Daniel Pauly is a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

-born marine biologist, well known for his work in studying human impacts on global fisheries and in 2020 was the most cited fisheries scientist in the world. He is a professor and the project leader of the

Sea Around Us Project The Sea Around Us is an international research initiative and a member of the Global Fisheries Cluster at the University of British Columbia. The Sea Around Us assesses the impact of fisheries on the marine ecosystems of the world and offers mitig ...

at the

Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thr ...

. He also served as Director of the UBC Fisheries Centre from November 2003 to October 2008.

Biography

Pauly was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He grew up, however, in

La Chaux de Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds () is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometers south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg, it is the fourth largest city loca ...

, Switzerland in what was called a strange "Dickensian" childhood where he was forced to stay as a live-in servant to a new family. For the first 16 years of his life, Pauly lived an inward life as he was mixed race in an all-white town, finding solace in books/reading and model construction. At 16 he ran away and put himself through high school in Wuppertal, Germany after one year working with disabled people for a local church-run institution. His work led to a scholarship to the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

. It was at the University of Kiel where Pauly decided on fisheries biology. He said he wanted to work in the tropics because he felt that he would "fit in" better there. He also wanted to devote his life to an applied job where he could help people. He did a master's degree at Kiel University under Gotthilf Hempel on "The ecology and fishery of a small West African lagoon". Pauly then spent two years conducting trawling surveys as a member of a German-Indonesian project aiming at introducing this relatively new gear. He began to write on tropical fisheries management; later his emphasis switched to global fisheries trends and conservation. Pauly completed his Ph.D. at Kiel University in Germany, again under Hempel, in which he established strong relationships between the surface area of gills and the growth of fishes and aquatic (gill-breathing) invertebrates. His dissertation laid the foundation for his Gill-Oxygen Limitation Theory, which he would later develop in more detail. After his Ph.D., Pauly worked for 15 years at the International Center for Living and Aquatic Resources Management (

ICLARM WorldFish is an international nonprofit research institution that creates and translates scientific research on aquatic food systems. WorldFish is a member of CGIAR, which unites international organizations engaged in research about food secur ...

), in

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. Early in his career at ICLARM, Pauly worked in the tropics and developed new methods for estimating fish populations. Pauly helped to design, implement, and perfect methods using length-frequency data instead of the age of fish to estimate parameters of fisheries statistics such as growth and mortality. Later, he helped develop two major projects: ELEFAN and

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

. ELEFAN (ELectronic Length Frequency ANalysis) made it possible to use length-frequency data to estimate the growth and mortality of fishes.

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

is an online encyclopedia of fish and fisheries information comprising information on more than 30,000 different species. Both projects received worldwide attention and through multiple upgrades and additions, are still prominent in fisheries biology. Through the 1990s, Pauly’s work centered on the effects of

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in t ...

. The author of several books and more than 500 scientific papers, Pauly is a prolific writer and communicator. He developed the concept of

shifting baselines A shifting baseline (also known as a sliding baseline) is a type of change to how a system is measured, usually against previous reference points (baselines), which themselves may represent significant changes from an even earlier state of the syst ...

in 1995 and authored the seminal paper,

Fishing down marine food webs Fishing down the food web is the process whereby fisheries in a given ecosystem, "having depleted the large predatory fish on top of the food web, turn to increasingly smaller species, finally ending up with previously spurned Forage fish, small f ...

, in 1998. For working to protect the environment, he earned a place in the "

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

50" in 2003, the same year ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' labeled him an "iconoclast". Pauly won the

International Cosmos Prize The International Cosmos Prize was established in 1993, commemorating Expo '90 in Osaka, Japan. The objective of the prize was to develop the basic concept of Expo 90, "The Harmonious Coexistence between Nature and Mankind" and is awarded annuall ...

in 2005, the

Volvo Environment Prize The Volvo Environment Prize is an annual international award originating in Sweden. The prize is awarded to individuals who "''explore the way to a sustainable world''." The prize is awarded by the independent foundation ''The Volvo Environment P ...

in 2006, the Excellence in Ecology Prize and

Ted Danson Edward Bridge "Ted" Danson III (born December 29, 1947) is an American actor. He achieved stardom playing the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'', for which he received two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. ...

Ocean Hero Award in 2007, the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology and Environmental Sciences in 2008, and the

Nierenberg Prize The Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest is given annually by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It was created through a gift of the family to honor the memory of William Nierenberg. The prize includes a bronze medal and $25,0 ...

for Science in the Public Interest from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 2012. In 2015, Pauly received the Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in Science. In 2016, he was honored in Paris with the Albert Ier Grand Medal in the Science category. In 2017, he received, together with Dirk Zeller as part of the ''Sea Around Us'' leading team, the Ocean Award in the Science category. Also in 2017 and specifically on French National Day, he was named Chevalier de la Légion D’Honneur. Pauly has written several books, including ''Darwin's Fishes'' (Cambridge University Press), ''Five Easy Pieces: How Fishing Impacts Marine Ecosystems'' (Island Press) and ''Gasping Fish and Panting Squids: Oxygen, Temperature and the Growth of Water-Breathing Animals.''

Views

To date, he frequently expresses opinions about public policy. Specifically, he argues that governments should abolish

subsidies A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...

fishing fleet A fishing fleet is an aggregate of commercial fishing vessels. The term may be used of all vessels operating out of a particular port, all vessels engaged in a particular type of fishing (as in the "tuna fishing fleet"), or all fishing vessels of ...

s AAAS (2007
''The last wild hunt – Deep-sea fisheries scrape bottom of the sea''
/ref> and establish

marine reserves A marine reserve is a type of marine protected area (MPA). An MPA is a section of the ocean where a government has placed limits on human activity. A marine reserve is a marine protected area in which removing or destroying natural or cultural ...

. He is a member of the Board of Oceana. In a 2009 article written for ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'', Pauly compares today's fisheries to a global

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...

.Aquacalypse Now, The New Republic, September 28, 2009
/ref>

Publications

Publications by Daniel Pauly
Select publications * Pauly D (2019)
Vanishing Fish: Shifting baselines and the future of global fisheries
' Greystone Books *Cheung W. and Pauly D (2017). Sound physiological knowledge and principles in modelling shrinking of fishes under climate change. Global Change Biology 24:e15–e26 *Pauly D and Zeller D (2016
Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining
''Nature Communications'', 1-9. * Pauly D (2010
''5 easy pieces: how fishing impacts marine ecosystems''
Island Press. . * Pauly D (2009
"Aquacalypse Now"
''The New Republic'', September 28. * Pauly D,

Christensen V Christensen may refer to: * Christensen (surname) * Christensen (constructor), a former racing car constructor * 164P/Christensen, a periodic comet * 170P/Christensen, a periodic comet See also * Christiansen * Christianson * Kristiansen ...

, Guénette S, Pitcher TJ, Sumaila UR, Walters CJ, Watson R, Zeller D (2002
"Towards sustainability in world fisheries"
''Nature'', 418: 689-695. * Pauly D (1998) "Why squids, though not fish, may be better understood by pretending they are". In: Payne, A.I.L., Lipinkski, M.R., Clarke, M.R. and Roeleveld, M.A.C. (eds.). Cephalopod biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution. ''South African Journal of Marine Science,'' 20: 47-58. * Pauly D,

, Dalsgaard J, Froese R and Torres F (1998
"Fishing down marine food webs"
''Science'', 279: 860-863. * Pauly D (1998) "Beyond our original horizons: the tropicalization of Beverton and Holt". ''Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries,'' 8(3): 307-334. * Pauly D (1995) "Anecdotes and the shifting baseline syndrome of fisheries". ''TREE'' 10(10): 430 * Pauly D and Christensen V (1995
"Primary production required to sustain global fisheries"
''Nature,'' 374(6519): 255-257. * Pauly D (1981) "The relationships between gill surface area and growth performance in fish: a generalization of von Bertalanffy’s theory of growth". ''Berichte der Deutschen Wissenchaftlichen Kommission für Meeresforschung,'' 28(4): 251-282. * Pauly D (1981) "On the interrelationships between natural mortality, growth parameters and mean environmental temperature in 175 fish stocks". ''Journal du Conseil international pour l'Exploration de la Mert,'' 39(3): 175-192. * Pauly D and David N (1981) "ELEFAN I, a BASIC, program for the objective extraction of growth parameters from length-frequency data". ''Reports on Marine Research'', pp. 205–211.

Notes

References

Dr. Daniel Pauly biography on the UBC Fisheries Centre website
* ''

'', December 2003, p. 59 * Malakoff D (2002
"Daniel Pauly profile: Going to the Edge to Protect the Sea"
''Science'', 296 (5567): 458–461. * Powell, G. 2002. Lifelines: Daniel Pauly. Nature 421: 22-23 * Yoon, C.K. 2003

The New York Times 1/21/2003 *Grémillet, D. (2021) ''The Ocean's Whistleblower: The Remarkable Life and Work of Daniel Pauly'', trans. Georgia Lyon Froman,

Greystone Books Greystone or Graystone may refer to: Locations * Graystone Manor, the first condominium building built in the continental United States * Greystone, West Virginia * Greystone Airport, a private airport in Ocala, Florida * Greystone (estate), a h ...

. (ISBN 9781771647540)

TED Talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

regardin
''Mission Blue''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pauly, Daniel 21st-century Canadian zoologists Living people Fisheries scientists 1946 births University of British Columbia faculty Articles containing video clips Winners of the Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology People from La Chaux-de-Fonds 20th-century Canadian zoologists

Biography

Views

Publications

Notes

References

External links