Does Japan’s affair with tuna mean loving it to extinction?

By MASAMI ITO, staff writerTuesday, Aug. 31, 2010 Japan is known as the biggest consumer of tuna. Be it raw for sushi or sashimi or fried, broiled or canned, tuna is an important element of the food culture. But concerns are growing because tuna is disappearing, and this is putting Japan in a difficult diplomatic […]

Purse seine fishing plummeting New Zealand tuna supply

By Michael Morrah Mon, 16 Aug 2010 6:45p.m. Conservationists are calling on the Government to support the closure of high sea fisheries in the Pacific to industrial fish netting. Two areas have already been closed because of concerns about illegal fishing and plummeting tuna stocks. Now island nations are trying to do more to stop […]

Crabs provide evidence oil tainting Gulf food web

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer Mon Aug 9, 5:33 am ET BARATARIA, La. – To assess how heavy a blow the BP oil spill has dealt the Gulf of Mexico, researchers are closely watching a staple of the seafood industry and primary indicator of the ecosystem’s health: the blue crab. Weeks ago, before engineers […]

Mediterranean bluefin tuna landings drop by a massive 32.3 percent

By Matthew Vella Wednesday, August 04, 2010 The volume and wholesale value of fresh fish landings dropped by 9.9 and 7.5% respectively in the second quarter this year when compared to 2009. Data from the National Statistics Office for the period April-June 2009 record fish landings amounted to 331,243 kilograms, a decrease of 9.9% over […]

First ever footage from inside a purse seine tuna net — ‘Seeing death on this scale has quite an impact on the team’

About 5 minutes into the video above, a film crew dives in the South Pacific waters and films for what is probably the first time ever (that’s what they claim, anyway) the inside of a gigantic purse seine tuna net. You really have to see it to believe the scale of this kind of commercial […]

Endangered-species status is sought for bluefin tuna

By ANDREW W. LEHREN and JUSTIN GILLISPublished: June 23, 2010 Fearing that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will deal a severe blow to the bluefin tuna, an environmental group is demanding that the government declare the fish an endangered species, setting off extensive new protections under federal law. Scientists agree that the […]

Floating nurseries hit by Deepwater Horizon spill

By Debora MacKenzie14:31 23 June 2010 The floating nurseries of the Gulf of Mexico are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Home to the larvae of more than 120 species of fish, the nurseries congregate along the US coast – precisely where the Deepwater Horizon oil slick is wreaking havoc. Ecologists in the […]

EU ends bluefin tuna season early over depleted stocks

The European Commission is closing the bluefin tuna fishing season early because of depleted stocks, imposing a ban that will take effect on Thursday. The ban covers fishing grounds in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic. It affects industrial purse seine fishing, which accounts for more than 70% of the annual EU tuna catch, the Commission […]

Gulf leak: Biggest spill may not be biggest disaster

By Peter Aldhous , Phil McKenna and Caitlin Stier 09 June 2010 * 16:14 THE Deepwater Horizon blowout is the largest oil spill in US history, but its ecological impact need not be the worst. It all hinges on the amount and composition of the oil that reaches the Gulf of Mexico’s most sensitive habitat: […]

What the spill will kill

Giant plumes of crude oil mixed with methane are sweeping the ocean depths with devastating consequences. ‘I’m not too worried about oil on the surface,’ says one scientist. ‘It’s the things we don’t see that worry me the most.’ By Sharon Begley, with Ian Yarett in New York and Daniel Stone in WashingtonJune 06, 2010 […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial