By Michael Casey 17 November 2014 (CBS News) – The never-ending demand for Pacific bluefin tuna among sushi lovers is driving the iconic fish towards extinction, a conservation group said. The Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the status of the tuna from “least concern” to “vulnerable,” which means it is now […]
By Peter Wynn Kirby13 October 2014 TOKYO (The New York Times) – The International Court of Justice’s decision last March to prohibit Japan’s annual whale hunt in Antarctic waters was greeted by many as an historic step against a reprehensible practice. Yet last month, despite the enormous diplomatic toll, Japan vowed to continue its whaling […]
27 August 2014 (euronews) – Is the sun setting on Japan’s tuna fishing industry? Faced with a recent report that the bluefin tuna population is close to collapse, Tokyo has done an about-turn and decided to slash catches by half. Last year the USA, Japan, China, and South Korea agreed to cut catches by 15% […]
By Johnny Langenheim 15 September 2014 (theguardian.com) – The tuna fishermen use a crane to lift the clutch of frozen sharks onto a flat bed truck backed up on the edge of the wharf at Benoa harbour in Bali, Indonesia. The sharks’ heads and dorsal fins are missing, but the crane operator obligingly tells me […]
By Laura McClure 15 August 2014 (TED) – Scientist Sylvia Earle (TED Talk: My wish: Protect our oceans) has spent the past five decades exploring the seas. During that time, she’s witnessed a steep decline in ocean wildlife numbers — and a sharp incline in the number of ocean deadzones and oil drilling sites. An […]
By Tanya Dimitrova, special to mongabay.com 23 September 2013 (mongabay.com) – In 2010 President Anote Tong of Kiribati made a historic pledge, committing to protect the waters around his island nation in a massive marine protected area. He said the gesture represented Kiribati’s contribution to protecting the environment and he urged industrial countries to do […]
By Tony Press, CEO, Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC at University of Tasmania13 July 2013 (The Conversation) – Australia had its second (and last) chance this week to argue against Japan’s whaling program in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). But before it did, New Zealand appeared before the Court to provide its take on […]
By Dave Cohen1 July 2013 (Decline of Empire) – Few stories better capture the human relationship with the natural world than Science Daily’s Developing Techniques for Tuna Aquaculture (12 June 2013). Swimming around and around in a 20,000 gallon tank at the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus are several large yellowfin tuna captured last […]
29 May 2012 (WashingtonsBlog) – We noted more than a year ago: The ocean currents head from Japan to the West Coast of the U.S. *** Of course, fish don’t necessarily stay still, either. For example, the Telegraph notes that scientists tagged a bluefin tuna and found that it crossed between Japan and the West […]
ICCAT time series of the biomass of tuna species under management of ICCAT. Line denotes establishment of ICCAT (1969). Species assessed comprise the “major tuna” that ICCAT manages. Data: a) from ICCAT (2008a), b) ICCAT (2008b), c-e) ICCAT (2008c), f) ICCAT (2008d), g-h) ICCAT (2008e). Graphic: Sarika Cullis-Suzuki High Seas, High Risk: A Global Evaluation […]
