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February 6, 2012

Oceana board member Dr. Pauly receives 2011 Grand Prize from French Ecological Society

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Dr. Pauly - © OCEANA / Concha Martínez

 

Last Friday, Oceana Board member Dr. Daniel Pauly received the 2011 Grand Prix from the Société Française d’Ecologie. Dr. Pauly, a French citizen currently based in Vancouver Canada, is one of the world’s leading experts on marine biodiversity and its protection. He is widely recognized the world’s most prolific and widely cited living fisheries scientist.

At the event, Dr. Pauly spoke of many issues, including how in the past decades, fleets from Europe, North America and Asia – with the help of vast amounts of subsidies – have spread so far around the globe that there are simply barely any areas that are not being targeted by ships with the capacity to fish deeper, and stay at sea far longer than ever before.

He also touched on the subject of harmful subsidies, something that Oceana has also been fighting to end for a long time. Dr. Pauly has been quoted as describing the fishing in France as “catching more subsidies than fish.”

His work has been recognized throughout the world, and we are thrilled to see it being recognized in France. Let’s hope they take heed in the coming months, when many of these issues will come to a head with the CFP reform process.

Congratulations Dr. Pauly

For those of you who would like to read up more about his work, you can check out this terrific New York Times profile here.