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*how to use*/oceans/futures

Oceans Futures brings together data that has never been integrated, actionable, or accessible by national security, seafood markets, and conservation sectors.

How to Use - Oceans Futures - WWF

How to use | WWF / Oceans Futures

overview

## Overview

Learn how to use the map and dashboards to explore global fisheries conflict driven by climate change.

### HOTSPOTS VIEW

Zoom-in to our featured hotspots to move into the EEZ view and learn about the countries that make them up. Some high-order hotspots disaggregate into hotspot groupings depending on your zoom level. 

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### EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONES VIEW
Get an overview of the countries whose EEZs are contained within one of our top 20 hotspots and how they are connected. Click the X in the popup to go back to the Hotspots View.


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### CONFLICT DATA VIEW
Access at-a-glance statistics about the fisheries, socio-economic, and conflict context for each EEZ within a hotspot. Peruse the data cards for the values that went into our hotspot analysis. Click the tabs to rotate the display of Fish Migration, Fish Species, and Foreign Fishing (as applicable) to learn more about the major fisheries in an EEZ and the projections for biomass. Use the slider on the left to see how fish biomass is projected to change in each decade under two climate scenarios. Click the X in the data card to go back to the Exclusive Economic Zones View.


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faqs

We used both theoretical and data-driven understanding of what causes fisheries conflict to build select variables that will be leading indicators of future conflict. That  includes environmental variables (changes in fish biomass, the health of fish stocks, fishing effort, presence of marine protected areas), socio-economic variables (national economics, nutrition), and geopolitical variables (historical fisheries conflict, non-fisheries conflict, disputed international maritime borders). These data were combined to calculate a risk score for 281 EEZs around the world, and we report the top 20 regions here. [Full methods can be read here](/methodology).

How did you identify the top 20 hotspots?

Fisheries conflict is a dispute over access to a fisheries resource, broadly defined. That conflict can be non-violent or violent. It can involve individual actors (e.g., fisherfolk), entire fishing communities, fishing vessels active at sea, enforcement actors (e.g., marine park rangers or Coast Guards acting on anti-illegal fishing patrols), or even militaries (e.g., naval vessels). Conflict may result in no actions, changes in policies, arrests and detentions, abductions or kidnapping, the confiscation of fishing gear of fish catch, fatalities, and the potential for fractures in diplomatic or economic relations between nations. 

What is fisheries conflict?

Climate change is already causing fish stocks to move across international borders, from nearshore to offshore, and deeper. Warmer waters affect the respiration rates of fish who have evolved to prefer a range of temperature that optimizes their physiological processes. Climate change is also impacting the currents and upwelling within ocean basins, resulting in new distributions and abundances of the microscopic ocean organisms (phytoplankton and zooplankton) that form the food supply of fish. Our models take into account both the changes in physiology and food supply for fish stocks.

How will climate change impact fish populations?

The Oceans Futures partnership team aims to prevent conflict over fisheries by promoting sustainable fisheries management and supporting policies that aim to reduce illegal fishing. We are engaging with governments to increase the priority of fisheries enforcement and with the seafood industry to increase traceability of seafood products. Our goal is to raise awareness of the risks and the causes of conflict to spur action around the world to tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

What will you do with this information?

Our data are from public sources like the United Nations and International Monetary Fund, and from peer-reviewed studies by top fisheries scientists.
Read more about our [data here](/methodology).

Where did you get the data?

Do you have a question we didn't answer? **[Contact us!](mailto:contact@oceansfutures.org)**

how to useoceansfutures

overview

faqs

how to use
oceans
futures