Solutions

Oceans and Fisheries

On Our Strategies

Protect Key Ocean Habitats

For fisheries, marine ecosystems and threatened species to recover, it is essential that Marine Protected Areas—where fishing is limited both legally and in practice—be expanded and improved. WCS conservationists work with partners around the globe to study the life cycles and the distributions of various marine species to identify the most important coastal and open-ocean areas for protection. We seek to support the efforts by governments around the world to expand protected areas to encompass 10 percent of the world's oceans by 2020. In addition, we support effective monitoring and management, so that protected areas provide sanctuary to fish and other marine life at critical life stages, allowing them to reproduce and repopulate larger swaths of ocean. We also seek innovative solutions to support the creation, management, and enforcement of marine protected areas.

End Coastal Overfishing

Fishing that occurs outside of protected areas must also be regulated. Coastal communities obtain a significant portion of the fish and seafood they consume from small-scale fisheries, where over 90 percent of the world's fishers are engaged. However, in many countries, these fisheries are largely unregulated. As a result, they are quickly being depleted, often causing larger ecosystem decline and hardship to coastal communities. WCS is working with local communities and governments to build co-management systems where communities, fishers, and government work together to manage their local fish stocks.

Steward the Recovery of Marine Mammals

As our closest relatives in the oceans, marine mammals were nearly eliminated en masse in the last century. While these iconic species captivate millions, their global populations continue to be threatened by increasingly complex drivers of change. Today, we use cutting-edge science to understand the modern threats they face on the road to recovery: the effects of sonar, shipping, oil and gas, overfishing, climate change, and other human activities.

Reverse the Decline of Sharks and Rays

Demand for shark and ray parts for meat, shark fin soup, traditional medicines, and other uses is driving relentless fishing of these animals. Compounding these pressures, sharks and rays are accidentally caught in nets set for other fishes. As a result of overfishing, a quarter of the world's shark and ray species are now threatened with extinction. In response, WCS is catalyzing a global effort to conserve the world's sharks and rays over the next decade. Our goal is to protect the most endangered species, build sustainable fisheries, regulate trade in sharks and rays, and reduce demand for shark and ray products. This will enable the recovery of these globally important fishes.

Inspire an Ocean Constituency

WCS is engaging the public in ocean conservation in part through our New York Aquarium. Thanks to the Aquarium, the over 10 million annual visitors to Coney Island encounter WCS's ocean conservation messages, encouraging many to become ocean advocates. In 2016, Ocean Wonders: Sharks! will open, connecting visitors to our work globally and further encouraging guests to engage in our local conservation efforts in the New York Seascape.