With overfishing scarring marine ecosystems and becoming an alarmingly global phenomenon, a study titled Updated Estimates and Analysis of Global Fisheries Subsidies urgently underscores the need for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reach a meaningful agreement within 2019 – 2020 to discipline or, ideally, eliminate fisheries subsidies that lead to overfishing and overcapacity.
This research, published in Marine Policy, is conducted by SPPGA and UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Professor Rashid Sumaila amongst other researchers. They aim to unravel the current realities of capacity-enhancing subsidies – the bulk of which still remains in place. Compiling data from a subsidy database to provide estimates on subsidies expenditures, the study analyzes at national, regional and global levels in a concerted effort to propel a global collaboration to achieve worldwide sustainability in fisheries for the benefit of marine health and for consumers.
Learn more about the study here!
