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WASHINGTON - Total global fish production, including both wild capture fish and aquaculture, reached an all-time high of 154 million tons in 2011, and aquaculture is set to top 60 percent of production by 2020, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) for its Vital Signs Online service. Wild capture was 90.4 million tons in 2011, up 2 percent from 2010. Aquaculture, in contrast, has been expanding steadily for the last 25 years and saw a rise of 6.2 percent in 2011, write report authors Danielle Nierenberg and Katie Spoden.
"Growth in fish farming can be a double-edged sword," said Nierenberg, co-author of the report and Director of Worldwatch's Nourishing the Planet project. "Despite its potential to affordably feed an ever-growing global population, it can also contribute to problems of habitat destruction, waste disposal, invasions of exotic species and pathogens, and depletion of wild fish stock."
Humans ate 130.8 million tons of fish in 2011. The remaining 23.2 million tons of fish went to non-food uses such as fishmeal, fish oil, culture, bait, and pharmaceuticals. The human consumption figure has increased 14.4 percent over the last five years. And consumption of farmed fish has risen tenfold since 1970, at an annual average of 6.6 percent per year. Asia consumes two thirds of the fish caught or grown for consumption.
The fish sector is a source of income and sustenance for millions of people worldwide. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, for every one job in the fish sector, three to four additional jobs are produced in secondary activities, such as fish processing, marketing, maintenance of fishing equipment, and other related industries. And on average each person working in the fish sector is financially responsible for three dependents. In combination, then, jobs in the primary and secondary fish sectors support the livelihoods of 660 million to 820 million people----10-12 percent of global population.
Although Africa is only the fourth largest producer of fish in the world, its water resources are highly sought after by larger, more-competitive fishing trawlers. Extreme overfishing occurs when foreign trawlers buy fishing licenses from African countries for marine water use. In West African waters, foreign trawlers pose a threat because factory ships from the United Kingdom, other countries within the European Union, Russia, and Saudi Arabia can outcompete the technologies used by local fishers. In Senegal, for example, a local fisher can catch a few tons of fish each day in the typical 30-foot pirogue. In contrast, factory ships from industrial countries catch hundreds of tons daily in their 10,000-ton factory ships.
Wild fish stocks are at a dangerously unsustainable level. As of 2009 (the most recent year with data), 57.4 percent of fisheries were estimated to be fully exploited----meaning current catches were at or close to their maximum sustainable yield, with no room for further expansion. Of the remaining fisheries in jeopardy, around 30 percent were deemed overexploited, while a little less than 13 percent were considered to be not fully exploited.
A number of government initiatives give some hope to a future of sustainable fishing. In the United States, the Magnuson-Stevens Act mandated that overfished stocks be restored; as of 2012, two-thirds of U.S. stocks are fished sustainably and only 17 percent are fished at overexploited levels. In New Zealand, 69 percent of stocks are above management targets, but Australia only reports 12 percent of stocks at overexploitation levels due to increased government fishery standards.
To maintain the current level of fish consumption in the world, aquaculture will need to provide an additional 23 million tons of farmed fish by 2020. To produce this additional amount, fish farming will also have to provide the necessary feed to grow the omnivorous and carnivorous fish that people want. Aquaculture is being pressured to provide both food and feed because of the oceans' overexploited fisheries.
Continually increasing fish production, from both aquaculture and fisheries, raises many environmental concerns. If aquaculture continues to grow without constraints, it could lead to degradation of land and marine habitats, chemical pollution from fertilizers and antibiotics, the negative impacts of invasive species, and a lessened fish resistance to disease due to close proximity and intensive farming practices. To prevent these problems, policymakers, fishers, and consumers need to find alternative sources for fish feed, combat illegal fishing, encourage more-sustainable practices in aquaculture, acknowledge the potential effects of climate change on the oceans, and think critically about what and how much fish to consume.
Further highlights from the report:
The Worldwatch Institute was a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C., founded by Lester R. Brown. Worldwatch was named as one of the top ten sustainable development research organizations by Globescan Survey of Sustainability Experts. Brown left to found the Earth Policy Institute in 2000. The Institute was wound up in 2017, after publication of its last State of the World Report. Worldwatch.org was unreachable from mid-2019.
"This wasn't an accident. The far-right members of the Israeli government wanted to render Gaza unlivable with the aim of forcing 2 million Palestinians to flee (forever)," said one human rights leader.
Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are returning home after a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel went into effect Sunday, halting 15 months of war that local health officials say killed over 46,000 people. But for many, there are no homes to return to.
Footage of Gaza shows what once were houses, shops, and other buildings severely damaged or completely reduced to gray rubble.
One Gaza resident, Islam Dahliz, toldThe New York Times that he and his brother and father set out to find their family home—a once spacious two-story dwelling in Rafah—almost as soon as the cease-fire went into effect. What they found instead was unrecognizable.
"It took us a few minutes to accept that this pile of rubble was our home," said Dahliz. The house had been built by Dahliz's father, Abed Dahliz, in the 1970s.
"I was shocked when I saw my entire life—everything I worked for—flattened to the ground," said Abed Dahliz, according to the Times. "The home I spent so many years building, pouring my savings into, is gone."
Versions of this story are playing out all around Gaza. All told, roughly 90% of the population across Gaza was displaced from their homes, many multiple times, according to the United Nations.
"The images emerging from Gaza are haunting. This is a site where Palestinian captives were forced to strip, their clothes left behind among the ruins as a reminder of what Israeli soldiers did," wrote Assal Rad, a scholar of modern Iran, on X. Rad's post is accompanied by a video of a man showing a strip of land covered in clothes. In the video, the man says that the clothes are from Palestinians who were arrested by Israeli forces after they stormed areas in northern Gaza, like the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
In response to reporting of Gazans returning home to destruction, Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote: "This wasn't an accident. The far-right members of the Israeli government wanted to render Gaza unlivable with the aim of forcing two million Palestinians to flee (forever), "
Human Rights Watch, which late last year issued a report accusing Israel of committing "acts of genocide" by depriving Palestinians of water access in Gaza, wrote in November 2024 that "the destruction [in Gaza] is so substantial that it indicates the intention to permanently displace many people."
A preliminary U.N. satellite imagery analysis found that as of December 1, 2024, 60,000 structures in Gaza have been destroyed. The total number of damaged or destroyed structures constitutes roughly 69% of the total structures in the enclave, according to the analysis. A separate U.N. estimate published in January found that 92% of homes have been destroyed or damaged.
The footage coming out of Gaza underscores how long it will take for Palestinians to reconstruct their communities. The cease-fire deal that went into effect Sunday includes three phrases, the third of which is supposed to entail reconstruction of Gaza. Dima Toukan, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute, toldNPR that it's important to note the last phase could be a long way off, and could possibly never happen at all.
"There is still an incredible amount of work left to be done in order to achieve abortion justice in this country, and we hope this playbook serves as a guide to realizing that goal," said All* Above All.
Wednesday marked 52 years since the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in the Roe v. Wade decision that Americans have the right to obtain abortion care, but as the reproductive justice group All* Above All said as it released its Abortion Justice Playbook, marginalized communities across the U.S. faced barriers to necessary healthcare "even before the fall" of Roe in 2022.
With Republican-controlled states given free rein to pass abortion restrictions and bans, said All* Above All, "those inequities have only deepened, with millions denied the healthcare they need."
The threat to abortion access has only "escalated" as President Donald Trump returns to the White House, said the group, "as his administration continues to push for even more restrictive abortion laws at the state level."
While the U.S. government is now in the hands of a president who has bragged about overturning Roe, mocked the family of one Georgia woman whose death was caused by the state's six-week abortion ban, and whose vice president has backed a nationwide abortion ban, All* Above All emphasized that Trump's views do not represent those of the majority of Americans.
"The American people remain committed to protecting abortion access with Pew Research finding 63% support for abortion rights nationwide," reads the Abortion Justice Playbook. "Since 2022, voters in 13 states have enacted state constitutional protections for abortion care. State legislatures across the country have also sprung into action to protect abortion access in their states and mitigate the effects of restrictions in others."
"There is still an incredible amount of work left to be done in order to achieve abortion justice in this country, and we hope this playbook serves as a guide to realizing that goal," reads the 21-page document.
The organization was established in 2013 with the goal of repealing the Hyde Amendment, the federal restriction passed in 1976 that bars federal funding from being used for abortion care. The policy blocks abortion care for low-income people who are covered by Medicaid, even in states where abortion remains legal.
"This isn't just about policies—it's about people. It's about transforming a broken system to ensure that everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, can access the healthcare they deserve with dignity and without barriers."
All* Above All's playbook calls for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment through the passage of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act, which would ensure the "basic right to abortion care is extended to every person who receives care or insurance through the federal government. Additionally, it will prohibit political interference with decisions by private insurance companies to offer coverage for abortion care."
But with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress for at least the next two years, reads the playbook, "states can step up to serve as a crucial backstop in providing affordable abortion care" as abortion rights advocates continue to push for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment.
The group called on states to repeal all bans on insurance coverage of abortion, which exist in 35 states, and to require all health insurance plans to cover abortion care without cost sharing.
All* Above All said states should also expand access and affordability by:
"The Abortion Justice Playbook is a bold and necessary blueprint for building a future where abortion access isn't just restored but reimagined to address the systemic inequities that have long denied care to Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+, and low-income communities," said Lexi White, director of state strategies at All* Above All. "This isn't just about policies—it's about people. It's about transforming a broken system to ensure that everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, can access the healthcare they deserve with dignity and without barriers."
To further protect medication abortion—which accounts for 63% of all abortions in the U.S.—after the Supreme Court ruled last year that the abortion pill mifepristone can maintain its federal approval, the group called on states to repeal any in-person dispensing requirements for medication abortions.
Physician-only dispensing requirements should also be repealed, the group added, and state legislatures should pass shield laws to protect providers from out-of-state criminalization of prescribing and dispensing abortion pills.
In December, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against a doctor in New York who prescribed abortion pills to a patient in Texas.
All* Above All applauded 14 state governors who have issued 18 executive orders to protect abortion rights since Roe was overturned, and called on governors to take further steps.
Governors should use state budgetary powers to ensure providers can care for patients who need abortions, including by supporting abortion funds; protect medication abortion, especially at universities, through executive action; and direct state health authorities to affirm state and federal requirements to provide emergency abortion care, said All* Above All.
While many of the more than 90,000 local governments in the United States have used their authority in recent years to restrict abortion rights through "arbitrary permit denials, zoning restrictions, reductions in funding, and more," said All* Above All, local leaders can also "fight back against restrictions."
The group called on local governments in states with abortion bans to restrict funding so local funds can't be used in abortion investigations and ensure that criminalization of abortion care is local law enforcement agencies' "lowest priority."
Local governments in all states can work to repeal any abortion travel bans, remove arbitrary restrictions that limit where and how clinics can operate, prohibit local police from taking part in federal or state abortion investigations, and speak out against reproductive injustice by publicly supporting the EACH Act and other legislation.
"The Abortion Justice Playbook," said All* Above All president Nourbese Flint, "is our blueprint for a future where abortion access is equitable, universal, and free from discrimination."
One Texas bishop said the new policy "strikes fear into the heart of our community... when they are worshipping God, seeking healthcare, and dropping off and picking up children at school."
School districts, healthcare professionals, and religious institutions across the United States are in fight-back mode Wednesday after Republican President Donald Trump revoked a rule prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting undocumented immigrants in or around "sensitive" locations like schools, places of worship, hospitals, and shelters.
"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest," acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a statement issued Tuesday. "The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."
The unleashing of ICE agents for raids on previously protected spaces—which are refuges for children,
domestic violence victims, and other vulnerable people—is part of Trump's anti-immigrant agenda that includes "the largest mass deportation operation" in U.S. history, according to one administration official.
Religious leaders were among those condemning the move, with Mark Seitz, the Roman Catholic bishop of El Paso, Texas and chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, lamenting that the new policy "strikes fear into the heart of our community, cynically layering a blanket of anxiety on families when they are worshipping God, seeking healthcare, and dropping off and picking up children at school."
BREAKING: Trump has revoked a rule prohibiting ICE from arresting undocumented immigrants at or near "sensitive locations," like schools, places of worship, hospitals, & shelters." We need to act I list 7 tangible actions you can take to help protect immigrants: www.qasimrashid.com/p/trumps-mas...
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— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@qasimrashid.com) January 21, 2025 at 12:43 PM
However, communities across the nation also met Trump's escalation with renewed determination to protect their immigrant neighbors.
Dr. Katherine Peeler, medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement Tuesday that "no one should have to hesitate to seek lifesaving treatment because they fear detention, deportation, or being torn from their families."
"Eliminating protections for sensitive locations like hospitals will deter people from seeking essential medical care, putting their individual health at risk and jeopardizing public health," Peeler added. "This is part and parcel of the Trump administration's strategy to create a climate of fear that promotes discrimination and unnecessary suffering."
Some school districts in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Palm Springs and many others had already established policies to preemptively protect undocumented students by declaring safe spaces or refusing to cooperate with federal agencies. Others are now acting in the wake of Tuesday's policy shift.
School officials in Bridgeport, Connecticut said Tuesday that they are reaffirming their "commitment to protecting the safety and privacy of all students and families," partly by blocking ICE agents from entering buildings without permission from Superintendent Royce Avery.
"We will not tolerate any threats to the safety or dignity of our students," Avery said. "Every student in Bridgeport, regardless of their immigration status, has the right to feel secure and supported in our schools. I became an educator to advocate for all students, and I will ensure their rights and privacy are upheld. Our schools will remain a safe space where all students can learn, grow, and succeed without fear or discrimination."
The Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) in Minnesota's capital city is calling on its members to resist what it called Trump's efforts to establish an "authoritarian dictatorship."
"It is our turn to face down the authoritarian Republicans ruling our government," SPFE president Leah VanDassor said in a statement Tuesday. "Joining together, we can resist authoritarian efforts to divide us, refuse to comply with their agenda, and reclaim our birthright: making America live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all—no exceptions."
"There will be those in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and the Minnesota Legislature that will support [Trump's] orders, because they support replacing our democracy with an authoritarian dictatorship," VanDassor continued. "There will be temptation to ignore the role that white supremacy, sexism, transphobia, and xenophobia play in these actions."
"Some may have that option," VanDassor added. "But we don't."
Denver Public Schools (DPS) was among the districts that offered community guidance on what to do if government officials show up. School employees are advised to deny federal agents entry to buildings, alert occupants to impending raids, demand warrants from ICE officers, and seek legal counsel.
DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero explained in a statement last week that the district "is committed to providing equitable and inclusive environments where all our students feel safe and socially and emotionally supported" as "students, families, and staff who are undocumented are experiencing unease and uncertainty regarding potential mass deportation."
Even some MAGA Republicans are opposed to allowing federal agents to raid schools.
"If they do that, less kids will come to school," Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne toldPhoenix New Times on Tuesday, adding that it's not a child's fault if "their parents came here illegally."
Among those offering advice to her community on what to do if faced with an ICE raid was Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero, who said in a video posted on Instagram: "If you are a resident and ICE comes to your property, you do not have to open the door. The only way you have to open the door to ICE is if they have a warrant signed by a judge."
Others noted that Trump's new policy only applies to public spaces and that ICE agents need both a judicial search warrant and arrest warrant to enter private spaces and arrest people.
While some U.S. clergy have expressed trepidation about offering sanctuary to migrants in light of the new Department of Homeland Security policy, other said they will protect community members in need.
"It is really important to be present to let people know, we will be there wherever we can to support them," Father Larry Dowling, a Catholic priest in Chicago, toldABC 7 on Sunday.
Trump
lashed out against Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde on his Truth Social platform early Wednesday, calling the spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. "nasty" after she implored him during Tuesday's inaugural interfaith service to "have mercy" on "those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away" and who may not "have the proper documentation"—saying the vast majority of them are "good neighbors" and "not criminals."