The European Commission is closing the bluefin tuna fishing season early because of depleted stocks, imposing a ban that will take effect on Thursday. The ban covers fishing grounds in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic. It affects industrial purse seine fishing, which accounts for more than 70% of the annual EU tuna catch, the Commission […]
By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News Page last updated at 4:14 GMT, Monday, 7 June 2010 5:14 UK Great apes were wiped out in ancient Europe when their environment changed drastically some nine million years ago, scientists say. A study of fossil teeth from grazing animals sheds light on what Europe was like during […]
By Frank Pope, Ocean Correspondent Conservationists fear a falling shark population is prompting Asian chefs to look for manta and devil rays to help meet the voracious demand for shark fin soup. Found in coastal waters throughout the world, rays present an easy target as they swim slowly near the surface with their huge wings. […]
By Matthew Cardinale ATLANTA, Georgia, May 31, 2010 (IPS/IFEJ) – As oil continues gushing from the ocean floor into the Gulf of Mexico, with no sign of stopping until a new well is finished this August, scientists, environmentalists and local residents are beginning to reckon with the reality of a massive annihilation of sea creatures […]
By Julia WhittyFri May. 28, 2010 3:29 PM PDT A new model reveals two major hotspots within the Gulf of Mexico where bluefin tuna prefer to spawn in circular swirling water masses known as cyclonic eddies. Sadly, the model also indicates the tuna are spawning there right now—and that the hotspots lie in waters befouled […]
A tawny water fowl that lived in a tiny corner of Madagascar has officially been declared extinct by conservationists. The Alaotra grebe, also called the rusty grebe, had been highly vulnerable as it was found only in Lake Alaotra, eastern Madagascar, according to the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles […]
Climate change will trigger a dramatic and sudden decline in the number of polar bears, a new study has concluded. The research is the first to directly model how changing climate will affect polar bear reproduction and survival. Based on what is known of polar bear physiology, behaviour and ecology, it predicts pregnancy rates […]
The balance of biodiversity within North American small-mammal communities is so out of whack from the last episode of global warming about 12,000 years ago that the current climate change could push them past a tipping point, with repercussions up and down the food chain, say Stanford biologists. The evidence lies in fossils spanning the […]
By Tom Kirkwood; editing by Tim CocksSERENGETI NATIONAL PARK, TanzaniaFri May 21, 2010 4:44pm EDT (Reuters) – Conservationists flew the first five of 32 critically endangered East African black rhinos from South Africa back to their habitat in Tanzania’s Serengeti park Friday. The rhinos had been bred from a group that was rescued from […]
By Ker Than for National Geographic News Published May 21, 2010 If the Gulf of Mexico oil spill kills just three sperm whales, it could seriously endanger the long-term survival of the Gulf’s native whale population, scientists say. Right now between 1,400 and 1,660 sperm whales live year-round in the Gulf of Mexico, making up […]
