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In Bangladesh, fishing communities are one of the most climate-vulnerable groups, though they play an important role in economic development. The main objective of this study was to identify vulnerability by exploring exposure (i.e., lack of regulating services or household capitals), susceptibility (i.e., lack of access to provisioning services), and lack of resilience (i.e., lack of alternative livelihoods and capacity) and to explore adaptation options, and challenges to understand risk governance. The study considered 45 published research articles for analysis following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Keywords were used in combinations (e.g., fishing communities and Bangladesh) to identify and screen published articles. Articles published in English focusing on vulnerability and/or risk governance, published between 2011 and 2022, featuring original empirical data or a comprehensive systematic review, and published in peer-reviewed journals were included. Articles were excluded if vulnerability and risk governance were evaluated but did not fit or match the definition used in this study. The study found frequent disasters and ocean warming caused different stresses, such as reduced fish catch and income, and resulted in an increased risk of fisheries conflict. Moreover, fishing communities have limited access to properties, modern fishing equipment, financial institutions, and fisher-centered organizations. Adaptation strategies include ecosystem-based (e.g., plantation, payment for ecosystem services) and non-ecosystem-based (e.g., temporary migration, getting help from neighbors) approaches. To boost fish production, the Government of Bangladesh instituted fishing restrictions and social safety net programs (e.g., distributing rice during the fishing restrictions); both initiatives were helpful. However, the conservation policies are not being implemented properly, and there is no particular social welfa

Britain acted illegally, say judges in scathing ruling that upholds Mauritius's rights and restricts US ability to expand 'rendition' air base on Diego Garcia.

Britain acted illegally, say judges in scathing ruling that upholds Mauritius's rights and restricts US ability to expand 'rendition' air base on Diego Garcia.

A new WCS study published in the journal Ecosystem Health and Sustainability of fish traders in coastal Kenya shows that women largely occupied fisheries with the lowest profits and are not saving money while working in these fisheries. Management actions that intend to increase profits and sustainability, such as restrictions on use of gear that catch the smallest fish, have the potential to exclude female traders unless management also promotes social equity and gender coexistence.

Mangrove forests are dynamic ecosystems found along low-lying coastal plains along tropical, subtropical, and some warm-temperate coasts, predominantly on tidal flats fringing deltas, estuaries, bays, and oceanic atolls. These landforms present varied hydrodynamic and geomorphological settings for mangroves to persist and could influence the extent of within-site propagule transport and subsequent local regeneration. In this study, we examined how different landform characteristics may influence local genetic diversity, kinship, and neighborhood structure of mangrove populations. To do so, we considered independent populations of Avicennia marina, one of the most abundant and widespread mangrove species, located in estuarine and coastal bay environments spread across the Western Indian Ocean region. A transect approach was considered to estimate kinship-based fine-scale spatial genetic structure using 15 polymorphic microsatellite markers in 475 adult A. marina trees from 14 populations. Elevated kinship values and significant fine-scale structure up to 30, 60, or 90 m distances were detected in sheltered systems void of river discharge, suggesting a setting suitable for very local propagule retention and establishment within a neighborhood. Slopes of a linear regression over restricted distance within 150 m were significantly declining in each sheltered transect. Contrastingly, such a spatial structure has not been detected for A. marina transects bordering rivers in the estuarine systems considered, or alongside partially sheltered creeks, suggesting that recruitment here is governed by unrelated carried-away mixed-origin propagules. South African populations showed strong inbreeding levels. In general, we have shown that A. marina populations can locally experience different modes of propagule movement, explained from their position in different coastal landforms. Thus, the resilience of mangroves through natural regeneration is achieved by different responses in

The Mozambique Channel region in East Africa has diverse marine ecosystems and serves as a migratory corridor for economically important species. Local and foreign industrial fisheries operate in the Mozambique Channel, but regional small-scale fisheries are the crucially important fisheries that provide food security, livelihoods, and economic opportunities for rural coastal communities. This study reconstructed and investigated trends in the fishing effort and catch per unit effort (CPUE) of small-scale marine fisheries in four Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) that constitute the Mozambique Channel, i.e., Union of Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte, and Mozambique, from 1950 to 2016. Effective fishing effort for small-scale fisheries in the form of fishing capacity in kWdays (i.e., kilowatt days) was derived using the number, length, motorization (engine power) by fishing vessels, as well as an approximate human-powered equivalent for shore-based fishers without vessels, as well as days of fishing per year. Effective small-scale fishing effort in the Mozambique Channel increased by nearly 60 times from just over 386,000 kWdays in 1950 to over 23 million kWdays in 2016. Correspondingly, the overall small-scale CPUE, based on previously and independently reconstructed catch data declined by 91% in the region as a whole, from just under 175 kg⋅kWday-1 in the early 1950s to just over 15 kg⋅kWday-1 in recent years. All four EEZs showed the strongest declines in the small-scale CPUE in the earlier decades, driven by motorization and growth in vessel numbers impacting effective fishing effort. Increased motorization combined with a substantial growth in overall vessel numbers were the drivers of the increasing fishing effort and decreasing CPUE, and clearly suggest that continuing to increase the fishing capacity of small-scale fisheries in the absence of effective and restrictive management actions may exacerbate overexploitation risk.

Low-lying coral reef islands have been projected to become uninhabitable by the end of the century due to sea level rise, but such projections of vulnerability assume that reef islands are static landforms that flood incrementally with sea level rise. In fact, GIS-based reef island shoreline analyses have demonstrated that reef islands are highly dynamic landforms that may adjust their shorelines in response to changing environmental conditions. However, the vast majority of reef island shoreline analyses have been undertaken in the Pacific Ocean, leaving our understanding of changes in the Indian Ocean more limited. Further, our knowledge of how island dynamics can impact groundwater resources is restricted due to the assumption that islands will exhibit purely erosional responses to sea level rise. Here, we analyse shoreline evolution on 49 reef islands over a 50-year timeframe in Huvadhoo Atoll, Maldives. Additionally, rates of shoreline change were used to undertake numerical modelling of shifts in freshwater lens volume in 2030, 2050 and 2100 in response to changes in recharge. Despite sea level rising at 4.24 mm/year (1969-2019), accretion was prevalent on 53% of islands, with the remaining islands eroding (25%) or remaining stable (22%). Average net shoreline movement was 4.13 m, ranging from -17.51 to 65.73 m; and the average rate of shoreline change (weighted linear regression) was 0.13 m/year, ranging from -0.07 to 2.65 m/year. The magnitudes and rates of reef island evolution were found to be highly site-specific, with island type found to be the only significant predictor of either net shoreline movement or weighted linear regression. Results suggest that freshwater lens volume was substantially impacted by shoreline change compared to changes in recharge whereby accretion and erosion led to large increases (up to 65.05%) decreases (up to -50.4%) in les volume, respectively. We suggest that the capacity of reef islands to both (1) adjust their shorelines

* Fish catch before and after covid curfews was evaluated in gear and reserve management. * Curfew regulation compliance was higher near the reserve than gear managed sites. * Catch rates and incomes were variable but displayed greatest increases adjacent the reserve. * Rates of changes after the curfew mostly followed the longer-term trends in catches. * Curfew accelerated long-term declines in CPUE in gear-restricted but not reserves fisheries.

The Lombok Strait (LS), Ombai Strait (OS), and Timor Passage (TP) are three major outlets of the Indonesian Throughflow to the Indian Ocean. Here, sources and pathways of the LS, OS, and TP outflows are explored by a Lagrangian particle tracking analysis based on a ~3 km regional ocean model simulation. The Makassar Strait transport contributes to ~80%, ~75%, and ~45% of the LS, OS, and TP outflows, respectively. However, ~41% and ~19% of the TP and OS outflows stem from the Lifamatola Passage, which largely feeds the upper and intermediate layers of the outflows. The role of Karimata Strait is quite limited and restricted to the upper layer. It takes 1-2 years and 2-6 years for the Makassar Strait water to reach the OS and TP, respectively, whereas the Lifamatola Passage water passes through the OS (2-6 years) and TP (3-9 years) on a prolonged transit time. In the Banda Sea, the western boundary current is the main pathway toward the OS, while the waters to the TP tend to take a basin interior route.

Anthropogenic climate change has caused widespread loss of species biodiversity and ecosystem productivity across the globe, particularly on tropical coral reefs. Predicting the future vulnerability of reef-building corals, the foundation species of coral reef ecosystems, is crucial for cost-effective conservation planning in the Anthropocene. In this study, we combine regional population genetic connectivity and seascape analyses to explore patterns of genetic offset (the mismatch of gene-environmental associations under future climate conditions) in Acropora digitifera across 12 degrees of latitude in Western Australia. Our data revealed a pattern of restricted gene flow and limited genetic connectivity among geographically distant reef systems. Environmental association analyses identified a suite of loci strongly associated with the regional temperature variation. These loci helped forecast future genetic offset in gradient forest and generalized dissimilarity models. These analyses predicted pronounced differences in the response of different reef systems in Western Australia to rising temperatures. Under the most optimistic future warming scenario (RCP 2.6), we predicted a general pattern of increasing genetic offset with latitude. Under the extreme climate scenario (RCP 8.5 in 2090-2100), coral populations at the Ningaloo World Heritage Area were predicted to experience a higher mismatch between current allele frequencies and those required to cope with local environmental change, compared to populations in the inshore Kimberley region. The study suggests complex and spatially heterogeneous patterns of climate-change vulnerability in coral populations across Western Australia, reinforcing the notion that regionally tailored conservation efforts will be most effective at managing coral reef resilience into the future.

The continued accumulation of sand within the iconic ring-shaped reefs inside Maldivian atolls could provide a foundation for future island development new research suggests. Islands like the Maldives are considered likely to be the first to feel the effects of climate change induced sea level rise, with future island growth essential to counter the threat of rising sea levels.