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February, 2002 - Deep-sea trawlers are destroying populations of fish and other creatures in the ocean at an alarming rate, according to research presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston.

Fishermen are now using military sonar to hunt in the deep ocean, but the slow life cycles of the species that live hundreds of metres below the surface mean their populations will collapse if they are exposed to industrial-scale exploitation.
[More]

Shark fin profits outweighing fears of prosecution says Palau president

KOROR, Palau (AFP) Mar 11, 2004 - Substantial profits in the shark fin trade have outweighed fears of prosecution for those involved in the illegal business here, Palau President Tommy Remengesau says.

"I guess the profit makes people take the risk," said Remengesau Thursday evening as his administration announced its seizure of the third haul of shark fin and mutilated bodies from a foreign vessel in under three months.

Shark Expert Is Bitten During Filming

April 12, 2002

A scientist known for "pushing the envelope" in his work on sharks was badly bitten by one in the Bahamas, colleagues said today.

The victim, Dr. Erich Ritter of the Shark Research Institute in Princeton, N.J., was bitten on the calf on Tuesday by what was believed to be a 350-pound bull shark during filming of a Discovery Channel program.

"He's going to be in the hospital for four or five more weeks," said Marie Levine, executi... [More]

Interior says survival of sea otters in southwest Alaska threatened

February 5, 2004 - WASHINGTON – The Interior Department said Thursday the survival of sea otters in southwest Alaska is threatened and proposed adding them to the government's endangered species list.

If the proposal were adopted, it would lead to a recovery plan requiring conservation efforts for the northern sea otter. It inhabits waters in the western Gulf of Alaska stretching toward the Bering Sea, including the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands and Kodiak Island.

[More]

Scientists maintain fish concern

Monday, 18 October, 2004 - Fisheries scientists say no cod should be caught in the North Sea, the Irish Sea and west of Scotland in 2005.

Experts from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Ices) say the species is at historically low levels and should not be exploited.

Ices says it will release a fuller report to governments on Friday to assist them in setting fishing quotas.

It will also recommend zero catches for hake in the waters of southe... [More]

Science taps into ocean secrets

Monday, 22 November, 2004 - Some 13,000 new marine species have been discovered in the past year, according to information released by an international alliance of scientists.

The Census of Marine Life (COML) has also uncovered previously unknown migration routes used by fish such as tuna and shark.

The $1bn 10-year project, which is building a huge database, involves researchers in more than 70 countries.

The new knowledge will inform future conservation and fis... [More]

River 'pollution' sparks fertility fears

Sunday, 17 March, 2002 - Chemicals blamed for changing the sex of male fish could affect human fertility, according to scientists in the UK.

A five-year study by the Environment Agency to be published later this month suggests that half the male fish in lowland English rivers are developing female characteristics because of pollution.

Scientists blame the pollution on a "potent" form of oestrogen found in urine from women using the contraceptive pill, which may be... [More]

Releasing Nemo a disaster for native fish

July 2004 - Exclusive from New Scientist

Exotic predatory fish that could devastate local marine ecosystems are appearing off the US coast. These and other ornamental fish are thought to have been released by careless aquarium owners, and could harm fisheries, introduce parasites and endanger native species.

In a worrying development in June, scientists at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary found a pair of orbicular batfish, a popular aquarium fish endemic to the Pa... [More]

The Infamous Exploding Whale

There's a Catch: Recreation takes toll on marine fish

By Susan Milius, August 25th, 2004 - Sportfishing isn't just a tiny, harmless nibble on saltwater-fish populations, according to a new analysis of federal data.

For species flagged for special concern in U.S. waters, sportfishing accounts for 23 percent of the harvest, says Felicia Coleman of Florida State University in Tallahassee. The percentage is even higher for certain regions. In the Gulf of Mexico, recreation takes 64 percent of the catch for troubled fish stocks, Coleman and h... [More]

Study: Whitetip Shark Numbers Rapidly Dwindled

Species All But Disappeared from Gulf of Mexico in 50 Years, by John Nielsen

All Things Considered, July 8, 2004 · Common wisdom holds that a glimpse of the oceanic whitetip shark is a rare one. Researchers say the shark, which lives in tropical water like the Gulf of Mexico, has never been very abundant.

But, as NPR's John Nielsen reports, a new study tells a very different story. As recently as 50 years ago, the whitetip may have once outnumbered all the other big fi... [More]

Protection plea for reef fish

September, 2004 - A rare reef fish called the humphead wrasse should be guarded from overfishing, experts have claimed.

The WWF and the IUCN-World Conservation Union are set to ask an international trade watchdog to include the fish on its list of protected species.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) will have its biennial meeting in October to review the vulnerability of several species.

Conservationists hope the humphead wrasse ... [More]

Predatory fish health warning

May, 2002 - Women and children have been advised against eating shark, swordfish and marlin.

The Food Standards Agency is advising that pregnant women, women who intend to become pregnant, infants and children under 16 to avoid the fish.

Officials said the advice was precautionary and follows a survey, which found high levels of mercury in those fish.

Mercury can harm the nervous system of an unborn child if the fish is eaten regularly by its mother.

I... [More]

New evidence points to pollution as main cause of much coral reef destruction

Feb-2004 - Scientists agree that coral reefs are in an alarming global state of decline. However, determining the main cause or causes of this decline has proven a much more contentious issue. In the current edition of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology (JEMBE), Harbor Branch marine scientist Dr. Brian Lapointe and colleagues present new evidence they hope will help settle one major debate: whether pollution or overfishing is the main cause of the coral-smothering spread of s... [More]

Pollution 'changes sex of fish'

July, 2004 - A third of male fish in British rivers are in the process of changing sex due to pollution in human sewage, research by the Environment Agency suggests.

A survey of 1,500 fish at 50 river sites found more than a third of males displayed female characteristics.

Hormones in the sewage, including those produced by the female contraceptive pill, are thought to be the main cause.

The agency says the problem could damage fish populations by reducing their ... [More]

Observed Impacts of Climate Change in the United States

Observed Impacts of Global Climate Change in the U.S.

Prepared by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change
November 2004.

By: Camille Parmesan, The University of Texas at Austin
Hector Galbraith, University of Colorado-Boulder and Galbraith Environmental Sciences

Press Release

Download Report (pdf)

Noxious undersea eruptions killing billions of fish

February 2004 - Exclusive from New Scientist

Undersea eruptions of noxious hydrogen sulphide are having a major impact on one of the world's richest fisheries. Satellite images show that toxic eruptions off the coast of Namibia are more frequent and widespread than anyone realised.

The world's most productive fisheries are found in upwelling regions of ocean, where wind-driven currents fertilise surface waters with nutrients from the deep. The Benguela upwelling along Namib... [More]

New radioactivity limit could sink shellfish

October 2004, NewScientist.com - Thousands of tonnes of British shellfish currently eaten in Europe could be banned under new international safety limits for radioactivity in food, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned.

Lobsters, cockles and scallops from the north west of England and the south west of Scotland are so contaminated with plutonium from the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria that they will breach limits due to be introduced by the United Nations in 2005.
... [More]

New giant squid predator found

January, 2004 - A little known shark that lives in waters off Antarctica is only the second creature known to science that hunts giant squid for food.

Sleeper sharks even appear to target the biggest species of large squid - the colossal squid, which is about double the size of the shark.

The huge sperm whale was previously the only animal thought to rely on giant and colossal squid for food.

Details of the study are featured in the journal Deep Sea Research.
[More]

Red Sea shark slaughter

February, 2002 - Sharks have long been demonised. Many people regard them as malicious man-eaters and believe the best shark is a dead shark.

So why would the death of large, solitary animal warrant cause for concern?

Simple. The mako shark pictured above was the victim of illegal fishing in one of the most important coral seas in the world.

Whale Camera Spies On Hawaii's Deepwater Hunters

National Geographic News: February 6, 2004

This story is one of a series looking at National Geographic Crittercam research. Crittercam is a research instrument worn by wild animals and equipped with a video camera and other information-gathering equipment. Crittercam is used on animals both in the ocean and on land.

Four-armed jellyfish found

Published online 9 February 2004 | Nature
Researchers have discovered a new species of jellyfish so different from its fellow creatures that it merits a new subfamily. The diaphanous beast, which dwells in deep waters off California, has a bell-shaped body and four fleshy arms.

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A newly discovered species of living baleen whale

Nature 426, 278-281 (20 November 2003)
A new species of Balaenoptera, which is characterized by its unique cranial morphology, its small number of baleen plates, and by its distant molecular relationships with all of its congeners. Our analyses also separated Balaenoptera brydei (Bryde's whale) and Balaenoptera edeni (Eden's whale) into two distinct species, raising the number of known living Balaenoptera species to eight.

To read this story in full you will need to login or make... [More]

Harnessing Consumer Power for Ocean Conservation

AFTER SEVERAL YEARS OF SEARCHING, a NASA biologist found a way to track urban sprawl in probably the least obvious place

By Carrie Brownstein, Mercédès Lee, and Carl Safina
Fall 2003 (Vol. 4, No. 4) - Conservation magazine is published by the Society for Conservation Biology

15,589 species threatened

News from The Scientist 2004, 5(1):20041117-03
Published 17 November 2004
More than 15,000 species around the world are at risk of extinction, according to a report released today (November 17) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The organization, whose annual list of endangered species is commonly known as the "Red List," found that one in eight birds, almost half of turtles and tortoises, one in four mammals studied, and one i... [More]

Total: 79 Displaying: 1 - 25 Pages: 1 2 3 4 >

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