By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press Writer PORTLAND, Maine – The basic makeup of the ocean waters off the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic region has fundamentally changed in the past 40 years because of climate change, commercial fishing pressures and growing coastal populations, according to a new report. The 2009 Ecosystem Status Report says fish populations […]
Fin whales have not returned to the Bay of Biscay in their usual high numbers this year raising fears over the state of the fish stocks they feed on. Conservationists monitoring the animals’ annual migration into Biscay said the second largest whale on the planet had not appeared in large numbers this summer. While small […]
By Rob Taylor CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest living organism, is under grave threat from climate warming and coastal development, and its prospects of survival are “poor,” a major new report found on Wednesday. While the World Heritage-protected site, which sprawls for more than 345,000 square km (133,000 sq miles) […]
By Stephen Adams Pollack, the fish with such a poor reputation that Sainsbury’s deemed it needed a name change, has become one of the country’s most popular seafoods. Figures released by Seafish, set up by the Government to promote the fishing industry, show it is now the eighth most popular fish to eat. British consumers […]
By Crystal Gammon and Environmental Health News Thirty years ago, a Canadian marine biologist noticed something mysterious was happening to beluga whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary. Decades of over-hunting had decimated the population, but several years after the government put a stop to the practice, the belugas still hadn’t recovered. Two decades and hundreds […]
ROME (Reuters) – Illegal fishing is depleting the seas and robbing poor nations in Africa and Asia of resources, but a lack of global cooperation is undermining efforts to track rogue vessels, an environmental group said on Tuesday. The Pew Environment Group, a Washington-based think-tank, has found that a United Nations scheme to oblige ports […]
Images have been released showing a female whale fighting for her life after becoming entangled in a fishing net in the South Pacific. These heart-breaking images show the desperate plight of a whale trapped by equipment used in a controversial form of commercial fishing. The southern-hemisphere humpback became entangled in a long line and was […]
Trends in marine fishery catches as a function of fish diversity. (A) Trajectories of fish and invertebrate collapses (i.e., falling below 10% of maximum historical harvest) over the last 50 yr (♦=collapses by year, ▲=cumulative collapses). Data are shown for all (black), species-poor (<500 species, blue) and species-rich (>500 species, red) Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs). […]
By Guy Dinmore Like bovine torpedoes, a trapped shoal of bluefin tuna, some two metres long, swirl in ever decreasing circles within the “chamber of death” as an intricate maze of nets closes around them. The signal is given and the mattanza – slaughter – begins. Two dozen Italian fishermen on longboats haul the final […]
by Richard Harris Scientists say the world’s coral reefs could go extinct during our children’s lifetimes. Human activities are putting this beautiful ecosystem at risk. Some risks are obvious — such as global warming, which results in overheated seas. Others are more subtle. Consider the case of the damselfish: Looking off the coast from the […]
