Fisheries Management And Food Security
The purpose of our research efforts are to understand the degree to which fisheries management practices influence local people's ability to catch and eat seafood and how this affects human nutrition. Our overall hope is that improvements to fisheries management will lead to a rehabilitation of local fish stocks, stabilizing food security and improving human nutrition. To study this, we employed a prospective cohort study that was launched in 2015, enrolling nearly 1,000 individuals aged 0-60 in 225 households in five communities to understand the role of fishery declines (and the potential role of marine conservation) in relation to nutritional status. The five communities include two traditionally managed communities, 2 LMMAs (i.e. locally managed marine areas through interventions from Wildlife Conservation Society), and one marine national park. Through meticulous monthly collection of seafood catch data, socio-economic data, and clinical nutrition and health data, we will be able to analyze and model the potential for marine conservation and management efforts to benefit human health.
Special thanks to the Darwin Initiative (DFID funding) and the Wellcome Trust's Our Planet Our Health program for financial support.
References:
1. Golden, CD, Allison, EH, Cheung, WWL, Dey, MM, Halpern, BS, McCauley, DJ, Smith, M, Vaitla, B, Zeller, D, Myers, SS (2016). Fall in fish catch threatens human nutrition. Nature 534: 317-320.
- 2. Golden, CD. (2016). Aquaculture: Are farmed fish just for the wealthy? Golden et al. reply. Nature, 538(7624), 171-171.
3. Golden, CD, Seto, KL, Chen, OL, Cheung, WWL, Dey, MM, Halpern, BS, McCauley, DJ, Myers, SS, Smith, M, Vaitla, B, Zeller, D, Allison, EH. Does Aquaculture Support the Needs of Nutritionally Vulnerable Countries? Frontiers in Marine Science 4 (159). doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00159