Katie Fiorella
To satisfy the seafood needs of billions of people, offering them access to a more biodiverse array of fish creates opportunities to mix-and-match species to obtain better nutrition from smaller portions of fish. The right combination of certain species can provide up to 60% more nutrients than if someone ate the same quantity of even a highly nutritious species, according to a global analysis of fisheries published May 27 in Nature Sustainability. Wild fish harvests have stagnated for decades as many fisheries have been depleted by a growing global demand for seafood, which makes the need to maximize nutrition from limited fish stocks even more urgent…
Myanmar’s history of prolonged conflict has led to the forced displacement and resettlement of generations of refugees to the U.S., including upstate New York. Since relocating, these refugees’ relationship to fishing has likewise shifted, from angling for food and nutrition in rural regions of Myanmar to being a means for maintaining social connections, recreation, time outdoors and emotional well-being. Still, refugees in New York experience barriers to fishing, such as language disparities, lack of time, unfamiliar regulations and discrimination, described in a paper published in the June issue of Geoforum, released early online. The paper draws from interviews to examine the importance of access to environmental resources…
Fish and seafood can be a more environmentally friendly protein choice than other animal foods like beef, pork, and chicken. But you need to choose carefully. Not all fish are sustainable. And it’s more complicated than opting for certain species over others, because the sustainability and nutritional value of fish is affected by a host of factors. So, we asked the experts to school us in seafood. Here’s what they had to say…
State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. today announced the inaugural faculty member awardees of the Chancellor’s Horizon Award for Faculty Research and Scholarship. The honor awards early-career faculty research and scholarly achievements across SUNY’s colleges and universities. “SUNY is known for its exceptional research and scholarship, and the faculty members who earned this recognition are at the forefront of their fields,” SUNY Chancellor King said. “Our inaugural Horizon awardees have already made a profound impact in their fields of study early in their careers, and by highlighting them we hope to inspire even more achievements in the years to come…
My colleagues at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), Dr. Kathryn Fiorella and her PhD student, veterinarian Eric Teplitz, have been working to examine interactions among environmental change, livelihoods, food systems, and nutritional security. They focus on fisheries and the households that rely on the environment to access food and income. In Lake Victoria, Kenya, they maintain a close connection with both Kenyan fish farmers and scientists at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI). In November 2024, I traveled with them to assist with training fish farmers on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kisumu, Kenya…
Qijin Wang joined Cornell Public Health’s inaugural cohort of MPH students in 2017. “There were only twelve of us that first year,” she remembers with a smile, “so we got a lot of attention!” These days, Wang lives in Beijing while working for China IQVIA, a healthcare-focused data consulting company. “Our clients are some of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world,” she says. These companies come to IQVIA for business solutions for their products. Clients have different goals for each unique product, says Wang, so she tailors her research to each unique situation. “We do studies, and then we offer solutions,” says Wang, who is involved in every stage of research for each client, starting with a literature review to understand existing studies…
Smaller fish species are more nutritious, lower in mercury and less susceptible to overfishing, a Cornell-led research team has found. The team’s study was conducted in the Amazon River, but the findings have implications for biodiversity conservation and public health across the globe as large fish species populations are declining worldwide. The study, “Accessible, Low-mercury and Nutritious Fish Provide Win-Wins for Conservation and Public Health,” published Jan. 17 in One Earth. It was authored by four Cornell researchers and colleagues from Brooklyn College and the Wildlife Conservation Society, a nongovernmental organization…
Cornell’s first Global Grand Challenge continues this year as Einaudi’s Migrations Program. We also welcome three program directors. We’re excited to announce that Cornell’s Migrations initiative is stepping into a new phase as the Migrations Program, part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Einaudi’s newest regional and thematic program will build on the work of the Migrations Global Grand Challenge to inform real-world policies and outcomes for populations that migrate. Migrations researchers and students will continue the important work of studying movement across borders, racism and dispossession, and migration of all living things under the leadership of the program’s new director, Kathryn…
Households caught and consumed a far more diverse array of fish than they sold at market, which has important implications for how loss of biodiversity might affect people’s nutrition, especially for those with lower incomes. The Cornell study is one of the first to examine the relationship between diet and biodiversity in a wild food system. “Commercially Traded Fish Portfolios Mask Household Utilization of Biodiversity in Wild Food Systems,” published July 17 in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, examined how households make use of biodiversity of wild fish in the freshwater Tonlé Sap lake system in Cambodia…
Small-scale fishers on Lake Victoria (Africa’s largest freshwater lake, shared by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) are drowning. Safety issues such as storms, a lack of available life jackets, and a shortage of navigational equipment and rescue services are a major cause of this. Existing studies have found that climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of thunderstorms in east Africa. One of the places that will be affected is Lake Victoria, with thunderstorms becoming much more windy, with more intense rain, and up to 10 times more frequent by 2100. This will make the lake one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world for small-scale fishers…
Fatal drownings are a big risk for small-scale fishers on Africa’s largest lake, with many of those deaths attributed to bad weather – conditions that are likely to worsen with climate change, according to a new study. Lake Victoria – bordering Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – is heavily fished by some 200,000 fishers, in spite of frequent severe thunderstorms and its reputation as one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world. These findings are especially concerning considering that thunderstorms, wind and rain are predicted to become more intense and up to 10 times more frequent by the end of the century, the authors note in the study, published May 22 in the journal PLOS ONE…
Dr. Kathryn Fiorella, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health, researches how changes in the environment affect the well-being, economic stability, and food security of communities. One area where all those concerns intersect are global fisheries. “Sometimes it’s the overharvest of resources,” she explains. “Other times it’s climate impacts, and harmful algal blooms.” Fishing makes up a large part of many populations’ dietary needs and Fiorella studies how the “ecological system and the social system are interwoven.” At this intersection, she sees how community-level decisions influence and are influenced by the environment…