The Catch hosted a live podcast taping at the United Nations’ third annual Ocean Conference in Nice, France. Moderator Philippe Cousteau was joined by former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson to discuss diplomacy’s importance to our ocean. Our panelists followed this discussion by looking closely at the challenges and successes of the tuna fishery in the Pacific Islands, the focus for our next season. Our panelists were Filimon Manoni, the Paci...
Jun 23, 2025•48 min•Season 6Ep. 1
According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly 4 in 10 people working in small-scale fisheries are women. Half are fishers themselves, and half process the fish, like Cary Badgie, from Gambia, whom the reporting team met as she salted and preserved the local catch. Female activists and entrepreneurs also underpin these fishing communities, as you’ll hear from Senegalese climate activist Ndeye Yacine Dieng and local official and businesswoman Yayi Bayam Diouf, based in Dakar. Fi...
Mar 26, 2025•24 min•Season 5Ep. 6
In a region characterized by high unemployment, food insecurity, and depleted fish stocks, many fishers are forced to migrate. The fishmeal plants dotting the coast have only exacerbated these existing problems, economist Rashid Sumaila notes, saying that “overfishing would still be an issue in West Africa without the plants. But the plants make them worse.” On this episode of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi and her reporting partners look into the migration crisis. Senegalese reporter Borso Tall...
Mar 19, 2025•22 min•Season 5Ep. 5
On this episode host Ruxandra Guidi and her team cross over into Senegal to see how the fishmeal industry's impact compares. She hears from local fishers as well as environmental NGO Environmental Justice Foundation's Bassirou Diajar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 12, 2025•21 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Foreign fleets off the Gambia’s shore are straining local fish stocks by “coming in at night and fishing illegally,” Sanyang fisher Alagie Gasama says. And the lack of enforcement, or even political will, by the government leaves these fishing communities to struggle on their own. On this episode of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi continues her journey along the Gambian coast by hearing directly from the fishers, processors, and local officials navigating these changes in their fish stocks. Learn...
Mar 05, 2025•20 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Gambians eat an estimated 55 pounds of fish a year, the most fish consumed per person in the region. This trend is shifting, though, with the arrival of the fishmeal plants, which directly affect these communities' food security. And as local activist Lamin Jassey points out, the fishmeal plant companies "never asked [the community], they never asked the young people" whether they wanted these plants in the first place. Join host Ruxandra Guidi as she continues her look at the fishmeal industry ...
Feb 26, 2025•22 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Small pelagic fish off the West African coast are being scooped up in large numbers and ground into a product called fishmeal. This fishmeal is then used to support animal production and aquafarms around the world. How is this industry impacting local fishers? And what does this mean for the global supply chain? Host Ruxandra Guidi partners with Gambian reporter Mustapha Manneh to look at fishmeal production in both the Gambia and Senegal for Season 5 of The Catch. Other voices in this episode i...
Feb 19, 2025•23 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Coming up on Season 5 of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi reports from the Gambia and Senegal to hear firsthand how the fishmeal plants are impacting these communities and whether the industry, which underpins much of aquaculture, can be turned sustainable for all. Follow and listen to The Catch wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 12, 2025•2 min
This past week, Foreign Policy magazine hosted a live taping on Marine Protected Areas at the United Nations General Assembly. This discussion was moderated by Matt Rand, Senior Director of Marine Habitat Protection at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Joining Matt on the stage was: Monica Medina, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. She’s currently a distinguished fellow at Conservation International. Joel Johnson is the President a...
Oct 02, 2024•56 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Reporter Caroline Losneck joins The Catch once again to share with host Ruxandra Guidi how Maine's iconic lobster fishing is adapting to new arrivals. First, Losneck explores how green crabs, an invasive species, are being turned into a delicacy by the local culinary scene. And then, she visits a new training program that's helping to change the face of the fishing industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 25, 2024•26 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Maine based reporter Caroline Losneck reports on how the state's iconic lobster industry is changing due to forces like climate change, a changing labor market, and damage to fishing areas. Caroline shares with host Ruxandra Guidi how local fishers are adapting by finding new sources of income and how communities as a whole are banding together to provide more resources to protect the industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 18, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 5
This week, Bali-based reporter Febriana Firdaus explores how Indonesia has been affected by environmental damage from land reclamation projects put in place to bolster the country's tourism industry. Land is a premium for this country of 17-thousand islands. And so the country is expanding its buildable land by dumping sand into the water, negatively impacting the small scale fisheries who live and work nearby. Firdaus tells host Ruxandra Guidi how these projects are hurting fishers both in Bali...
Sep 11, 2024•27 min•Season 4Ep. 4
For today’s episode we head to South Africa’s southern coast, where journalist Rasmus Bitsch saw firsthand the tension between local populations and environmentalists over plans to expand designated marine protected areas. The country is moving forward to implement the United Nations’ 30 by 30 goals, which seek to protect 30 percent of the world’s oceans by the year 2030. While environmentalists contend that this will actually help increase fishing stocks, many local fishers and others are skept...
Sep 04, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Quito-based reporter Carolina Loza León continues her reporting from the Galápagos Islands. We hear how some fishers, frustrated by decreased yields and the dangers of harvesting sea cucumbers, have turned to tourism to make ends meet. Elsewhere, efforts are being made to connect and engage fishers and scientists in a dialogue, in the form of a quota system. Its aim is to protect this fragile ecosystem and could be a model for cooperation elsewhere in Ecuador. SHOW NOTES: If you’re a fisher, we ...
Aug 28, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 2
This season we kick things off off in Ecuador, where reporter Carolina Loza León heads to the famed Galápagos Islands to hear how a sea cucumber boom shaped the economy and current conservation efforts. SHOW NOTES: If you’re a fisher, we want to hear from you! The Catch is hosting a live podcast taping at the United Nations General Assembly, and we’re looking for a fisher who has experience with marine protected areas and is either based in New York or can be in New York in September. Please rea...
Aug 21, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Coming up on Season 4 of The Catch, how fishing communities around the world are facing major global and environmental shifts—and are working to adapt. Follow and listen to The Catch wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 14, 2024•2 min
Over half of the world’s fish populations are likely to move from their historic habitats by the end of the century. Pushed by rising temperatures and changing ocean cycles, these migrating fish stocks could be the cause for our next international conflict. Between the end of WWII and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a quarter of the world’s conflicts were tied to fisheries. And experts expect this number to rise as fishing grounds shift, reliance on the oceans for food increase, and maritime b...
Dec 21, 2023•58 min•Season 3Ep. 7
What can the Arctic region tell us about fisheries conflicts in the future? On our final episode of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi and co-reporter Eskild Johansen head to the island of Svalbard to see how geopolitical tensions between Russia and Norway are playing out firsthand. Guidi is then joined by former U.S. diplomat Evan Bloom to hear how diplomacy and cooperation have shaped the Arctic region. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 19, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Making sure that fish stocks are healthy–and that fishers can keep on making a living–is no simple task. On this episode of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi and co-reporter Eskild Johansen hear from local fishermen on how they have to be just as aware of political winds, as they do bad weather. And then Guidi hears from Chief Sustainability Officer Sergey Sennikov and Konstantin Drevetnyak, head of the Russian Union of Northern Fishermen, on how they work to meet the demands of the Russian-Norway ...
Dec 12, 2023•23 min•Season 3Ep. 5
On this episode of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi and co-reporter Eskild Johansen hear how economics of fishing shapes Norways identity, and vice versa. The two explore the impact of fish farms and visit places where the burgeoning industry has been welcomed and others where it's been shunned. The episode also features insight from Norwegian aquaculture researcher Irja Vormedal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 05, 2023•26 min•Season 3Ep. 4
On this episode of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi and co-reporter Eskild Johansen hear firsthand how northern Norway’s oldest fishing communities have dealt with cod fishery collapses in the past. These communities weren’t the only ones facing “cod crashes.” Fisheries supply chain expert Jim Cannon then joins Guidi to share how he worked directly with business partners and stakeholders in the ‘80s and early ‘90s to improve sourcing and save cod fisheries from further collapse. Learn more about y...
Nov 28, 2023•25 min•Season 3Ep. 3
On this episode of The Catch, we kick things off with a British staple: fish and chips and a visit with chef Nick Martino, owner of Aboveground at DC's Union Market. Then we hear how this iconic dish led to an interstate dispute between Iceland and the U.K. known as the Cod Wars. Host Ruxandra Guidi is joined by historian and Icelandic President Gudni Th. Johannesson, and Mark Kurlansky, the author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, to hear how the Cod Wars have shaped our o...
Nov 21, 2023•25 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Host Ruxandra Guidi heads to northern Norway to get a firsthand look at one of the country’s top fisheries: cod. Joined by northern Norway native and co-reporter Eskild Johansen, Guidi hears from local fishermen and stakeholders in the port city of Kirkenes, as it closes port access to Russian fishing trawlers. And we hear from policy experts on a decades-old cooperation agreement between Russia and Norway as it’s being tested like never before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....
Nov 14, 2023•26 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Coming up on Season 3 of The Catch, hear how one of the Arctic’s most valuable fisheries—cod—is being impacted by the politics of Russia’s war in Ukraine as well as changing fish migration patterns due to climate change. Host Ruxandra Guidi heads to northern Norway to meet with the fishers and processors caught the middle. Follow and listen to The Catch wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 07, 2023•3 min
Host Ruxandra Guidi concludes this season with a look at the state of fishing in the Upper Gulf of California. She meets fishers who are members of Pesca ABC who are trying to implement sustainable fishing practices. She also shares some good news about the vaquita porpoise and the efforts to protect its habitat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 25, 2023•22 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In this episode, host Ruxandra Guidi follows the market for Mexican blue shrimp up the supply chain to see what pressure importers and consumers can have on ensuring the shrimp is not caught illegally. She'll hear from sustainable importers and packages and talk about how they are trying to implement different practices as well as the limitations they face. She'll also hear how pressure from international markets such as the US could force the Mexican government to implement meaningful change to...
Apr 18, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 5
In today's episode host Ruxandra Guidi looks at the conditions in the Upper Gulf of California that have allowed Mexican cartels to embed themselves into nearly all aspects of the fishing industry. She investigates the weak response from the Mexican government in rooting out the cartels, and tries to learn what, if anything, can be done about all this. This episode features conversations with Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and Carlos Tirado, a local fishers lead...
Apr 11, 2023•21 min•Season 2Ep. 4
On today’s episode of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi continues her exploration of the Upper Gulf of California to learn more about what can be done to stop illegal gillnet fishing. We hear from Zak Smith, a senior attorney and the director of global biodiversity conservation at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He led an effort to force a U.S. embargo on seafood from the area. Guidi then reports on the efforts made by the NRDC and others to compel Mexico to follow its own laws to pro...
Apr 04, 2023•23 min•Season 2Ep. 3
On today's episode, we look into what led to the dire situation faced by the vaquita and the fishing communities in the Upper Gulf of California. Host Ruxandra Guidi and her travel companions learn more about the history of fishing in the area and how demand for high value seafood such as the totoaba and blue shrimp led to a dire situation for the vaquita porpoise. In this episode, Guidi speaks to Carlos Tirado, a champion of sustainable fishing in the Upper Gulf. He's also the leader of the Reg...
Mar 28, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In the Part One of our new season of The Catch, host Ruxandra Guidi along with co-reporter Ernesto Méndez and marine biologist Alex Olivera travel to the Upper Gulf of California to meet with local experts and shrimp fishers. The underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau once deemed this area "The Aquarium of the World" because it was so rich in biodiversity. But unfortunately much of this ecological wonder is under threat due to illegal gillnet fishing. At the center of everything is a small porpois...
Mar 21, 2023•22 min•Season 2Ep. 1
