Canada dead last in ranking for environmental protection –‘Canada has been the only country that’s fallen’

By PAUL WALDIE 18 November 2013 LONDON (The Globe and Mail) – Canada has fallen behind in a global ranking on international development initiatives and ranks last when it comes to environmental protection. The Washington-based Center for Global Development assesses 27 wealthy nations annually on their commitment to seven areas that impact the world’s poor. […]

Australia to honor promise on monitoring Japan whale poachers

10 December 2013 (ABC) – The Australian Government says it intends to honour its promise to send a Customs ship to monitor Japanese whalers. But the Australian Environment Minister Greg Hunt says he’s still working through some of the “operational issues”. “We will have clear monitoring in the Southern Ocean, and I just ask for […]

Regulators shut down Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery, say stock has ‘collapsed’ – ‘There are no small shrimp around right now. It doesn’t bode well for the future.’

By Seth Koenig, BDN Staff3 December 2013 PORTLAND, Maine – Northeastern regulators shut down the Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery for the first time in 35 years Tuesday afternoon, worried by reports of what researchers called a fully “collapsed” stock that could be driven to near extinction with any 2014 catch. The Atlantic States Marine […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of squid poaching operations, April 2012

By Michael Carlowicz; design by Paul Przyborski22 October 2013 (NASA) – About 300 to 500 kilometers (200 to 300 miles) offshore, a city of light appeared in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. There are no human settlements there, nor fires or gas wells. But there are an awful lot of fishing boats. Adorned […]

98 percent of marine fish headed for the aquarium trade die within a year

By Natalie Millar 22 October 2013 (mongabay.com) – Almost all wild caught marine fish for the aquarium trade will die within a year of capture, according to WWF. Following months of interviews with Filipino marine exporters and hobbyists, WWF-Philippines have found that roughly 80% of all marine fish die before they are sold, and those […]

Video: More than 10,000 dolphins slaughtered each year for shark bait off the coast of Peru

By Benita Matilda24 October 2013 (Science World Report) – An undercover investigation by a conservation organization has brought to light the indiscriminate killing of thousands of dolphins off the coast of Peru where they are used as shark bait, despite the fact that the practice is outlawed in Peru since 1996. The video of a […]

The ocean is broken – ‘We hardly saw any living things. We saw one whale, sort of rolling helplessly on the surface with what looked like a big tumour on its head.’

By Greg Ray 18 October 2013 (Newcastle Herald) – It was the silence that made this voyage different from all of those before it. Not the absence of sound, exactly. The wind still whipped the sails and whistled in the rigging. The waves still sloshed against the fibreglass hull. And there were plenty of other […]

Scientists call to protect British Columbia’s 9,000-year-old sponge reefs

By Michael Mui    15 October 2013 (Toronto Sun) – A recently discovered B.C. colony of glass sponges — described as a marine “herd of dinosaurs” due to their supposed extinction 30 million years ago — is now at risk of destruction by fisheries. That’s unless protective bans are implemented in an area of Howe Sound […]

Health of oceans declining fast, ‘at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history’

By Roger Harrabin, Environment analyst3 October 2013 (BBC News) – The health of the world’s oceans is deteriorating even faster than had previously been thought, a report says. A review from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), warns that the oceans are facing multiple threats. They are being heated by climate […]

Wave of jellyfish shuts down Swedish nuclear reactor

By Gary Peach1 October 2013 (AP) – Marine biologists say that the wave of jellyfish that caused a Swedish nuclear plant to shut down a reactor is going to become a more common occurrence. It wasn’t a tsunami but it had the same effect: A huge cluster of jellyfish forced one of the world’s largest […]

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