The Catch

This past week, Foreign Policy magazine hosted a live taping on Marine Protected Areas at the United Nations General Assembly. This discussion was moderated by Matt Rand, Senior Director of Marine Habitat Protection at the Pew Charitable Trusts.  

Joining Matt on the stage was: Monica Medina, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. She’s currently a distinguished fellow at Conservation International.

Joel Johnson is the President and CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

Editrudith Lukanga  is the Founder of EMEDO, an organization that supports small-scale fisheries in Tanzania and she currently leads the Secretariat of the African Women Fish-workers Network.

And Jim Leape is the Co-Director and William and Eva Price Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. 

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Reporter Caroline Losneck joins The Catch once again to share with host Ruxandra Guidi how Maine's iconic lobster fishing is adapting to new arrivals.

First, Losneck explores how green crabs, an invasive species, are being turned into a delicacy by the local culinary scene. And then, she visits a new training program that's helping to change the face of the fishing industry.

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Maine based reporter Caroline Losneck reports on how the state's iconic lobster industry is changing due to forces like climate change, a changing labor market, and damage to fishing areas. Caroline shares with host Ruxandra Guidi how local fishers are adapting by finding new sources of income and how communities as a whole are banding together to provide more resources to protect the industry.

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This week, Bali-based reporter Febriana Firdaus explores how Indonesia has been affected by environmental damage from land reclamation projects put in place to bolster the country's tourism industry. Land is a premium for this country of 17-thousand islands. And so the country is expanding its buildable land by dumping sand into the water, negatively impacting the small scale fisheries who live and work nearby. Firdaus tells host Ruxandra Guidi how these projects are hurting fishers both in Bali where the sand is dumped and in far away Lombok, where the sand is mined.

The Catch is going LIVE in New York City later this month.

Come be a part of our live audience on September 26th at 4:30 pm at Rockefeller Center's Studio Gather to hear from experts and fishers on how protecting our oceans can benefit everyone. Click the link here to reserve your seat for this special event. Space is limited.

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For today’s episode we head to South Africa’s southern coast, where journalist Rasmus Bitsch saw firsthand the tension between local populations and environmentalists over plans to expand designated marine protected areas. The country is moving forward to implement the United Nations’ 30 by 30 goals, which seek to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by the year 2030.

While environmentalists contend that this will actually help increase fishing stocks, many local fishers and others are skeptical of government plans because of the country’s history of apartheid and forced removal of locals from their land.

Bitsch relays to host Ruxandra Guidi what he heard from both sides on what it will take to build trust and protect both marine habitats and local livelihoods.

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Quito-based reporter Carolina Loza León continues her reporting from the Galápagos Islands. We hear how some fishers, frustrated by decreased yields and the dangers of harvesting sea cucumbers, have turned to tourism to make ends meet.

Elsewhere, efforts are being made to connect and engage fishers and scientists in a dialogue, in the form of a quota system. Its aim is to protect this fragile ecosystem and could be a model for cooperation elsewhere in Ecuador.

SHOW NOTES: If you’re a fisher, we want to hear from you! The Catch is hosting a live podcast taping at the United Nations General Assembly, and we’re looking for a fisher who has experience with marine protected areas and is either based in New York or can be in New York in September. Please reach out to us at [email protected].

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This season we kick things off off in Ecuador, where reporter Carolina Loza León heads to the famed Galápagos Islands to hear how a sea cucumber boom shaped the economy and current conservation efforts.

SHOW NOTES:

If you’re a fisher, we want to hear from you! The Catch is hosting a live podcast taping at the United Nations General Assembly, and we’re looking for a fisher who has experience with marine protected areas and is either based in New York or can be in New York in September.

Please reach out to us at [email protected].

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Coming up on Season 4 of The Catch, how fishing communities around the world are facing major global and environmental shifts—and are working to adapt. Follow and listen to The Catch wherever you get your podcasts.

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Over half of the world’s fish populations are likely to move from their historic habitats by the end of the century. Pushed by rising temperatures and changing ocean cycles, these migrating fish stocks could be the cause for our next international conflict. Between the end of WWII and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a quarter of the world’s conflicts were tied to fisheries. And experts expect this number to rise as fishing grounds shift, reliance on the oceans for food increase, and maritime borders move with sea level change. What can be done to prevent this next global conflict?

Foreign Policy teamed up with the Walton Family Foundation for a live podcast taping at COP28.

PANELISTS:

Manuel Barange, Assistant Director General and Director Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Sarah Glaser, Senior Director, Oceans Futures, World Wildlife Fund

Rashid Sumaila, University Killam Professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Fisheries Economic Research Institute, OceanCanada Partnership, The University of British Columbia

Dr. Manumatavai Tupou-Rosen, Director General, Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency

MODERATOR: Rebecca Hubbard, Director, High Seas Alliance

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What can the Arctic region tell us about fisheries conflicts in the future? On our final episode of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi and co-reporter Eskild Johansen head to the island of Svalbard to see how geopolitical tensions between Russia and Norway are playing out firsthand. Guidi is then joined by former U.S. diplomat Evan Bloom to hear how diplomacy and cooperation have shaped the Arctic region.

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