.
Leah Burrows (Science and Technology Communications Officer) of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) wrote an article about Elsie Sunderland's and Colin Thackray's recent publication on methylmercury bioaccumulation in marine predators for The Harvard Gazette.
Nereus research associate Lydia Teh (UBC) writes a blog about her and other Nereus colleagues attending the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research Conference (IMBeR) Future Oceans Open Science Conference in Brest, France.
Nereus Fellow Zoë Kitchel (Rutgers University) writes about fellows Katy Seto, Julia Mason, Tiff-Annie Kenny, Becca Selden and Harriet Harden-Davies discussing critically important themes concerning equity and interdisciplinarity in relation to how the ocean is studied at the United Nations building, during an Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.

Research

Global Environmental Changes

We are deepening our understanding of the relationship between our changing climate and the human-ocean ecosystem through the study of oceanography, chemistry, ecosystem modeling, applied mathematics and computing.

Marine Resource Management

We engage in applied research with clear policy implications on how humans use ocean resources. Our work hones in on the ecological, socioeconomic, political and cultural factors that shape marine resource use.

Social Equity for Oceans

We are working to address inequity and social injustice in ocean management by studying the socio-cultural implications of environmental changes, conservation burdens of various fisheries policies and socially responsible seafood consumption.

Oceans and Public Health

How are the health and wellbeing of individuals and populations affected by ocean conditions? Applying systems-based approaches, we focus on nutrition, food-security, toxicity and health risk assessments.

Law of the Sea and Governance

We study the legal and political implications of the Law of the Sea and the international ocean governance processes.

About Nereus

Working towards a sustainable future for the ocean and the people who rely on it.

The Nippon Foundation Nereus Program is a global partnership of 17 leading institutes working to advance our comprehensive understanding of the global human-ocean system across the natural and social sciences. Our research spans from oceanography and marine ecology to fisheries economics and impacts on coastal communities. Since our inception in 2011, we have engaged in innovative, international ocean research.
We pursue sustainability in a way that observes the location, identity, context, and history of the communities we work with as diversities to be embraced rather than differences to be overcome.