Changing climate and Pacific fisheries

SPC Press release:

Changing climate and Pacific fisheries: Photo competition

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (www.spc.int) needs your eye and talent to create awareness and help ensure the Pacific region can continue benefiting from the wealth of its fisheries. Changes in the climate can be expected to affect our lives as they alter life underwater. Your best pictures can help illustrate a book that compiles the work of 70 scientists over the last two years. The winner receives USD 1,000! See SPC's photo competition webpage for details.

Many of us make a living from the fish our waters bountifully provide, while visitors come from around the world to admire the splendour of our tropical seabed. Fish is the cornerstone of food security in the Pacific, and fisheries and aquaculture represent a significant share of the gross domestic products of many Pacific Island countries.

Yet worldwide, emissions of carbon dioxide are affecting the climate, and driving changes to the oceans. For example, increases in water temperature are projected to alter currents, strengthen storms, degrade the coral reefs fish depend on, and increase risks of fish and shellfish diseases. Some fish species are likely to move to other waters, some may adapt; others will probably disappear.

How will this affect us? How do we adapt and plan ahead?

SPC is compiling a comprehensive analysis titled ‘Vulnerability of fisheries and aquaculture in the Pacific to climate change’. It will describe the projected changes to the atmosphere and ocean, assess the impact of these changes on the ecosystems that support fisheries (ocean food chains, coral reefs, coastal and freshwater habitats), evaluate the consequences for the abundance and distribution of fish and shellfish, identify the implications for local economies and food security, and recommend measures to enable communities and industry to adapt.

Have you seen it?

No doubt many of you are noticing the effects of climate while diving on the reef, out at sea fighting the storm, fishing in the river, or on the shrimp farm… SPC’s publication will be a peer-reviewed scientific document, intended for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as a manual with practical solutions for the Pacific Community. To highlight the key issues, SPC needs your best pictures.

The winning photograph will be used for the cover of the book and the winner will be awarded USD 1,000. This picture should emphasise the effects of climate on oceanic or coastal fishing activities. Priority will be given to photos with people actively fishing, and with fish in the image.

Another 30 to 40 photographs are needed for the book – excellent images of Pacific fisheries activities (people catching and selling fish and shellfish, fish processing plants, fish farms, fishing boats) as well as the fish and their various habitats (coral reefs, mangroves, sea grasses, rivers, lakes). Photographers can send as many images as they wish and will receive USD 100 for each selected picture to be used freely by SPC (with the name of the photographer credited).

Photographs must be sent by email by 30 April 2010 to photo_comp@webmail.spc.int Competition conditions and image specification details are available via the SPC website link above. The winner will be declared on the SPC website on 17 May 2010 and profiled on the website later that month.

ENDS.

© Scoop Media