Target 14.6 Inform policy
By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation
IUU Fishing Conference
The FIU’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy hosted the IUU Fishing Conference where Southern Command and other key groups emphasized the need for international cooperation, collaboration, leveraged technology, and transparency to address illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The conference reached more than 3,000 viewers from more than 49 countries.
Policy Research
Scholars within FIU’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy are researching reporting in subsidies of Chinese fisheries and drops in domestic subsidies spending. Our marine scientists are conducting international research on challenges caused by bycatch — the unintended capture and discarding of marine animals that fishermen cannot sell. In recent years, these scientists have advocated for solutions to bycatch including better methods for fishing and the denial of subsidies to repeat offenders.
'No-Take Zone' Advocacy
FIU researchers are advocating for a “no-take zone” off the coast of Colombia after one of the world’s smallest and most threatened hammerhead species was found to do very little traveling outside of a Marine Protected Area in the region. A team of researchers including FIU shark biologists Diego Cardeñosa and Yannis Papastamatiou, tracked the movements of scalloped bonnetheads inside a marine protected area (MPA) along the Colombian Pacific Coast, where this species still occurs in high numbers. Using acoustic telemetry, a technique that tracks underwater movements through sound signals, they determined the sharks spent a significant portion of their monitoring period within the study area. Research typically focuses on the large, iconic hammerheads, but very little research exists on the scalloped bonnethead — the smallest of the nine recognized hammerhead species — which is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List. This new study provides the first insights into the movement behavior of the scalloped bonnethead with important implications for its protection and management. The FIU scientist have conducted studies in the area and provided data to support their recommendations. The findings have been shared with the local communities and, in a joint effort, the goal is to establish a no-take zone that prohibits the capture or removal of the sharks. The no-take zone would also safeguard the needs of the community and would be under the management of local stakeholders. The researchers note that shark movement data should be incorporated with the interests of all local stakeholders for an optimal MPA to be effective. The study was a collaboration between the FIU Global Forensic and Justice Center, the Guy Harvey Research Institute and the Save our Seas Foundation Shark Research Center at Nova Southeastern University and the Centro de Investigaciones Oceanográficas e Hidrográficas del Pacífico in Colombia.
CITES Shark Protections
In a groundbreaking decision, world governments awarded increased protections to 54 species of sharks during the 19th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). FIU biologists were in Panama for the 2022 vite. For more than six years, they have been advocating for the expanded protections. In 2016, the scientists were part of a successful international effort to have four shark species and nine Mobula rays added to the list of protected species when CITES convened in South Africa. FIU students and researchers have provided and contributed to research that helped form the foundation for the 2016 and 2022 proposals as well as additional listings passed by CITES between those years.