Video: World Bank forms partnership to rescue troubled oceans

SINGAPORE, 24 February 2012 (ENS) – The World Bank today announced the Global Partnership for Oceans, gathering governments, scientists, advocacy organizations, the private sector, and international public institutions to confront the increasingly urgent issues of over-fishing, marine degradation, and habitat loss. “Oceans are the lifeblood of our world,” said World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick, […]

Mobile marine reserves may reduce slaughter of endangered sea life

By Steve Connor, Vancouver 18 February 2012 The indiscriminate slaughter of vast numbers of turtles, sharks, albatrosses, and other endangered marine animals that get unintentionally caught by fishermen as “by-catch” could be prevented by a radical proposal of mobile marine reserves, scientists said yesterday. Protected areas of the ocean where commercial fishing is banned would […]

Bangladesh declares sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins

NEW YORK, New York, 15 February 2012 (ENS) –  Bangladesh has established three new wildlife sanctuaries for endangered freshwater dolphins in the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, the Sundarbans. Officially declared on January 29, the sanctuaries are intended to protect the last two remaining species of freshwater dolphins in Asia – the Ganges River dolphin, Platanista […]

Lost at sea: Overfishing costs £2.7 billion and 100,000 jobs

Contact: Rupert Crilly, rupert.crilly@neweconomics.org, +44 (0)207 820 6389 10 February 2012 Research published today by nef finds that poor management of fish stocks is draining jobs and profits. The report, Jobs Lost at Sea [pdf], estimates the benefits of rebuilding 43 European stocks (out of more than 150) and finds that: Restoring these 43 stocks […]

Graph of the Day: Yale Environmental Performance Index for 132 Countries, 2000-2010

The 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and Pilot Trend EPI (Trend EPI) rank 132 countries on 22 performance indicators in ten policy categories and two overarching objectives that reflect facets of Environmental Health and Ecosystem Vitality. These indicators provide a gauge of how close countries are to environmental policy goals. The EPI’s proximity-to-target methodology facilitates […]

Tuna and mackerel populations have fallen by 60 percent in the last century

8 February 2012 (ScienceDaily) – A study shows that the impact of fishing for tuna and similar species during the last 50 years has lessened the abundance of all these populations by an average of 60%. Experts add that the majority of tuna fish have been exploited to the limits of sustainability. The debate about […]

Video: Pirate Fishing in Sierra Leone

2 February 2012 (Al Jazeera) – The precious marine resources of some of the world’s poorest people are being targeted by industrial-scale pirate fishing operations, to feed the seafood hungry markets of Europe and Asia. The problem is particularly acute in West African waters where fish is a vital – and often the only – […]

NOAA lists five Atlantic sturgeon populations under Endangered Species Act

31 January 2012 (NOAA) – NOAA’s Fisheries Service announced today a final decision to list five distinct population segments of Atlantic sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act. The Chesapeake Bay, New York Bight, Carolina, and South Atlantic populations of Atlantic sturgeon will be listed as endangered, while the Gulf of Maine population will be listed […]

New study provides insight into Southern Ocean food web – ‘Likely to be regional extinctions of some species’

2 Feb 2012 (BAS) – One of the most comprehensive studies of animals in the Southern Ocean reveals a region that is under threat from the effects of environmental change. Reporting in January 2012 in a special volume of the journal Deep Sea Research II, an international team of researchers led by British Antarctic Survey […]

Protecting the seas is good business: UN

25 January 2012 (Agence France-Presse) – The worldwide fishing industry could benefit from a $50 billion boost annually if stocks were allowed time to recover, the UN said Wednesday. Already 32 percent of the world’s fish stocks have been depleted by years of overfishing and poor coastal management, according to a UN Environment Programme report […]

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