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Asia's marine waters are divided into 13 Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs), which together generate about 50% of the global marine fish catch of ~110 million tonnes annually. Here, I carry out a comparative analysis and valuation of these 13 LMEs with a focus on fish values even though marine ecosystem valuation is much broader than the valuation of fisheries. The following indicators were employed: Catch level, landed values, and subsidy intensity. These are key indicators of a fishery because (i) catch is an indicator of the amount of fish available in weight for food security purposes; (ii) landed value is the firsthand value from which wages, profits and economic impact originate; and (iii) fisheries subsidy is a policy instrument, which if used wrongly can lead to overcapacity and overfishing. In the second part of this contribution, I use the East and South China Sea LMEs to further illustrate the value of ocean fisheries and some of the threats they face. To carry out the comparative analysis, I extracted data from the Sea Around Us and Fisheries Economics Research Unit databases at the University of British Columbia. I also rely on the data and analysis of the OceanAsia project supported by the ADM Capital Foundation Ltd of Hong Kong. The analysis suggests that Asian LMEs are crucial in terms of food security, economic and social benefits to tens of millions of people in Asia and around the world; are under strong overfishing pressure; and that action is needed through effective management to stem the overfishing tide in order to ensure that these LMEs continue to sustain the delivery of goods and services through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxygen is crucial for the survival of marine species. Yet, the ocean has experienced a loss of approximately 2% of its oxygen inventory since the last century, resulting in adverse impacts on marine life and ecosystems. In particular, changes in the gap between the supply and demand for dissolved oxygen lead to physiological and ecological variations, which cause alterations in habitats and food webs for fish and ecosystem services. These changes vary over time and by region, and the heterogeneous characteristics of marine species bring about non-linear consequences to human society. Despite this, identifying the potential ripple effects of deoxygenation on human society is challenging due to the integrated impacts of other stressors, such as global warming and ocean acidification, and their varying changes depending on environmental conditions and regions, such as upwelling and eutrophication. Therefore, we conducted a literature review on ocean deoxygenation and its effects on fish dynamics and the ecosystem, with a focus on the environmental and societal impact, to present crucial considerations and pathways for future research on ocean deoxygenation. We found that quantitative approaches are necessary to assess the dynamic changes under deoxygenation, and the consequent effects on marine ecosystems should be verified to exploit the natural resources from the ocean. One of the most reliable approaches to quantifying the ripple impacts of deoxygenation is to model spatial and temporal changes with other climate stressors, forming a global network encompassing socio-economic and regional effects of this global change to facilitate and improve capabilities to address the impacts of ocean deoxygenation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overfishing threatens coral reefs worldwide, yet there is no reliable estimate on the number of reef fishers globally. We address this data gap by quantifying the number of reef fishers on a global scale, using two approaches - the first estimates reef fishers as a proportion of the total number of marine fishers in a country, based on the ratio of reef-related to total marine fish landed values. The second estimates reef fishers as a function of coral reef area, rural coastal population, and fishing pressure. In total, we find that there are 6 million reef fishers in 99 reef countries and territories worldwide, of which at least 25% are reef gleaners. Our estimates are an improvement over most existing fisher population statistics, which tend to omit accounting for gleaners and reef fishers. Our results suggest that slightly over a quarter of the world’s small-scale fishers fish on coral reefs, and half of all coral reef fishers are in Southeast Asia. Coral reefs evidently support the socio-economic well-being of numerous coastal communities. By quantifying the number of people who are employed as reef fishers, we provide decision-makers with an important input into planning for sustainable coral reef fisheries at the appropriate scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The East China Sea (ECS) Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) is a globally significant fishing ground, but the absence of cooperative regional management impedes the future sustainability of ECS fisheries. To navigate around nationally focused perspectives, we provide an up to date synthesis about the socio-economic importance and status of ECS fisheries at the ecosystem level, which is currently lacking in the literature. Our review indicates that ECS LME fisheries contribute around 6 million t in catch and USD 13 billion in landed value annually, and employ up to an estimated 1.4 million, the majority of who are small-scale fishers. However, the fisheries benefits are threatened by intense fishing pressure and rapid economic development which exacerbates the effects of overfishing. The future of ECS fisheries also faces climate uncertainties, which has already been associated with shifts in species distribution and spatial distribution of fishing effort. At the LME level, political disputes that inhibit crucial multilateral fisheries management threaten the future sustainability of ECS fish stocks, and also weaken the effects of national management measures which have largely failed to address fisheries overcapacity and coastal marine degradation. Continuing on a path focussed on national interests without considering LME wide dynamics risks jeopardising the significant fisheries socio-economic and ecological benefits that accrue to all LME countries. Thus, our review emphasises the urgency for multilateral ECS fisheries management to enhance ecosystem resilience so that fisheries resources can continue to support the region's human, social, and economic well-being into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Kiribati's Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), located in the equatorial central Pacific, is the largest and deepest UNESCO World Heritage site on earth. Created in 2008, it was the first Marine Protected Area (MPA) of its kind (at the time of inception, the largest in the world) and includes eight low-lying islands, shallow coral reefs, submerged shallow and deep seamounts and extensive open-ocean and ocean floor habitat. Due to their isolation, the shallow reef habitats have been protected de facto from severe exploitation, though the surrounding waters have been continually fished for large pelagics and whales over many decades. PIPA was created under a partnership between the Government of Kiribati and the international non-governmental organizations--Conservation International and the New England Aquarium. PIPA has a unique conservation strategy as the first marine MPA to use a conservation contract mechanism with a corresponding Conservation Trust established to be both a sustainable financing mechanism and a check-and-balance to the oversight and maintenance of the MPA. As PIPA moves forward with its management objectives, it is well positioned to be a global model for large MPA design and implementation in similar contexts. The islands and shallow reefs have already shown benefits from protection, though the pending full closure of PIPA (and assessments thereof) will be critical for determining success of the MPA as a refuge for open-ocean pelagic and deep-sea marine life. As global ocean resources are continually being extracted to support a growing global population, PIPA's closure is both timely and of global significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the decline in science-based management in the Southern Ocean. Topics include the commitment by the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) to adopting marine protected areas (MPAs) in Antarctica, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CAMLR Convetion) which is a division of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), and the recommendations for CCAMLR on upholding its leadership status in resource management.

Marine social-ecological systems consist of interactive ecological and human social elements so that changes in ecological systems affect fishing-dependent societies and vice versa. This study compares the responses of marine ecological and fishing-dependent systems to environmental change and the impacts of globalization, using four case-studies: NE Atlantic (Barents Sea), NW Atlantic (Newfoundland), SE Atlantic (Namibia) and the equatorial Atlantic (Ghana). Marine ecological systems cope with short-time changes by altering migration and distribution patterns, changing species composition, and changing diets and growth rates; over the longer term, adaptive changes lead to increased turn-over rates and changes in the structure and function of the system. Fishing communities cope with short-term change through intensification and diversification of fishing, migration and 'riding out the storm'. Over the longer term, adaptive changes in policy and fisheries governance can interact with social-ecological change to focus on new fisheries, economic diversification, re-training, out-migration and community closures. Marine social-ecological systems can ultimately possess rapid adaptive capacity in their ecological components, but reduced adaptive capacity in society. Maintaining the diversity of response capabilities on short and longer time scales, among both ecological and human fishing systems, should be a key policy objective. The challenge is to develop robust governance approaches for coupled marine social-ecological systems that can respond to short- and long-term consequences of global change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]