About
Rashid Sumaila is Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics, Tier 1 and Professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA). Dr. Sumaila specializes in bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and the economics of high and deep seas fisheries.
Dr. Sumaila has experience working in fisheries and natural resource projects in Norway, Canada and the North Atlantic region, Namibia and the Southern African region, Ghana and the West African region and Hong Kong and the South China Sea. In 2021 he published the book Infinity Fish: Economics and the Future of Fish and Fisheries. He has published articles in several journals including Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Bioeconomics, Land Economics, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Environmental and Resource Economics and Ecological Economics. Dr. Sumaila’s work has generated a great deal of interest, and has been cited by, among others, the Economist, the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and the Vancouver Sun.
Teaching
Publications
Selected Publications
Sumaila, U. R., Wabnitz, C. C. C., Teh, L. S. L., Teh, L. C. L., Lam, V. W. Y., Sumaila, H., Cheung, W. W. L., Issifu, I., Hopewell, K., Cinner, J. E., Bennett, N. J., Folke, C., Gulati, S., & Polasky, S. (2024). Utilizing basic income to create a sustainable, poverty-free tomorrow. In Cell Reports Sustainability (p. 100104). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100104
Sumaila, U. R. (2024). Reflections on Breaking Down Silos in Fisheries Science. In Fisheries. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsh.11076
Sumaila, U. R., Alam, L., Abdallah, P. R., Aheto, D., Akintola, S. L., Alger, J., Andreoli, V., Bailey, M., Barnes, C., Ben-Hasan, A., Brooks, C. M., Carvalho, A. R., Cheung, W. W. L., Cisneros-Montemayor, A. M., Dempsey, J., Halim, S. A., Hilmi, N., Ilori, M. O., Jacquet, J., … Pauly, D. (2024). WTO must complete an ambitious fisheries subsidies agreement. In npj Ocean Sustainability (Vol. 3, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-024-00042-0
Sumaila, U. R., Alam, L., Pradhoshini, K., Onifade, T. T., Karuaihe, S. T., Singh, P., Levin, L. A., & Flint, R. (2023). To engage in deep-sea mining or not to engage: what do full net cost analyses tell us? In npj Ocean Sustainability (Vol. 2, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-023-00030-w
Florko, K. R. N., Shuert, C. R., Cheung, W. W. L., Ferguson, S. H., Jonsen, I. D., Rosen, D. A. S., Sumaila, U. R., Tai, T. C., Yurkowski, D. J., & Auger-Méthé, M. (2023). Linking movement and dive data to prey distribution models: new insights in foraging behaviour and potential pitfalls of movement analyses. In Movement Ecology (Vol. 11, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-023-00377-2
Sumaila, U. R., de Fontaubert, C., & Palomares, M. L. D. (2023). Editorial: How overfishing handicaps resilience of marine resources under climate change. In Frontiers in Marine Science (Vol. 10). Frontiers Media SA. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1250449
Vogel, J. M., Longo, C., Spijkers, J., Palacios-Abrantes, J., Mason, J., Wabnitz, C. C. C., Cheung, W., Sumaila, U. R., Munro, G., Glaser, S., Bell, J., Tian, Y., Shackell, N. L., Selig, E. R., Le Billon, P., Watson, J. R., Hendrix, C., Pinsky, M. L., van Putten, I., … Fujita, R. (2023). Drivers of conflict and resilience in shifting transboundary fisheries. In Marine Policy (Vol. 155, p. 105740). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2023.105740
Sumaila UR. France’s short-haul flight ban to tackle carbon emissions. Nature. 2023 Jul;619(7968):34. https://10.1038/d41586-023-02133-3
Schuhbauer, A., Favoretto, F., Wang, T., Aburto-Oropeza, O., Sala, E., Millage, K., Cabral, R., Sumaila, U. R., Lucrezi, S., Hsu, A., Tighsazzadeh, M. N., Cruz, M. P. de la, & Cisneros-Montemayor, A. (2023). Global economic impact of scuba dive tourism. Research Square Platform LLC. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2609621/v1
Sumaila, U.R., Walsh, M., Hoareau, K. et al. (2021). Financing a sustainable ocean economy. Nature Communications 12, 3259. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23168-y.
Helm RR, Clark N, Harden-Davies H, Amon D, Sumaila UR, et al. (2021). Protect high seas biodiversity. Science. Jun 4;372(6546):1048-1049. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj0581. PMID: 34083479.
Skerritt, D. J., & Sumaila, U. R. (2021). Broadening the global debate on harmful fisheries subsidies through the use of subsidy intensity metrics. Marine Policy, 128, 104507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104507.
Bendriem, N., Roman, R., & Sumaila, U. R. (2021). Enhancing land-based culture of coho salmon through genomic technologies: An economic analysis. Aquaculture Economics & Management, 25(1), 27-52.
Sumaila, U.R. (2021), Infinity Fish: Economics and the Future of Fish and Fisheries. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
Sumaila, U.R., Cisneros-Montemayor, A.M., Dyck, A., Huang, L., Cheung, W.W.L., Jacquet, J., Kleisner, K., Lam, V.W.Y., McCrea-Strub, A., Swartz, W., Watson, R., Zeller, D., and Pauly, D. (2012). Impact of the Deepwater Horizon well blowout on the Economics of U.S. Gulf fisheries. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 69: 499-510.PDF
Sumaila, U.R. and Huang, L. (2012). Managing Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean Sea. Marine Policy, 36: 502–511. PDF
Collette, B.B., U.R. Sumaila and others (2011). High Value and Long Life—Double Jeopardy for Tunas and Billfishes. Science, 333: 291-292. PDF
Pereira, H. M., Leadley, P.W., Sumaila, U.R., and others (2010). Scenarios for Global Biodiversity in the 21st Century. Science, 330(6010): 1496-1501. Read article
Sumaila, U.R., Cheung, W.W.L., Dyck, A., Gueye, K., Huang, L., Lam, V.W.Y., Pauly, D., Srinivasan, T., Swartz, W., Pauly, D., and Zeller, D. (2012). Benefits of rebuilding global marine fisheries outweigh costs. PLoS ONE 7(7), e40542, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0040542. PDF
Sumaila, U.R. (2012). Seas, Oceans and Fisheries: A Challenge for Good Governance. The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs 101(2), 157-166. PDF
Swartz, W., Sumaila, U.R., and Watson, R. (2012). Global Ex-Vessel Fish Price Database revisited: a new approach for estimating ‘missing’ prices. Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics, DOI: 10.1007/s10640-012-9611-1. PDF
Srinivasan, T., Watson, R., Sumaila, U.R. (2012). Global Fisheries Losses at the Exclusive Economic Zone Level, 1950 to Present. Marine Policy, 36, 544-549. PDF
Halpern, B.S., Longo, C., Hardy, D., McLeod, K.L., Samhouri, J.F., Katona, S.K., Kleisner, K., Lester, S.E., O’Leary, J., Ranelletti, M., Rosenberg, A.A., Scarborough, C., Selig, E.R., Best, B.D., Brumbaugh, D.R., Chapin, F.S., Crowder, L.B., Daly, K.L., Doney, S.C., Elfes, C., Fogarty, M.J., Gaines, S.D., Jacobsen, K.I., Karrer, L.B., Leslie, H.M., Neeley, E., Pauly, D., Polasky, S., Ris, B., St. Martin, K., Stone, G.S., Sumaila, U.R., and Zeller, D. (2012). An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean. Nature, 488: 615-620. PDF
Ishimura, G., Herrick, S. and Sumaila, U.R. (2012). Fishing games under climate variability: transboundary management of Pacific sardine in the California Current System. Environmental Economics and Policy, DOI: 10.1007/s10018-012-0048-0. PDF
Sumaila U.R., Cheung W.W.L., Lam, V.W.Y., Pauly, D., Herrick S (2011). Climate change impacts on the biophysics and economics of world fisheries. Nature Climate Change, 1: 449-456. PDF
Lam, V.W.Y., Sumaila, U.R., Dyck, A., Pauly, D., and Watson, R. (2011). Construction and first applications of a global cost of fishing database. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68(9): 1996-2004. PDF
Sumaila, U.R., Khan, A., Dyck, A., Watson, R., Munro, G., Tyedmers, P., and Pauly, D. (2010). A bottom up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies. Journal of Bioeconomics, 12: 201–225. PDF
Sumaila, U.R. (2010). A cautionary note on individual transferable quotas. Ecology and Society, 15(3): 36. PDF
Dyck, A. and Sumaila, U.R. (2010) Economic impact of ocean fish populations in the global fishery. Journal of Bioeconomics, 12: 227–243. PDF
Awards
Select Awards
- 2021 Named University Killam Professor, University of British Columbia
- 2020 Named Distinguished International Professor by the National University of Malaysia
- 2019 Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
- 2017 Volvo Environment Prize