Fisheries Agency

About: Fisheries Agency is a government organization based out in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Oncorhynchus. The organization has 343 authors who have published 437 publications receiving 10758 citations. The organization is also known as: Xíngzhèngyuàn Nóngyè Wěiyuánhuì Yúyèshǔ.

Global estimates of shark catches using trade records from commercial markets.

Abstract: Despite growing concerns about overexploitation of sharks, lack of accurate, speciesspecific harvest data often hampers quantitative stock assessment. In such cases, trade studies can provide insights into exploitation unavailable from traditional monitoring. We applied Bayesian statistical methods to trade data in combination with genetic identification to estimate by species, the annual number of globally traded shark fins, the most commercially valuable product from a group of species often unrecorded in harvest statistics. Our results provide the first fishery-independent estimate of the scale of shark catches worldwide and indicate that shark biomass in the fin trade is three to four times higher than shark catch figures reported in the only global data base. Comparison of our estimates to approximated stock assessment reference points for one of the most commonly traded species, blue shark, suggests that current trade volumes in numbers of sharks are close to or possibly exceeding the maximum sustainable yield levels.

Water Mass Variability in the Western North Pacific Detected in a 15-Year Eddy Resolving Ocean Reanalysis

Abstract: This paper describes a reanalysis of the variability of water mass properties and currents in the western North Pacific using an ocean forecast system, Japan Coastal Ocean Predictability Experiment 2 (JCOPE2), to provide the basic description and information about the quality for data users. We have created the reanalysis data with high horizontal resolution of 1/12° to describe the oceanic variability associated with the Kuroshio-Kuroshio Extension, the Oyashio, and the mesoscale eddies from 1993 to 2007. The products made by an eddy-resolving ocean model combined with the three-dimensional variational data assimilation well reproduced the mean water mass property in the western North Pacific and the interannual variations of the Kuroshio-Kuroshio Extension and the Oyashio coastal branch. From the reanalysis data, we found that both the mean kinetic energy of the Kuroshio Extension axis at the first meandering crest and southward intrusion of the Oyashio coastal branch were closely related with the horizontal distribution of both the Oyashio Water and North Pacific Intermediate Water within the appropriate interannual time scale. The reanalysis data also indicated that the north-south migration of the Kuroshio Extension associated with its regime transitions affected the decadal modulation of the Subtropical Mode Water formation in the recirculation gyre of the Kuroshio Extension.

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission

Abstract: Aware that many nations, including Commission Members, operate and deploy data buoys throughout the Convention Area and oceans worldwide to gather information used to make improved weather and marine forecasts, provide assistance to fisheries by generating data on sea surface temperatures, provide assistance to search and rescue efforts at sea, and collect critical data used to conduct research on meteorological and oceanographic topics and climate prediction;