I haven’t looked in detail, but there are three main differences between our analysis and the analysis of Whitton et al:
We included fish, while Whitton et al did not.
We calculated the slope, while Whitton et al (I think) calculated the percentage difference between the first year and the last year.
We used data from 1960-2020, while Whitton et al used data from 1990-2017.
(Our analysis was also done on a per capita basis.)
More generally, this raises an important point regarding our analysis. Our analysis was conducted at a global scale. The purpose of our report was to search for countries with interesting trends—then, if any interesting countries are identified, we can zoom in and look at those countries in more detail. If you (or anybody else) is interested in any country in particular, the first step would be to obtain and examine more detailed data that is specific to that country. When you look at the level of a specific country, the trends that we identify may or may not hold up (as we mentioned, we deliberately cast a wide net, as we’d rather have false positives than false negatives). Some countries in our analysis were edge cases, where small changes in our methods may well have ruled those countries in or out. I suspect Nigeria is one of these cases.
Thanks for the positive feedback :)
I haven’t looked in detail, but there are three main differences between our analysis and the analysis of Whitton et al:
We included fish, while Whitton et al did not.
We calculated the slope, while Whitton et al (I think) calculated the percentage difference between the first year and the last year.
We used data from 1960-2020, while Whitton et al used data from 1990-2017.
(Our analysis was also done on a per capita basis.)
More generally, this raises an important point regarding our analysis. Our analysis was conducted at a global scale. The purpose of our report was to search for countries with interesting trends—then, if any interesting countries are identified, we can zoom in and look at those countries in more detail. If you (or anybody else) is interested in any country in particular, the first step would be to obtain and examine more detailed data that is specific to that country. When you look at the level of a specific country, the trends that we identify may or may not hold up (as we mentioned, we deliberately cast a wide net, as we’d rather have false positives than false negatives). Some countries in our analysis were edge cases, where small changes in our methods may well have ruled those countries in or out. I suspect Nigeria is one of these cases.
Thanks Ren!