West Africa: illegal fishing, the black hole in the seas

In terms of human dimensions, illegal fishing in West Africa has several far-ranging implications for small-scale fishers and communities

Fish crimes in the global oceans

This study provides a global assessment of the linkages between observed fisheries-related offenses across the world’s oceans between 2000 and 2020. We analyze data from the largest existing repository with 6853 events reporting offenses across 18 fishing-related categories, including illegal fishing, human rights abuses, and smuggling. We find that at least 33% of all recorded offenses are associated with 450 industrial vessels and 20 companies originating from China, the EU, and tax haven jurisdictions. We observe links between various types of offenses for 779 vessels, with such “transversal criminality” involving 2000 offenses and crimes globally. This study demonstrates the ability to identify offenders and patterns of behaviors threatening fisheries sustainability at a global level and countries most vulnerable to transversal criminality. In light of concerns for widespread underreporting and impunity, we call for greater information sharing, interagency cooperation, and stringent enforcement to bring to account major offenders

Atlantic Shortfin Mako: Chronicle of a Death Foretold?

This article outlines recent events concerning the conservation and management trajectory of a highly migratory shark species, the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), in the North Atlantic, where it has been routinely captured recreationally and as part of commercial fishing operations alongside other species. Noting recent warnings concerning the high mortality of the species in this ocean region, and the threat of imminent population collapse, this article sets out a number of applicable law of the sea provisions, and carries out an evaluation of relevant measures for target and incidental capture species, discussing their applicability to the mako fishery. It also presents an analysis of regional and global governance actions taken to date by the international community and by individual actors, noting a number of shortfalls, and outlining potential responses

Technical Change, price arbitrage and price flexibility; the case of Lobster holding in Québec compared to Eastern Canada

Lobster (Homarus americanus) ranks first in Canada’s fisheries, but Quebec lobster represents only 6% of eastern Canada landings. During the peak of the fishing season in Quebec as elsewhere, supply is at its maximum and price is the lowest. For this reason, there has been considerable interest in Quebec in developing holding technologies that allow for price arbitrage over time. Such techniques already exist in other parts of Eastern Canada, but are less developed in Québec. This paper looks at the likely impacts of fishermen’s associations in Québec adopting lobster holding technologies that enable price arbitrage. We performed a technical and financial analysis that compared several alternative configurations of lobster holding technologies for Grande Rivière Québec. Of the configurations presented, a technique was proposed which seemed to maximize discounted profits. However, these results are nuanced by the fact that the overall effects of price arbitrage on the price signal over time may result in intertemporal resource rents being competed away. When we compared our results to other areas of Eastern Canada, this raised new questions about long term profitability, especially in a fishery such as Quebec, where management is based largely on input controls. We estimated a price flexibility equation as a function of lagged landings, seasonal dummy variables, the exchange rate between the United Stated and Canada, using SIMETAR-2008. A comparison of the two models, one from Quebec and one from Nova Scotia, suggests that investing in lobster holding technologies causes a smoothing of price variability. The results suggest that fishermen would try to maximize their profits by adopting an inter-temporal arbitrage strategy, but that profits in the absence of output controls, according to fisheries economic theory, could provoke an upward pressure on effective effort which would then accelerate the open access solution. This could negate the price arbitrage effect.Keywords: Fish and Aquaculture Sectors Development, Bioeconomic Analysis of Fisheries, Fisheries Economic

Identification de la conductivité thermique d'un polymère semi-cristallin en exploitant la mesure de température au c ur d'une pièce moulée par injection

La conductivité thermique des matériaux polymères est un paramètre déterminant pour l'étude de l'influence de la mise en uvre sur l'évolution des propriétés mécaniques des objets moulés. L'objectif de ce travail est d'identifier la conductivité thermique d'un polymère semi-cristallin en exploitant les mesures de température au c ur d'une pièce moulée par injection. La méthode adoptée est basée sur un calcul inverse par recalage éléments finis. Les résultats obtenus sont comparés aux mesures expérimentales obtenues par conductivimètre

Détermination de la répartition spatiale optimale des sources thermiques dans un plateau chauffant

International audienceDans ce travail, on s'intéresse à l'optimisation du chauffage d'un outillage (plateau chauffant) utilisé dans la mise en forme de matériaux composites à hautes températures (~400°C). L'objectif recherché est d'assurer la maîtrise du champ de température en tout point à la surface de l'outillage qui doit reproduire un champ consigne donné afin de chauffer un moule ayant une forme complexe. Pour ce faire, une procédure a été mise en place afin de déterminer la répartition spatiale optimale des sources thermiques de chauffage. La démarche proposée comporte deux étapes : (i) la définition d'une courbe paramétrée qui définit la répartition spatiale des sources de chauffage dans l'épaisseur du plateau chauffant et (ii) l'utilisation d'une méthode inverse couplant un algorithme d'optimisation stochastique avec un code de calcul par éléments finis. Cette deuxième étape permet d'ajuster cette courbe afin d'obtenir un champ de température simulé le plus proche possible de celui voulu à la surface du plateau. On étudie l'évolution de cet écart entre les champs de température ainsi que la consommation énergétique en fonction du nombre de sources retenu. Nomenclature (11 points, 2 colonnes) H Hauteur (m) Valeur maximale de (°C) L Largeur (m) Température normalisée entre [0,1] et Paramètres de la courbe à optimiser Courbe paramétrée Température consigne (°C) Ecart quadratique moyen (°C) Valeur minimale de (°C