Widespread fishing of baby fish is a scourge that contributes to reducing world-wide production of fish and fishery resources caught in the wild by an estimated 700,000 tonnes each year since the early 1990s. Fishing baby fish happens to a large extent as a result of shrimp fisheries. They take out up to 80% of so-called 'by-catch', dead and dieing juveniles of other valuable species, which happen to be in the way of the trawl. They have little or no commercial value at that size and are thrown overboard. This is a tremendous waste, because they will never grow to a size where they can reproduce themselves and keep their population healthy and productive. Any fishery with too small mesh sizes or hooks operating in areas with lots of baby fish is very destructive. It affects also the once rich fishing grounds in Northwest Africa. The FAO - EAF Nansen pilot activities implemented by Mundus maris aim at promoting an ecosystem approach to fisheries by introducing the key concepts of ecosystem integrity and protecting people's livelihoods already at an early age in schools in Senegal and Gambia. The fish ruler poster - here for Gambia - uses wide-spread soda cans as a measure to draw attention of the minimum size at which overfished species will have multiplied, thus ensuring the sustainability of the resource base. Read more.
The Khadim School in Hann, Senegal, is actively involved in pilot activities in the framework of the FAO - EAF Nansen project aimed at testing teaching aids to support the introduction of ecological concepts into the curriculum, such as marine ecosystems approaches to sustainable fisheries. It thus provides concrete experimental opportunities relevant also to the efforts of the Regional Programme for Environment Education (PREE), which engages IUCN together with the ministries of education of seven NW African countries. The school has a track record of working on environmental themes, even before they received wider official recognition. Examples are some earlier efforts, such as beach clean up and drawing attention to the pollution from untreated waste from Dakar provoking unhealthy conditions in Hann Bay. These are illustrated in the article on the FAO - EAF Nansen project. For the profile of the school itself, read more.
The project about developing and testing teaching modules on marine ecosystems in pilot schools in Senegal and The Gambia is gaining momentum. Mundus maris, in collaboration with experienced local partners, Stay Green Foundation in The Gambia and UNI.V.ERE in Senegal, is developing a teaching aid kit, which will be tested in the first quarter of 2012. Five schools in Hann and Kayar (Senegal) and four schools in Gunjur and Tanji (The Gambia) will participate. The collaboration takes place in the context of pilot activities supported by the FAO's EAF Nansen project. Read more.
Welcome to the workshop 'Learning, teaching and practising - together - sustainable development'! What do young people need to know? What do they need to be able to do? What should they value enough to act upon when they graduate into adult life? What can we to together to be fit for the transitions and huge challenges of our societies? Considering that we have to feed and house 9 billion people by 2050, produce four times more energy while decarbonising our economies? Revert the impoverishment of the oceans, which lost more than 90% of their big species in the last century in the North Atlantic alone. These were key questions participants from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America discussed upon invitation of Mundus maris on 2-3 March 2012 at the Free University of Brussels. The wealth and diversity of past experiences shared by the participants opened new insights and a strong sense of togetherness and trust. New joint activities are on the cards. Read more.
Invitation to a conversation with the oceans including the awards ceremony for the best submissions from youth groups telling a story about the ocean.
Join us for a special event with arts presentations and food and drinks, 11 June 2014, from 18h30 to 20h in the premises of FARNET - 38 Rue de la Loi, 1000 Brussels.
“We are called to be the architects of our future, not its victims.”
R. Buckminster Fuller
Read more.about this event and discover more celebrations e.g. in Hann, Senegal.
Punctually for World Oceans Day 2014, our new newsletter is out! Read it on our facebook newsletter tab, or click here to see it:
"Listen to the Pulse of the Planet" was the call for a concert on 24 January 2013 in the Yehudi Menuhin Space in the European Parliament under the patronage of Vice President Isabelle Durant. Some 45 musicians from the European institutions and the children's choir of the European School Brussels II performed the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach.
The founder of the concept, Naomi Takagi, sees it as the start of a global initiative and says: "The universality, the unifying power and the healing nature of Music are acknowledged throughout the world. " Read more
Maria Damanaki, EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, spoke on 22 November 2011 in the European Parliament at a seminar promoting low impact fisheries. The seminar was organised by Seas at Risk, an umbrella organisation for environmental NGOs from 11 countries in collaboration with MEPs Anna Rosbach, Isabella Lövin and Christofer Fjellner. Research findings were presented showing that many parts of the Commission proposal for reforming the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) went into the right direction, but that some parts needed further strengthening. A particular plea was put forward to provide positive incentives for low impact fishing and to discourage destructive gear and fishing methods. In her response, the Commissioner commented that “we need the fish, but we need to fish in a smarter way...”. Read more
Some of us might wonder what marine litter is exactly and where it comes from. We all know the term “litter” and have seen it in some kind of form in our daily lives; an empty plastic bag drifting in the wind, cigarette butts on the pavements, empty drink bottles in the park or even remote idyllic places wasted by the presence of litter. What we see on land is not different from what is going on in the sea and thus the term “Marine Litter” has been introduced to describe discarded, disposed of, or abandoned man-made objects present in the marine and coastal environment. It consists of articles that have been made or used by people and, subsequently, deliberately discarded or accidentally lost. They originate from ocean-based (fishing vessels, cargo ships, stationary platforms, fish farming installations, pleasure crafts and other vessels) or land-based sources (littering, dumping, poor waste management practices, untreated sewage and storm water discharges, riverine inputs, industrial facilities, tourism, extreme natural events) and can be found all around the globe. Most sources of marine pollution are land based and some studies indicate that up to 80% of marine litter originates from land. Read more.
European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, opened this year's Slow Fish fair in Genoa, Italy. She was particularly keen on contributing to the fight against illegal fishing and healthy marine ecosystems. Mundus maris contributed specifically to two of the workshops, one on fishing in Africa and one on direct sales and traceability - another aspect of fighting illegal operations. In addition to these types of multi-stakeholder reflections, Slow Fish offered a variety of sustainably produced fish food, educational activities and promoted sustainable tourism. Read more.