Monthly Archives: February 2020

Two Saco-based fishermen are looking to score a wicked big catch, before a nationwide audience.

Zack Plante and Charlie Boivin will be featured on the ninth season of National Geographics reality TV show Wicked Tuna, beginning Sunday. Plante and Boivin were filmed last summer competing against seven other boats fishing out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where the show is based. Theyll be seen fishing out of their 35-foot boat, Wasabi.

The point of the show is to see which crew makes the most money from their seasons catch, while highlighting the competitiveness and drama on the high seas along the way. Boivin and Plante are among three new crews on the show this season, competing against several other boats that have been on the show before. As the only boat from Maine, Boivin and Plante the latter of whom a news release described as ready to stir the pot went into the show with a little bit of a chip on their shoulders.

These veterans whove been on the show for a while think theyre much better fishermen than everyone else, said Boivin, 38, who lives in Lebanon. Fishing for bluefin tuna is not an easy thing, but I know were as good as anyone else.

The seasons premiere episode will be Sunday at 9 p.m. on the National Geographic cable channel. The season runs for 15 episodes, with new episodes each Sunday at the same time. There is no prize at the end of the show, just bragging rights for the crew with the biggest haul. Though boats that do well might be invited back, and the fame of being on the show presents money-making opportunities.

I know a lot of these other guys (on the show) are in the chartering business. Once youre known for being on Wicked Tuna, everyone wants to be on your boat, said Boivin.

Neither Plante nor Boivin are allowed to say what happens on their boat, or on this season of Wicked Tuna beforehand. While the show mostly features boats based in Gloucester, other Maine boats have been part of Wicked Tuna before. The Portland-based boat Erin & Sarah competed in 2016, captained by Pete Speeches of Scarborough.

Plante and Boivin are co-captains and the only crew on their 35-foot, 39-year-old boat, which is owned by Boivin. Like all the crews on Wicked Tuna, they fish for the massive bluefin with rod and reel. Early in the season, they can start catching them three miles out, but later might venture out some 40 miles, Plante said. The fish range in weight from 200 to 700 pounds, and it can take anywhere from 45 minutes to seven or eight hours to land one, the two fishermen said. A big fish can be worth thousands of dollars at the dock.

Boivin, who also works for a company that installs power line poles, grew up fishing in lakes and streams in southern Maine. But he got bored with that hobby and looking for more challenges, he started helping a cousin on his lobster boat out of Biddeford. He heard about tuna fishing from other fishermen, tried it and was instantly hooked. He bought his boat a fixer-upper and began fishing for tuna commercially about eight years ago.

Plante, 28, grew up in Springvale and lives in Shapleigh. Like Boivin, he grew up fishing in lakes and streams but never really did much ocean fishing. He was working for his fathers excavation company in 2013 when he was in a bad accident on his motorcycle he said a car hit him after running a stop sign that left him hospitalized for a couple months. He suffered injuries to his spinal cord, legs, knee, feet and jaw and took about three months to start walking again.

A couple years after the accident, he was helping a friend run charter fishing trips off the Maine coast. Through other fishermen, he met Boivin, who introduced him to bluefin tuna fishing. He too was instantly enamored of it. When not fishing for bluefin tuna, Plante fishes on a boat out of Boston.

So when someone sent Plante an email saying Wicked Tuna was casting new boats, he thought it was worth a shot to apply. As bluefin tuna fishermen, he and Boivin always welcome a challenge.

This is something we care about, Plante said.

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Saco fishermen compete on new season of 'Wicked Tuna' - Press Herald

It takes an hour from the surface of the Indian Ocean, descending 3,000 metres in a submersible research pod, to reach the bizarre creatures that cluster around hydrothermal vents on the seabed. Youre in a titanium sphere that is about two metres in diameter, says evolutionary biologist Julia Sigwart, describing her voyage to Kairei hydrothermal vent field, east of Madagascar.

The vessel is equipped with robotic arms, probes and cameras like a manned, underwater version of the Mars rover. In lieu of seats, theres a padded floor. So youre hunched up together with the two pilots who are driving it and manipulating it, she says.

With not even a loo on board, its definitely on the bijou side for an eight-hour working day, but for Sigwart, director of the marine laboratory at Queens University, Belfast, the experience is worth it.

As you go down the light fades out rapidly. When you turn off the lights of the submersible you can see all of the bioluminescence of everything thats alive in the water all around you big and small. Its like a beautiful starscape.

While much of the ocean floor looks like a ghost town to the naked eye, the concentrated patches of life around hydrothermal vents are as densely, if not as diversely, populated as coral reefs.

The vents are where mineral-rich hot water, between 300C and 400C (572-752F), bursts out from below the Earths crust, swirling into the cold seawater like black smoke. These smoking chimneys loom up at you, out of the blackness. Theyre just incredible, says Sigwart.

One current evolutionary hypothesis is that the special conditions around deep-sea thermal vents sparked the beginnings of life on Earth.

But these rare and vital ecosystems are under serious threat from deep-sea mining for minerals such as zinc, used for car batteries and mobile phone circuit boards, say campaigners. You might expect that in open water, which does not belong to anyone, the seabed would be safe from commodification, but in 2019 Greenpeace reported that 30 floor-exploration licences had been granted worldwide by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN body.

Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep sea the area of the ocean below 200 metres, which is the largest and least explored environment on Earth, occupying 65% of the planets surface. Metals found there such as copper, nickel, aluminium, lithium, cobalt and mangen are increasingly needed to make batteries, smartphones and solar panels.

When will it happen?So far, 30 exploration licences have been granted by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN body. In total, 1.5m km2 has been set aside for mineral exploration (equivalent to an area the size of Mongolia) in the Pacific and Indian Oceans as well as along the mid-Atlantic ridge. No exploitation contracts have yet been allocated but they are expected to be given out as early as this year when ISAs Mining Code is expected to be approved. This will be a set of rules to regulate prospecting, exploration and exploitation of marine minerals in the international seabed area.

Why is it a problem?Critics are concerned mining could do huge damage to the deep sea and the creatures and ecosystems that exist there. Underwater ecosystems like volcanic mountains, hydrothermal vents and deep-sea trenches are still poorly understood. Many endemic deep-sea species could be wiped out by the creation of a single large mine, while more mobile creatures will be indirectly affected by noise and light pollution.

What can be done?Comprehensive studies need to be carried out to assess the potential damage to biodiversity before deep-sea mining goes ahead, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN). Fundamentally, the IUCN also says people need to recycle and reuse products so there is less demand for extraction of natural resources. Researchers have created a list of priorities for deep-sea conservation. The survey, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, included the responses of 112 scientists.

Phoebe Weston

Mining companies in Germany, China, Korea, India and the UK are among the recipients. Theyre not supposed to be used for commercial-scale mining, but several of the licences have been renewed and theyre into a second 10-year term, says Sigwart, adding that the ISA is currently developing a regulatory framework for commercial mining in the high seas.

The race is now on for Sigwart and other biologists to identify and learn more about the vent-dwelling creatures and lobby for their protection. Many are only found in these unique and isolated places. The vivid mottled orange snail, Gigantopelta aegis, has only been located in one area estimating 8km squared.

Elin Thomas, Sigwarts PhD student, has set to work assessing the vent species discovered so far against the criteria for the International Union for the Conservation of Natures red list. Because of its small, singular habitat and the threat of mining in the Indian Ocean, the Gigantopelta aegis is now classified as critically endangered.

Another colourful character on the vent scene is Alviniconcha strummeri, named after the Clashs Joe Strummer on account of its spiky shell resembling punk rockers. Its red list status is vulnerable.

In total, 15 hydrothermal vent species described fondly as super weird by Sigwart have been added to the red rist. The mythical-looking sea pangolin, AKA the scaly-foot snail, was the first to be identified as at risk (status: vulnerable). Resplendent in armoured skirts that would be the envy of any Roman centurion, the layers of black flaps around its foot, along with its helmet-like black shell, are a result of the very mineral riches that are attracting the mining industry.

The iron that precipitates out of the vent fluid, says Sigwart, is incorporated into the shell and the scales of the scaly foot. It hasnt grown an iron shell, but the available environmental iron on the surface has integrated into it.

The scaly-foot snail and Gigantopelta aegis are the most fascinating to Sigwart, because each has independently evolved a cunning way to bypass the whole kerfuffle of having to eat. All life around the vents depends on bacteria for energy. There are no plants, so the creatures have to either graze on slimy microbial mats, or eat each other. Rather than bother with any of that, however, these two evolutionary geniuses have an internal organ inside which microbes live, providing all their energy needs.

Its not all snails and germs down there, however. There are giant ghostly white crabs scuttling about, stalked barnacles, tube worms, shrimps and mussels. Different vent systems around the world have their own assemblages of animals. The first vents, discovered in the late 1970s, were in the east Pacific and are known for their metre-long lipstick worms.

In Sigwarts experience, people often assume these ecosystems are out of harms way, nobody can reach them. Its all fine. But its no longer fine, because now were on a path to developing commercial-scale deep-sea mining and vents are a target. We can no longer naively hope that the depths of the oceans are still pristine and untouched.

More and more, says Sigwart, its clear that they are already impacted by human activities. We find plastic in deep-sea sediments, the ocean circulation patterns are being altered by global climate change.

Crucially, she says, the tide is turning when it comes to scientists becoming more vocal about the animals that would otherwise stay out of sight and out of mind. Deep-sea biology is fascinating and exciting, and it inspires a sense of wonder in everybody, says Sigwart.

There are very few of us that have the privilege of actually working on these animals and habitats. We have a burden of responsibility to try to explain them to other people before the damage is done.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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One scientist's mission to save the 'super weird' snails under the sea - The Guardian

Key point:Emplaced on islands dotting the Pacific Ocean, HIMARS and kindred missile launchers could give Chinese ships of war a very bad day.

The feel-good story of last month comes out of the U.S. Marine Corps, whose leadership has set in motion a crash effort to field anti-ship missiles for island warfare. Grabbing headlines most recently is the high-mobility artillery rocket system, or HIMARS. In effect, HIMARS is a truck that totes around a launcher capable of disgorging a variety of precision-guided munitions. Some can pummel ships at sea.

And devil dogs will grin. As will their U.S. Navy shipmates. Americas navy can use all the joint-service help it can get as it squares off against China and Russia in their home waters. The Marine Corps Hymn proclaims that marines are first to fight, and that remains true in this age of Eurasian seacoasts abristle with long-range precision-guided armaments and missile-armed ships and planes prowling sea and sky. But that fight will commence at sea, not on distant beaches. Marines realize they may never reach Pacific battlegrounds without first winning command of waters that furnish an avenue into contested littorals.

Marine Commandant Robert Neller is fond of telling his comrades they must fight to get to the fight. His logic is remorseless. And marines will take up arms in company with navy and merchant-marine sailors who man the fleet. Expeditionary forces cant even begin prying open the halls of Montezuma or the shores of Tripoli until they defeat hostile navies and batter down anti-access defenses. But it goes further. In all likelihood, the fight will involve more than just the naval services. U.S. Air Force aviators may bear a hand in future high-sea imbroglios. Even the U.S. Army stands poised to get into the action as soldiers prepare for multi-domain operations spanning the terrestrial, airand, yes, saltwaterdomains.

In other words, future fights promise to be joint fights that mesh capabilities from naval and non-naval services. In that sense, the future promises to be a throwback to Pacific campaigns of old. Its fitting, then, that marine magnates are peering both ahead and back in time as they orient the Corps toward todays challenges. They want to harness newfangled technology to help win the war at sea while returning the service to its maritime heritage after seventeen years of battling insurgents and terrorists on dry land. In so doing they intend to bolster the efficacy of American maritime strategy.

First, technology. Nowadays sea power is no longer purely a matter for fleets. To the extent it ever was: that a ships a fool to fight a fort is an old adage, not one of recent coinage. Nor is sea power an exclusive province of navies. It is a joint enterprise whereby seagoing, aviation, and ground forces concentrate firepower at embattled scenes on the briny main to impose their will on the foe. The logic is plain. More and more shore-based weaponry can strike farther and farther out to sea as sensor technology and precision guidance mature. Fleets are beneficiaries of fire support from that weaponry so long as they cruise within its range.

Or as General Neller puts it, Theres a ground component to the maritime fight. Marines constitute a naval force in a naval campaign; you have to help the ships control sea space. And you can do that from the land.

And you can do it best from the land you already occupy. Emplaced on islands dotting the Pacific Ocean, HIMARS and kindred missile launchers could give Chinese ships of war a very bad day. If positioned along the first island chain paralleling the mainlands coastline before the outbreak of war, marines and their joint-service and allied brethren could plausibly threaten to bar access to the Western Pacific and points beyond. And they could execute the threat in wartime, confining Chinese merchantmen, warships, and aircraft to the China seas to exact a frightful economic and military penalty should Beijing do things the United States and its allies hope to deter.

The Marine Corps missile procurement blitz will be instantly familiar to Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). In fact, the marines are mounting a version in miniature of the PLAs anti-access/area-denial, or A2/AD, strategy. Chinas armed forces want to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet and affiliated joint forces out of the Western Pacific or take a heavy toll should they try to break in. Advanced technology likewise super-empowers U.S. and allied forces. They could strew anti-ship and anti-air missiles on landmasses comprising the first island chain while deploying additional munitions aboard aircraft, submarines, and surface craft lurking nearby.

Land forcesmarines and soldiers, American and alliedcan anchor the ground component of U.S. maritime strategy in Asia. Like A2/AD, island-chain defense leverages the symbiosis between sea- and shore-based implements of sea power. Joint firepower will help expeditionary forces fight their way to the fight. Or, in the case of the first island chain, likely battlefields already belong to allies or friends. Island warriors only need to hold friendly soiland as military sages from Clausewitz to Moltke the Elder teach, tactical defense represents the strongest form of warfare.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Beijing ought to feel flattered indeed. And dismayed!

Second, culture. Sophisticated implements like HIMARS accomplish little unless used with skill and verve. The naval services are trying to rejuvenate martial cultures deadened by three ahistorical decades. Once upon a timein fact, throughout their history until recent timesthe U.S. Marine Corps and Navy assumed they had to fight for command of the sea before they could harvest the fruits of command. In other words, they assumed they had to wrest control of important waters from local defenders in order to render seaways safe enough to land troops, bombard coastal sites, or, in the air and missile age, loft firepower deep into the interior. They had to make the sea a protected sanctuary.

In other words, they assumed they had to do what naval services have done throughout history. Yet service chieftains instigated a cultural revolution in 1992, declaring in effect that the sea services were now exempt from the rigors of peer-on-peer combat. That year they issued a strategic directive titled . . . From the Sea proclaiming that, with the Soviet Union dead and the Soviet Navy rusting at its moorings, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps could afford to reinvent themselves as fundamentally different sea services. With no peer antagonist to duel and none on the horizon, they were at liberty to assume away their most elemental function.

Not only could the sea services drop their guard; the leadership ordered them to. And they complied. Tactics and weaponry for prosecuting major combat languished in the wake of . . . From the Sea. The services first lost their fighting edge during the strategic holiday of the 1990s, and then while waging irregular warfare in the years since 9/11. Small wonder the services find themselves struggling to refresh their cultures for the new, old age of great-power strategic competition thats upon us.

Few in uniform today remember the Cold War, when the prospect of battle was a daily fact of life. Preparing for strategic competition demands more than upgrading equipment or relearning skills grown stale. It demands that officialdom and senior commanders imprint bloody-minded attitudes on the sea services anew. Only thus will they extract maximum combat power out of new weapons and sensors, assuring hardware fulfills its potential.

And third, strategy. If highfalutin technology and the cultural counterrevolution pan out, the U.S. Marines and fellow services will have positioned themselves to execute a strategy that could give rival great powers fits. Look back again to look ahead. During the late Cold War, the founding chief of the U.S. Office of Net Assessment, Andrew Marshall, exhorted the Pentagon and the armed forces to fashion competitive strategies whereby they could compete at a low cost relative to American economic means while compelling the Soviets to compete at a prohibitive cost relative to their means. Over time the approach would render waging cold war unaffordable for Moscow.

Competitive strategy is a mode of competition worth rediscovering. The United States and its allies are developing hardware and methods for closing the straits puncturing the first island chain to Chinese vessels and aircraft. In so doing they can deny China the access it must have to transact commerce, diplomacy, and military affairs in faraway regions. And they can close these narrow seas with systems such as HIMARS. While HIMARS anti-ship rounds are not cheap in absolute terms, dislodging rocketeers from Pacific islands would prove far more burdensome for the PLA. An allied strategy can compel Chinese forces to fight to get to the fightflipping the logic of anti-access and area denial against them.

In short, island-chain defense is strategy on the cheap in relative terms. Its an approach that would conjure a glint in Andrew Marshalls eye.

Lets call it a Great Wall in reverse strategy, with islands comprising the guard towers and joint sea power stationed on and around the islands forming the masonry in between. The legendary Great Wall was built to keep out Central Asian nomads who ravaged China from the steppes. Properly fortified, an archipelagic Great Wall can barricade China within the China seasand thereby force the PLA to compete on allied terms at a fearsome cost to itself.

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The Marine Corps Has A Strategy To Beat China: Island-Based Anti-Ship Missiles - The National Interest Online

After taking over Catalina Island last year for an epic edition of Groove Island, Groove Cruise Cali returns for another sailing from Los Angeles!

Whether its the infectious atmosphere brought forth by the GC Fam or the fantastic artists they book, theres nothing quite like the party that happens on the high seas while aboard Groove Cruise. Now, after a successful sailing out of Miami earlier this year, Whet Travel has announced that theyll be returning to the West Coast with a fresh edition of Groove Cruise Cali.

This year, Captains who set sail on Groove Cruise Cali on October 15-18will be treated to 72-hours of nonstop music to dance the day and night away from over 50 DJs, plenty of artist interactions and exclusive experiences, and six costume parties to attend among other fun activities on board the NCL Bliss.

Related: Check out our interview with Whet Travels Founder Jason Beukema for a deeper look at what Groove Cruise is all about!

Speaking of the NCL Bliss, this ship for this sailing is one of the best in the fleet with over 30 unique restaurants appealing to any taste and an amusement park featuring a racetrack, waterslides, mini-golf, aqua park, and laser tag. There will also be single staterooms offered for those who are traveling to Groove Cruise solo or cant find a roommate to split with.

Register now for your chance to win a stateroom for two and get first access to bookings.

While were not sure who will be taking the stage during Groove Cruise Cali if past lineups are any indication then were sure its going to be a fantastic time. Expect plenty of house, techno, and trance to dominate the lineup and keep your feet moving, sea legs or not!

The public on-sale begins March 4 via GrooveCruise.com with online with payment plans starting at just $92! Dont forget to use code EDMIDENTITY for a $50 per person discount!

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Groove Cruise Returns to the West Coast with Groove Cruise Cali - EDM Identity

Seablip's successful Kickstarter campaign recently ended, and it looks like the game will be launching sometime 2021. Though that may seem like a long time away, we here at TheGamer got our hands on some new scenes that might help pass the time.

Though Seablip draws its inspiration from Stardew Valley, the new pirate-themed adventure allows players to explore and battle on the high seas. However, the two games have one big thing in common: their art style. Similar to Stardew Valley, Seablip uses a pixel art style. Pixel art is reminiscent of a simpler time, but Seablip keeps things fresh with its breathtaking ocean views.

RELATED: Seablip: Everything We Know About The Stardew Valley-Inspired RPG (So Far)

TheGamer got in touch with Seablip's developer, Jardar Solli, who provided us with some exclusive, in-progress images.

Here's a closer look:

Seablip follows the journey of a captain who lives on a small island called Seablip. As captain, players get their very own ship that they can use to explore the game's massive world. However, the waters are brimming with countless dangers, so players must be wary.

Players can discover and visit various islands in the game and, according to Solli, this island (which can be seen above) is an important trading port. This likely means that players will be able visit this town to buy and sell various items throughout the game.

Although this image provides a glimpse of a desert island, part of Seablip's story will also take place up north, as there is a "mystic sound coming from the north" that players can investigate. This means that we'll also see a lot of wintery scenes with snow and icebergs, which could make for treacherous seas.

Since part of Seablip's story focuses on the "mystic sound" in the north, it seems like players will have a lot of exploring and investigating to do in order to find out what exactly is going on. The image above shows off an island inhabited by two tribes. These two tribes feel a close connection to nature and are therefore concerned about melting ice in the north.

RELATED: Seablip, The Stardew Valley-Inspired Pirate Adventure, Hits Its Kickstarter Goal

Though these two tribes live closely together, they are both unique with distinctive ships and weapons. Players will likely see a lot of different ships within the game as they explore new areas and meet new characters.

This image was provided to Seablip's Kickstarter backers and shows a cave occupied by the Bluecoats. In Seablip, the Redcoats and Bluecoats have fought in a seemingly-endless war for more than 100 years -- and it doesn't show signs of stopping anytime soon. Players are given the option of either siding with one group and fighting with them, or choosing to go rogue.

According to Solli, this cave is used to deliver weapons to Bluecoat forces. Should players choose to side with the Redcoats and visit this cave, we can speculate that this island might take up arms and fight against them.

Seablip initially gained traction on Kickstarer and has since more than met its funding goal. Though the campaign is now over, Solli had previously stretched the Kickstarter goals to include new features, such as fishing. Seablip is currently slated for a Q4 2021 release and we're hoping that we'll see more images and videos of the game as we get closer to its launch date.

Seablipis planning to release sometime in Q4 2021 on PC and Mac.

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Jen is a news editor who initially began writing for TheGamer in 2017 before working as an editor for Screen Rant. She is a part-time gamer and full-time cat parent based in Montral, Canada. She loves messing around with Photoshop and has sunk more hours than shed care to admit into some games, specifically ones that start with S and end with kyrim and others that feature a certain green-clad Hylian.

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Here's An Exclusive Look At Stardew Valley-Inspired Seablip - TheGamer

The Best of Times: The Musical Wisdom of Jerry Herman, a tribute to the Tony-winning composer-lyricist who passed away in December 2019, will be presented March 12 at 7 PM at Feinstein's/54 Below.

Produced and directed by Scott Coulter, the evening will feature the talents of Tony nominee Kate Baldwin (Hello, Dolly!, upcoming Encores! Love Life), Tony nominee Christine Andreas (La Cage aux Folles), Klea Blackhurst (Hello, Dolly!), Chris Blem (Matilda), Lexie Dorsett Sharp (School of Rock), Lisa Howard (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, It Shoulda Been You), Tony winner Cady Huffman (The Producers), cabaret favorite Molly Pope, Kelli Rabke (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), Tony nominee Lee Roy Reams (42nd Street, La Cage aux Folles), and Mark Waldrop (When Pigs Fly).

The artists will be joined by ASCAP Foundation scholarship recipients Tori Sicklick and John Peterson. John Boswell serves as musical director.

Herman, who, with Hello, Dolly! and Mame, wrote two of the most popular and tuneful Broadway musicals of the 1960splus the groundbreaking La Cage aux Folles in the 1980s and a handful of musicals and rousing show tunes in betweenwas the recipient of four Tony Awards, including a 2009 Special Award for Lifetime Achievement. Read the full Playbill obituary for Mr. Herman here.

For ticket information visit 54Below.com.

READ: Broadway Pays Tribute to Master Hit Maker Jerry Herman

Baldwin will be a special guest performer on Playbill Travels upcoming Broadway on the High Seas cruise, Broadway in the Great Northwest. Cabins are now on sale for Playbill Travels first domestic cruise, also featuring Tedd Firth, Aaron Lazar, and Beth Leavel (April 26May 4, 2020); for Broadway on the Mediterranean (August 31September 7, 2020), featuring Audra McDonald, Will Swenson, Gavin Creel, Caissie Levy, and Lindsay Mendez; for Broadway on the Nile (December 27, 2020January 7, 2021); and for Broadway on the Caribbean (February 1522, 2021), with performers soon to be announced. To book a suite or stateroom, call Playbill Travel at 866-455-6789 or visit PlaybillTravel.com.

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Kate Baldwin, Cady Huffman, More Set for The Best of Times: The Musical Wisdom of Jerry Herman - Playbill.com

A lineup of new and returning experiences are coming to Walt Disney Worlds Resort hotels this spring, including a chocolate workshop, Mermaid School, and more!

This hands-on workshop at Disneys Riviera Resort will offer a taste of The Ganachery, the specialty chocolate shop located at Disney Springs. Guests will learn from an expert Chef Chocolatier how to properly taste chocolate, see a demonstration of how to make ganache, and create their own chocolate truffle pops.

This class begins in March, and will be offered on Sundays at 11 a.m. Classes are $60 per person plus tax. Reservations can be made by calling (407) WDW-PLAY.

Back by popular demand, this experience gives guests ages 4 and up the chance to be mermaids with fun pool activities, complete with a swimmable tail just like Ariel. At the end of the experience, guests will now get a special medallion to commemorate their time under the sea.

Mermaid School will return on March 1, with classes offered at new locations. Guests will be able to experience this offering at Disneys Art of Animation Resort, Disneys Caribbean Beach Resort, Disneys Yacht & Beach Club Resorts, Disneys All-Star Music Resort, Disneys Polynesian Village Resort, and Disneys Riviera Resort.

Classes are $55 per person plus tax, and reservations can be made by calling (407) WDW-PLAY.

Let your inner artist out with this experience at Disneys Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. The two-hour board-and-brush-style workshop lets guests ages 8 and up design, paint, and take home their own rustic wooden sign. While painting, participants can enjoy light food and beverage options.

Crocketts Craft Corner is offered on Wednesday afternoons inside Trails End Restaurant and is priced at $75 per person plus tax. Reservations can be made by calling (407) WDW-PLAY.

Looking for a fun way to stay active on your Disney vacation? Try one of the many Fun Runs offered at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels!

Courses range from 1.2-1.8 miles at the following resorts:

Fun Runs are $15 per person plus tax, and include a custom bib, finishers prize, and a selection of snacks. Guests ages 2 and under are free, and strollers are welcome during the runs. You can reserve your spot by calling (407) WDW-PLAY.

Captain Hooks Pirate Crew is back at Disneys Beach Club Resort for another year of high-seas fun. This group experience invites kids ages 4-12 to go on an epic adventure with Captain Hook and his crew in search of hidden treasure around Crescent Lake, leading up to a pirate feast!

Captain Hooks Pirate Crew is a great way for kids to have fun in a safe environment while parents head off on their own.

This experience is $55 plus tax per child, and now through May 31, Annual Passholders can get 10 percent off the ticket price. Disney Vacation Club Members can also get 10 percent off, though theres no end date for that offer. To reserve a spot, call (407) 824-KIDS.

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Mermaid School and more coming to Walt Disney World Resort hotels this spring - Attractions Magazine

Abstract

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is widespread; it is therefore likely that illicit trade in marine fish catch is also common worldwide. We combine ecological-economic databases to estimate the magnitude of illicit trade in marine fish catch and its impacts on people. Globally, between 8 and 14 million metric tons of unreported catches are potentially traded illicitly yearly, suggesting gross revenues of US$9 to US$17 billion associated with these catches. Estimated loss in annual economic impact due to the diversion of fish from the legitimate trade system is US$26 to US$50 billion, while losses to countries tax revenues are between US$2 and US$4 billion. Country-by-country estimates of these losses are provided in the Supplementary Materials. We find substantial likely economic effects of illicit trade in marine fish catch, suggesting that bold policies and actions by both public and private actors are needed to curb this illicit trade.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) (1) fishing is global in nature, but more widespread in certain regions (23). This implies that IUU fishing is an important negative driver that needs to be tackled by both the global community and individual countries if we wish to secure sustainable and inclusive benefits from renewable marine resources (4). In the absence of truly effective national, regional, and international institutions, policies, and actions, and in the presence of international noncooperation, IUU fishing is undermining the ability of coastal countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations that the world has agreed upon (5). IUU fishing has the potential to exacerbate the detrimental effects (6) and losses that global illicit trade in marine catch has on individuals, societies, and governments, as well as nature.

The Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum defines illicit trade as trade that involves money, goods or value gained from illegal and generally unethical activity. It encompasses a wide variety of illegal trading activities, including human trafficking, environmental crime, illegal trade in natural resources, various types of intellectual property infringements, trade in certain substances that cause health or safety risks, smuggling of excisable goods and trade in illegal drugs, as well as a variety of illicit financial flows (7). For example, illicit trade in the arts involves people stealing, selling, forging, and trading artwork illegally.

We would like to stress that not all fisheries catches that are unreported can be assumed to be illegal. In many cases, small-scale, artisanal catches are simply not reported because there is no official or legal mandate to record and hence report such catches, or even if there notionally is such a requirement, no data collection system or resources are in place to record and report all artisanal catches in many coastal communities around the world (89).

Daniels et al. (3) identify two major potential channels through which illicit trade in fish is enabled. The first practice uses at-sea transshipments, which involves offloading catches from multiple fishing boats onto large freezer and processing ships at sea. This makes proper and transparent accounting of the origin and legality of catches very difficult or even impossible to achieve. For example, transshipment activities account for about 16% of fish exported from West African waters, and about 35 transshipment vessels were seen in West African waters in 2013 (3). Most of these were likely operating under flags of convenience (9), making accountability and transparency even more challenging. The second practice that enables illicit trade in seafood relates to how fish is transported for exports (3). It is estimated that about 84% of fish exported out of West Africa are transported in large refrigerated containers that are generally subjected to far less stringent reporting and inspection requirements (3). A third mechanism for illicit trade, in addition to the two channels mentioned above, is transport of illegally caught seafood into nearby local and regional markets to satisfy domestic demand in fisheries that are export-dominated. These three pathways are direct enablers of laundering illegal (10) as well as unreported or underreported catches into illicit trade. It is worth noting that transshipment is also a major enabler of labor abuses and modern slavery at sea (5, 11).

Many species of fish (collectively referring to exploited finfish and aquatic invertebrates), including both demersal and pelagic species (1213), are targeted by both foreign and domestic fishing vessels in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of sovereign countries, sometimes illegally. Such catches are often processed aboard large foreign industrial transshipment vessels and directly shipped overseas without unloading and processing in host countries, thereby depriving local economies of revenue, income, jobs, and economic impacts (14). The global activities of many industrial fishing fleets, including so-called IUU vessels, as well as the prevalence of transshipment vessels to circumvent landing and processing in host countries have been considered analogous to international organized crime (15). Thus, by not landing, reporting, and processing fish in the host country in whose waters the fish were caught, before exporting them, substantial economic and food and nutritional security losses are incurred by the communities and countries whose waters are being exploited (16).

Here, we estimate the potential economic costs of likely illicit trade in marine fish catch of the world by focusing on the potential losses to the legitimate trade system and associated economy due to such illicit trade, in terms of catches and gross revenues. In addition, and to provide a broader picture of the economic effects of illicit trade in marine fish catch, we compute the potential economic impacts, household income impacts, and tax revenue losses that result from such illicit activities.

We find that between 7.7 and 14.0 million metric tons of unreported fish catches are potentially traded illicitly each year (Table 1). We provide in table S1 the range of catch losses for each of the 143 countries included in our study. These numbers show that a substantial amount of seafood is likely illegally and illicitly taken out of the legitimate food supply system of many countries, affecting the food security and livelihoods of millions. These levels of catch volumes being traded illicitly suggest that gross revenues of between US$8.9 and US$17.2 billion per year are being redirected out of the legitimate market through illicit trade (Table 1). Table S1 presents the range of revenue losses for each of the 143 countries included in our study.

Estimated average annual catch and gross revenue losses to the legitimate (formal) international trading system due to likely illicit trade in marine fish catch over the past decade of total reconstructed catch data (20052014) for two scenarios of assumed fractions of unreported catches being redirected to illicit trade. Both scenarios assume that 50 to 80% of unreported industrial landed catches are being redirected to illicit trade, while the fractions of artisanal unreported landed catches range from 30 to 50% and 10 to 30% for scenarios 1 and 2, respectively.

Catch and gross revenue losses are not distributed equally across the various geographic regions. Rather, our analysis suggests that Asia, Africa, and South America suffer the biggest losses in catch due to likely illicit trade under both scenarios (Table 1). The unreported catches deemed to likely contribute to illicit trade from these three geographic regions, combined, account for around 85% of total catch losses to likely illicit trade globally (Table 1). The estimated losses to legitimate (formal) trade in gross revenue for these three geographic regions are between US$7.3 and US$14.0 billion per year, or around 82% of the global gross revenue loss to the legitimate trade system (Table 1). With regard to revenue losses to legitimate trade, however, European waters account for a higher likely loss compared to South America (Table 1), which may be due to the higher prices that are obtained for the species targeted in Europe, as South American fisheries are dominated by the high catch volume but low-price Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens).

The estimated average annual economic impact from the redirection of fisheries catches away from the legitimate (formal) trading system toward potential illicit trade (i.e., taking into account the economic multiplier for each country) suggests a potential economic impact of between US$25.5 and US$49.5 billion (Table 2). The average annual income impact, i.e., the seafood workers incomes that are likely associated with potential illicit trade in seafood, is estimated to be between US$6.8 and US$13.3 billion (Table 2). Last, the estimated potential losses to governments tax revenues, assuming that unreported catches and the associated illicit trade largely bypass the taxation system due to their unreported nature, amount to between US$2.2 and US$4.3 billion annually (Table 2). While some variation exists between the two scenarios modeled here for all three impact measures, the differences do not appear to be substantial (Table 2).

Average annual economic, income, and tax revenue impacts of likely illicit trade in seafood over the past decade of total reconstructed catch data (20052014) for two scenarios of assumed fractions of unreported catches being redirected to illicit trade. Both scenarios assume that 50 to 80% of unreported industrial landed catches are being redirected to illicit trade, while the fractions of artisanal unreported landed catches range from 30 to 50% and 10 to 30% for scenarios 1 and 2, respectively.

The effects of likely illicit trade in marine fisheries resources, in terms of economic and income impacts, are most pronounced in Africa and Asia (Table 2). Africa was estimated to experience between US$7.6 and US$13.9 billion and US$1.8 and US$3.3 billion losses annually in economic and income impacts, respectively, due to the redirection of catches from legitimate to illicit seafood trade (Table 2). A good proportion of this is due to unreported catches by large industrial fleets, most of which are foreign. Asia fairs even worse, with estimated economic and income impact losses of US$10.3 to US$20.3 billion and income impacts of US$2.7 to US$5.4 billion annually, representing 41% (the equivalent number for Africa is 28%) of overall global economic and income impacts of likely illicit seafood trade (Table 2). As to be expected, illicit seafood trade ultimately affects tax revenues for maritime African and Asian countries much more than other parts of the world, estimated to be US$0.83 to US$1.50 billion and US$0.81 to US$1.60 billion annually for these continents, respectively (Table 2). Combined, the potential tax revenue losses due to likely illicit trade in African and Asian marine resources account for 72 to 74% of global tax revenue losses due to illicit trade in seafood, amounting to between US$1.6 and US$3.1 billion annually.

Illicit trade, including in fish and seafood products, poses economic and social risks to societies worldwide, as it circumvents established and agreed upon national and international rules of corporate and business responsibilities and behavior, economic activities, trade, and taxation (17). In the first instance, illicit trade and the associated illicit financial flows divert money from the legitimate economy, thus imposing losses to law-abiding citizens and businesses and depriving countries of legitimate national revenues (18). This deprives countries of urgently needed resources to provide services to their citizens. Second, illicit trade in fish and seafood products can contribute to the depletion of a regions fish catch if the catches that enter illicit trade (here, a fraction of unreported catches) are not accounted for during the scientific evaluations or assessments of stocks and the affiliated fisheries management actions.

This study suggests that as much as 7.7 to 14.0 million metric tons per year of unreported catches may be diverted to illicit trade systems globally. To put this into a more general perspective, the potential loss to the legitimate trade system of global marine fisheries catches due to likely diversion into the illicit trade network is equivalent to losing 12 to 22 million mature cows in weight annually. This represents a substantial amount of animal protein that may be traded illicitly.

It has been argued earlier in the literature that the social impacts of illicit trade of marine fish catch in Asia are substantial, resulting in food and nutritional insecurity, loss of jobs, and loss of income to local fishers and economies (19). Our study provides more comprehensive estimates supporting these claims, revealing large catch, revenue, economic, and income losses to the formal economies and governments in Asia and elsewhere.

Furthermore, overfishing of stocks due to illegal and unreported fishing can also reduce the benefit flow to those fishers that fish legally and transparently (20), and this affects their societies and countries negatively. While not all unreported fishing is illegal, unreported as well as illegal catches are often unaccounted for in the formal fisheries stock assessments that inform fisheries management actions in many countries. Basing such assessments on incomplete and especially underreported catch volumes and fishing effort due to unreported and/or illegal fishing activities can result in incorrect estimates of total fishing mortality in affected fisheries. This can result in erroneous management advice and action, leading to overfishing and reductions in stock productivity, which, in turn, reduces the obtainable yields that can be maintained. This ultimately leads to losses in revenue and employment in the fishing sector. Given that our estimates of economic impact of illicit trade do not explicitly capture this effect, the current estimate of losses is likely to be conservative.

Our estimates of the fraction of unreported catches that may enter the illicit trade network were based on estimates of such numbers in forestry product trade (21). We relied on this information to guide our estimates because illicit forestry trade is better documented compared to fisheries (21). Given that seafood is more transportable and easier to hide than forestry products, it is possible that illicit seafood trade may attract even higher fractions of unreported catches than were used here. Thus, this adds to the likely conservative nature of our estimates.

We have demonstrated here that the global illicit trade in marine fish catch may lead to losses to society that can be measured in billions of dollars each year. Given the wide range of likely impacts on fish stocks, peoples livelihoods, jobs, and incomes, as well as the broader economic and government revenue impacts of illicit trade in seafood, tackling this issue is crucial and urgent. Just like other illegal and illicit trade activities (22), illicit trade in fish and seafood products makes a small number of operators and businesses rich, at the expense of the wider community and society. Substantially improved transparency and accountability, including whole-of-industry supply chain accountability, are urgently needed (Table 3). This transparency and accountability needs to run from net to plate and thus calls for improved accounting of fisheries catches and landings (17).

Suggested options to curb illegal fishing and the associated illicit trade in marine seafood.

In addition to value and supply chain accountability and transparency, urgently required and applied policy options include ratification and enforcement of various existing international agreements (23), addressing fish laundering via transshipment operations, granting fishing access permission only to vessels that are insured by marine insurance companies that exclude any IUU-listed vessel through transparent due diligence (24), and stepping up collaborative enforcement activities across all on-the-water activities between countries (Table 3) (2426). Only through full accountability and public transparency can we ensure not only that fish resources are sustainably and legally caught and traded but that the benefits of this economic activity accrue to the people and governments of each country where fisheries occur.

For our analysis, we used the globally reconstructed catch data of the Sea Around Us (12), freely available at http://www.seaaroundus.org, which complements the officially reported landings data reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on behalf of countries. These data provide comprehensive estimates of all unreported catches for all maritime countries from 1950 to 2014 (27). Reconstructed estimates of unreported catches are based on country-specific secondary data and information sources (i.e., peer-reviewed studies, grey literature reports, and local expert knowledge) that provide data in space and time on catches that are not included in official data records for various reasons, such as many small fishing vessels having little or no reporting requirements, or countries lacking financial or staff resources for monitoring and recording of catches. The data sources used in the reconstruction of catches were carefully vetted for reliability and then used to conservatively extrapolate, where necessary, to country-wide time series estimates of unreported catches. At the time of writing, more than 100 country reconstructions have been published in the peer-reviewed literature, with numerous more currently in the publication pipeline. The catch reconstruction approach, while initially misunderstood, e.g., (28) but see (29), is now well established and recognized as a useful approach to derive data that are complementary to official records (30, 31). While some details of earlier reconstructions were criticized (32), these concerns were addressed (33). Overall, the process and data sources used for reconstructing unreported catches are an open and ongoing process, and the Sea Around Us welcomes collaborations to continuously improve and refine these estimates.

Following Sumaila (34), we defined illicit trade in marine fisheries resources as trade that involves money, goods, or value gained from a portion of the unreported fishing of stocks by foreign and domestic industrial fishing fleets, and a fraction of unreported catches by artisanal fishing vessels that catch fish for commercial purposes. Thus, we equated a fraction of unreported fisheries activities with illicit trade and argued that not reporting on catches can, but not necessarily has to, equate to potential illicit trade activities. This differentiation is particularly important to note in the case of small-scale artisanal, subsistence, and indigenous fisheries, which often may be legal and legitimate but whose catches are variously not reported or underreported in official statistics (8, 12). Furthermore, we excluded unreported catches by the noncommercial sectors, i.e., subsistence and recreational fisheries. This is because subsistence fishing is defined as primarily for self, family, and community consumption or local barter and exchange, while recreational fishing is defined as primarily for pleasure, and thus, most of the subsistence and recreational catches are deemed to not enter the market or trade networks (27). In the case of the artisanal sector (defined as small scale and commercial), part of their catch, e.g., of highly valuable and often poorly monitored species such as tuna and sea cucumbers, are traded and sold in the international market, and therefore, some fraction of unreported catches of this sector can be assumed to potentially enter the illicit trade in marine resources.

We summarized average annual global landed catches and the associated landed value by reported and unreported components of the commercially focused artisanal and industrial sectors while combining the noncommercial subsistence and recreational sectors into a single noncommercial entry over the most recent decade with comprehensive data, i.e., 20052014 (Table 4). As indicated above, we excluded the noncommercial fisheries components (subsistence and recreational) from further economic analysis while recognizing that some catches from these sectors may still end up in trade networks. Note that we only used landed catch data and did not consider discarded catches. Discarding is a wasteful practice in terms of ecological impact on populations, habitats, and sustainability and carries substantial economic loss associated with it, in terms of forgone revenue options, as well as forgone protein benefits from discarded fish. We also excluded catches taken in the high seas, i.e., in waters beyond national jurisdiction, because they comprise less than 5 to 10% of total global catches (35), and the effects of illicit trade from these catches cannot easily be attributed to specific countries.

Reported and unreported landed catch and associated landed value by fishing sector for all maritime countries in the world, averaged over the 20052014 period. Discarded catches are excluded.

Furthermore, to remain conservative in our estimates, we assumed that only unreported catches may contribute to illicit trade. Although properly reported catches may end up entering the illicit trade system, we considered it more likely that much of the illicit trade originates from unreported catches, but recognized that this assumption requires further examination in the future. To remain even more conservative, we assumed that only 50 to 80% of unreported industrial catches contribute to illicit trade. Because of a lack of specific data on how much of the artisanal catch actually enters the international trade networks, and especially how much unreported artisanal catch may enter illicit trade, we proposed two scenarios regarding the fraction of unreported catch from the artisanal sector that may enter the illicit trade market. In scenario 1, we assumed that a range of 30 to 50% of unreported artisanal catch enters the illicit trade market, while in the more conservative scenario 2, we assumed a range of 10 to 30%.

We informed our assumptions of the percentage of unreported catches that may enter illicit trade networks on information from the forestry sector. The percentages we applied correspond to similar estimates for illegal logging in tropical countries. The numbers applied cover 50 to 90% of the volume of all forestry outputs in these countries (5), which is comparable to our 50 to 80% of unreported industrial catches. The lack of data for artisanal operations in both fisheries and logging is often due to lack of regulatory frameworks for the small-scale sector, and according to Hoare (36), this is a key factor in high levels of illegality in small-scale logging operations. Hoare (36) estimated that 10% of the total timber production in Cameroon in 2000 was small scale and illegal but that this had grown to 50% by 2012. Although this estimate is specific for Cameroon, Hoare (36) also found high levels of illegal small-scale production in Brazil, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana. Thus, we considered that our 10 to 30% and 30 to 50% ranges of unreported artisanal catches potentially entering the illicit trade could be considered conservative.

Economic losses. We used two measures to capture the basic direct economic losses to the legitimate (formal) economy of countries from likely illicit trade. The first is the quantity of unreported catches by industrial and artisanal fishing fleets, both domestic and foreign that is assumed to contribute to illicit trade. The second measure is the landed value of the fraction of unreported catch (i.e., the gross revenues) that is assumed to be traded illicitly.

The quantity of reported and unreported landed catches (Table 4; i.e., excluding discarded catch) is taken from the open-access Sea Around Us database (www.seaaroundus.org), which presents the data from a decade-long effort by ~400 international collaborators to complement officially reported catch statistics with the best and most comprehensive estimates of unreported catches of marine fish for every country in the world (12). We combined the assumed-illicit fraction of unreported landed catches (Table 4) with data from another decade-long effort by the Fisheries Economics Research Unit (https://feru.oceans.ubc.ca/) at the University of British Columbia and the Sea Around Us that compiled and estimated ex-vessel fish prices worldwide (3738) to calculate both the landed value of these catches and the loss of gross revenues to the formal economy of each country and geographic region (table S1).

Economic and income impact losses to the legitimate (formal) economy due to illicit seafood trade. To provide a broader picture of the likely loss to the formal economy due to illicit trade in marine resources, we computed three additional broad potential impacts: (i) economic, (ii) income, and (iii) tax revenue impacts as a result of illicit trade in fish catch as estimated here. Economic impacts capture the added value through the fish value chain generated from the revenues earned from fishing. This includes the impact on economic activities such as fish processing, boat building/maintenance, equipment supply, and the restaurant sector. To calculate this impact, we multiplied the estimated gross revenue losses (i.e., landed value of catch likely going to illicit trade) by the economic impact multiplier, which allowed us to capture the overall impact of likely illicit trade on the economy as a whole, for each coastal country reported by Dyck and Sumaila (39) (see table S1).

Income impact is a measure of the amount of household income that is generated through the fish value chain when a given quantity of fish is caught and sold in the market. We computed the income impacts of unreported fish catches likely entering the illicit trade system by multiplying the gross revenue losses (i.e., landed value of catch likely going to illicit trade) by the income multipliers of the fisheries sector, which measure the impact on household incomes, as reported by Dyck and Sumaila (39) see (table S1).

Tax revenue impacts of illicit trade in fishery resources are defined as the tax revenues that coastal country governments had to forego but could have earned if illicit trade in the marine resources did not exist, based on the fraction of their catches estimated to enter the illicit trade system. This was calculated by multiplying the corporate tax rate for each country [(40); see table S2] by the gross revenues from the fraction of unreported catches assumed to enter the illicit trade system estimated above. Where the individual countrys corporate tax rate was not available, a regional average corporate tax rate was used.

The equations below summarize how we computed the above three impact indicators of the economic effects of illicit trade in marine fish catchEconomic impact=R*m(1)Income impact=R*w(2)Tax revenue impact=R*t(3)where R, m, w, and t represent the gross revenue, economic multiplier, income multiplier, and the tax rate, respectively. R (gross revenue or landed value) is given in Table 1, m and w are presented in table S1 based on Dyck and Sumaila (39), and each countrys corporate tax rate, t, and the associated tax revenue loss for the country under scenarios 1 and 2 are presented in table S2. For clarity, we also presented all catch losses and revenue losses from our study and from previous estimates of illegal fishing by Agnew and colleagues (2), the Sea Around Us total landed catch (reported and unreported landings) and total landed value of commercial fisheries averaged over the same time period, and the FAO total landed catch averaged over 20052014 (table S3).

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.

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Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade, Mapping the Impact of Illict Trade on the Sustainable Development Goals (Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade, 2019).

Illicit trade: Innovative technological solutions to enhance supply chain integrity and transparency (Annual Report of the Global Agenda Councils 20112012, 2012).

United Nations, United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (United Nations, 1982).

R. G. Smith, Statistical report: Estimating the costs of serious and organised crime in Australia 201617 (Australian Institute of Criminology, 1918).

C. May, Transnational Crime in the Developing World (Global Financial Integrity, 2017).

T. N. P. Bondaroff, W. Van Der Werf, T. Reitano, The Illegal Fishing and Organized Crime Nexus: Illegal Fishing as Transnational Organized Crime (The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and The Black Fish, 2015).

V. Comolli, V. Felbab-Brown, C. Kavanagh, K. Lallerstedt, T. Reitano, Organized Crime and Illicit Trade: How to Respond to This Strategic Challenge in Old and New Domains (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

FAO, Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (FAO, 2016).

K. Rigg, R. Parmentier, D. Currie, Halting IUU Fishing: Enforcing international fisheries agreements, in Fish Piracy: Combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, K. Gray, F. Legg, E. Andrews-Chouicha, Eds. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2004).

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A. Hoare, Tackling Illegal Logging and the Related Trade: What Progress and Where Next? (Chatham House, 2000).

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Illicit trade in marine fish catch and its effects on ecosystems and people worldwide - Science Advances

A Virginia class attack submarine is struggling to make it in the high seas, particularly in regards to her stealth coating.

The USS Colorado (SSN 788) was spotted with significant cracking along her hull, though she remained structurally sound and the damage appeared to only affect the Special Hull Treatment, an anechoic coating used to absorb sound waves.

To be fair, the USS Colorados recent deployment had it travel approximately 39,000 nautical miles during the deployment, meaning it more or less went the same distance one would travel if going around the world twice.

Also, it should also be noted that the Colorado was in harsher northern waters, which can take a toll on any vessel.

However, given the cost of the technology, associated costs of applying the coatings and the drag caused by uneven surfaces, the significant wear is anything but ideal.

According to Forbes, the US, British and Russian navies all struggle with the coating eventually coming off, particularly in colder waters, but the case of the Colorado is rather unique- the sub was on her first deployment.

The 15th Virginia-Class submarine and the fifth of the enhanced Block-III models, the Colorado was constructed by Huntington Ingalls Industries in partnership with the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics in Newport News, Virginia, with the initial contract awarded on 22 December 2008.

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In the world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt there are eight known witcher schools. These schools can be seen as factions, separated by different ideals, ambitions, and fighting styles. Though they were all created to train monster hunters some have taken on other pursuits.

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If youre curious about which school youd fall into you could compare the basic profile of each school against your zodiac. While they arent all perfect fits, an example being a witcher who dislikes confrontation wouldnt be very good at why they exist, it does give some idea of where you might feel most at home.

The Order Of Witchers was the original school that all witchers were meant to be a part of. Witchers were intended to be noble knights capable of using magic to fight the monsters that threatened the lands of kings and queens.

Taurus would feel at home here given their reliable and responsible nature which would be mandatory to serving royalty. Libra could also thrive under situations that require diplomacy and graciousness while off on the kings errand. Both zodiacs make reliable and stable leaders that would have been necessary for the original school.

The School of the Wolf is considered the most successful of the schools that splintered off from the Order. Wolves pride themselves on being adaptable, equally capable with signs as they are swords and changing fighting styles to tackle single targets or multiple foes.

Aries would enjoy the challenge that comes with this school as theyd relish tackling a variety of monster types and would need to show courage in fights they may not be entirely equipped for. Scorpio is another that would do well here given their innate resourcefulness and ability to keep secrets, this discretion is handy when dealing with sensitive matters that Wolves are often employed to handle.

The School of the Viper is a unique one in that they exclusively train themselves to hunt the Wild Hunt. Whether this was the reason for their creation or came about after being formed is unknown. They employ stealth, speed, and twin blades to assassinate their foes using unpredictable and decisive maneuvers.

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Geminis could don the hood of the Viper and do well. Fighting a great evil that threatens all would give them the purpose they crave and burying their heads in the scrolls and tomes regarding the Wild Hunt would be a pleasure and not a burden like it would those belonging to other zodiacs.

The School of the Cat was originally a collection of emotionless killers who through a quirk in their trials became hyper emotive people. They are frequently misunderstood and fiercely independent, living a nomadic life as part of the Dyn Marv caravan finding work where they can.

This fits the bill in many ways for those born to Aquarius. They struggle with their emotions and as a result enjoy independence. Being energetic and curious about the world would also make them suited for life on the road and taking on a variety of jobs.

The School of the Griffin is the closest thing to the original order that exists. They pride themselves on following a strict code of conduct and see themselves as unofficial knights. They heavily emphasize using magic and fighting multiple foes.

Leos would do well here given their inherent creativity and excitement to learn new things. They also function well as leaders and would enjoy the praise given to them for being members of this noble organization of monster hunters.

The School of the Bear is full of witchers who prefer to keep to themselves and do their work in peace. They are trained to fight larger monsters and rely upon defense and steadfastness to get the job done. It takes a tough person to tackle the evils that lurk in the cold wastes of Skellige.

Virgos with their all work and no play attitudes would perform well under these conditions. Their need for practicality and simple solutions is a good fit for the simple fighting style of the Bears. Capricorns and their serious, independent nature would also be a good fit and could make good leaders in this serious and reserved school.

Not much is known about the School of the Manticore. Geralt liked their gear, but even he didnt know much about them. Most of whats known is speculative based on their armor. The armor they wear is designed to hold multiple bombs, potions, and oils, it also grants a boost to alchemy which suggests members of this elusive group are master alchemists. Its possible they are so wrapped up in experiments related to alchemy and mutations in dark dusty corners that few are aware of their existence.

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Pisces might do well in this school of alchemists given their artistic and creative nature. It takes patience and creativity to concoct a variety of potions, oils, and bombs prior to each monster hunt. Its also possible that Manticores are responsible for the creation of various items that other witchers use every day to make the world safer and Pisces would enjoy being at the heart of that effort.

Finally, the School of the Crane is a group of witchers who have trained themselves to fight the monster of the air and sea. Not much is known about them, and its likely this is due to them being nomadic seafarers. In any case, they prioritize swords and early guns when in combat with the creatures of the open sky or the deep sea. They also arent known for wearing armor when they fight.

Cancer would relish the opportunity to make a living on the open water and would prefer a nontraditional life on the high seas to a cloistered existence on land. Sagittarius would also do well given their love of travel and being outdoors. Both have a clever imagination and out of the box thinking that would be needed to battle winged and finned foes.

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