Governor Brown signs bill to end destructive swordfish drift gillnet fishing off California – New law will promote sustainable, domestic swordfish and safeguard ocean wildlife

27 September 2018 (Oceana) – Today, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill — Senate Bill (SB) 1017 — that will clean up California’s swordfish fishery. SB 1017 will phase out the use of large-mesh driftnet fishing for swordfish, establish a buyout program, and incentivize the use of cleaner fishing gear to reduce […]

Fisheries nations to decide fate of declining bigeye tuna – “The stock is in the red with a very high level of certainty”

By Marlowe Hood 28 September 2018 (AFP) – Dozens of nations with commercial fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean will grapple next week with a new finding that bigeye tuna, the backbone of a billion dollar business, is severely depleted and overfished. Unless catch levels are sharply reduced, scientists warned, stocks of the fatty, fast-swimming predator […]

Overfishing and pollution have trashed the Mediterranean – 90 percent of Mediterranean fish populations are now harvested in excess of science-based recommendations

By Agata Mrowiec 16 August 2018 (Oceana) – The Mediterranean is the top tourism destination worldwide. Sunbathers and swimmers flock to the sea during summer holidays.Idyllic though it may seem, all is not well. The Mediterranean is the world’s most overfished sea, with the highest percentage of unsustainably harvested fish populations, according to a recent […]

Scientists urge immediate, decisive action to tackle deoxygenation in world’s oceans – “The ocean is in a global crisis”

KIEL, 7 September 2018 (UNESCO) – This week, more than 300 scientists from 33 countries met in Kiel, Germany, at an international conference to discuss the decline of oxygen in the ocean, the causes and the consequences. At the conclusion of the conference, the scientists published a haunting appeal, the “Kiel Declaration”, in which they […]

Ailing orca J50 declared dead by NOAA researcher – Only 74 southern resident killer whales remain in the Salish Sea

SEATTLE, 13 September 2018 (AP) – Efforts to find an ailing orca from a critically endangered population of killer whales off Washington state have come up empty, and a scientist who tracks them has declared her dead. Ken Balcomb, of the Center for Whale Research, confirmed Thursday that he had declared the orca known as […]

Amid ocean heatwave, Gulf of Maine experiences record temperatures in 2018 – “We’ve set 10 daily temperature records this summer, after setting 18 this winter”

By Patrick Whittle 30 August 2018 PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – The waters off of New England are already warming faster than most of the world’s oceans, and they are nearing the end of one of the hottest summers in their history. That is the takeaway from an analysis of summer sea surface temperatures in the […]

Yellowstone National Park hit by global warming, increased visitation

By Laura Zuckerman 10 September 2018 PINEDALE, Wyoming (Reuters) – Hotter, drier conditions have led to more severe wildfires in Yellowstone National Park, while growing numbers of visitors have harmed everything from prized hydrothermal features to its famed grizzly bears, the park said in a report on Monday. Average temperatures in Yellowstone, which has been […]

More than 1,000 dead fish at Malibu Lagoon may be tied to record-warm ocean temperatures

By Hannah Fry and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde 27 August 2018 (Los Angeles Times) – Authorities made the grim discovery last week: More than 1,000 dead fish floating at Malibu Lagoon. California State Parks scientists are running tests to determine the cause, but officials suspect higher-than-normal water temperatures played a role. The die-off comes amid a summer […]

Renowned coral scientist: Great Barrier Reef headed for massive death – “It’s the beginning of a planetary catastrophe”

By Rebecca Wright and Ivan Watson 24 August 2018 TOWNSVILLE, Australia (CNN) – In a dusty, secluded corner of the Australian state of Queensland, a septuagenarian scientist is on an urgent mission to raise the alarm about the future of the planet. John “Charlie” Veron – widely known as “The Godfather of Coral” – is […]

Florida’s red tide crisis shows how global warming will make the world an ugly place

By Ephrat Livni 22 August 2018 SARASOTA, Florida (Quartz) – All the water birds—pelicans, egrets, cormorants—are gone.Flies swarm the coast of the seaside city of Sarasota, Florida. Crows caw. The air stinks of death. Carpets of fish, belly-up, mouths gaping, line the shore. This is the putrid new world created by a toxic red algae […]

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