By Dag Vongraven 20 September 2019 (PBSG) – At the last meeting of the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) in Anchorage in 2016, the group agreed that there was a need for new and documented criteria for the assessment of status and trends of polar bear populations. Work to develop a new set of […]
24 October 2019 (The Siberian Times) – Anthropogenic rubbish – most of which is left in the sea by North Korean fishermen – is making deadly impact on marine life in Russian Far East. A warning of a ‘permanently ongoing ecological catastrophe’ and a call for action comes from Igor Katin, researcher at the Far […]
By Bellamy Pailthorp 8 October 2019 (KNKX) – Their goal is clear: to prevent Puget Sound’s iconic Southern Resident killer whales from going extinct. Solving that problem is anything but simple. The task force convened by Gov. Jay Inslee to save the orcas added 13 new recommendations this week, at its final meeting. The additions […]
By Meghan Walker 15 August 2019 (My Ballard) – The number of sockeye salmon passing through the Ballard Locks Fish Ladder is at all-time low, according to yearly counts dating back to the 1970s. According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s daily count, just 18,000 sockeye have been counted at the fish ladder during […]
5 May 2019 (Wild Fish Conservancy) – A peer-reviewed paper has been published in Virology Journal showing showing that the strain of Piscine Reovirus (PRV) found in escaped farmed Atlantic salmon in Puget Sound and British Columbia originates from Iceland, where the eggs that supply the net pens are sourced. The study is co-authored by […]
By Alex Halverson 3 April 2019 (SeattlePI) – West Coast salmon fishing contributed to southern resident orca population decrease through mismanagement and a reliance on outdated science, a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court Wednesday argued. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Wild Fish Conservancy filed a suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service […]
1 April 2019 (UZH) – An unprecedented marine heatwave had long-lasting negative impacts on both survival and birth rates on the iconic dolphin population in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Researchers at UZH have now documented that climate change may have more far-reaching consequences for the conservation of marine mammals than previously thought. Shark Bay in […]
By Johnny Simon 22 March 2019 (Quartz) – On 24 March 1989 the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. It was the worst oil spill in US history until 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon disaster pumped nearly 20 times that amount into the […]
By Lauren Kent23 February 2019 (CNN) – Only two whaling companies remain in Iceland. It’s a small industry that conservationists say is inhumane, has minimal economic benefits, and defies the international ban on killing whales. But this week the Icelandic government announced it will allow up to 2,000 whales to be killed in the next […]
By Joseph O’Sullivan15 January 2019 OLYMPIA (The Seattle Times) – Standing before a Washington Legislature that for years has balked at his carbon-reduction agenda, Gov. Jay Inslee implored lawmakers Tuesday to make bold moves to combat climate change. The governor’s State of the State address before a joint session of the House and Senate comes […]
