On April 22, 2021, Secure Fisheries hosted the third Fisheries Conflict Research Consortium (FCRC) Symposium. The FCRC is composed of fisheries conflict experts across five continents in academia, policy development, and NGOs. The virtual symposium included a summary of activities and work during the two years since the last symposium and presentations on recent research from FCRC members Sara Mitchell (University of Iowa), Cullen Hendrix (University of Denver), Dyhia Belhabib (Ecotrust Canada), Nicolás Gómez-Andújar (Oregon State University), John Parks (Tetra Tech), Emi Koch (Beneath the Surface International), and Elizabeth Nyman (Texas A&M University at Galveston). The FCRC's goal is to build interdisciplinary partnerships, increase understanding of fisheries conflicts, and generate ideas to proactively address the issue. To that end, breakout group discussions during the symposium generated new ideas for collaboration.
The event coincided with the re-launch of the FCRC Fisheries Conflict Story Map detailing global case studies compiled by Colleen Devlin. The updated Story Map includes four new cases: The Visayan Sea, Philippines by Dr. Alice Joan Ferrer of the University of the Philippines Visayas; Puerto Rico by Ciera Villegas and Nicolás Gómez-Andújar of Oregon State University; the Somali Region by Secure Fisheries' Colleen Devlin; and Biển Đông (the East Sea), Vietnam by Fulbright National Geographic fellow Emi Koch.