Tag archives for fisheries
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Theresa Peterson has been an Alaska fisherman for three decades. During summer break one year in college she went to Homer, Alaska, to work in a cannery. She lived in a tent with friends. But after four days of being cooped up in the factory she decided she wanted to get a job on a…
Posted by Fishing for shad on the Potomac River at Fletcher’s Boathouse is a spring tradition for many Washington-area anglers, including me. As a food source for larger fish, birds of prey, and other animals, shad provide a great example of the interconnectedness of nature—which for decades hasn’t received enough attention from fisheries managers. Although we’ve made…
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By Andreas Merkl of Ocean Conservancy I recently joined Ocean Conservancy as its new CEO because I believe in one simple but very ambitious premise: the ocean must be at the very center of the key challenge of our time. That challenge is how to meet the enormous resource demands of a rapidly growing global…
Statistically, fishing is one of the world’s most dangerous professions and it is hard to imagine what could be worse than scuba diving for lobster along the remote and impoverished Miskito Coast of Honduras and Nicaragua (see Building a Sustainable Lobster Fishery Off Honduras). The dangers of this profession have been graphically documented by NBC News and…
Earth Day Opinion: Helping Coral Ecosystems Survive a Changing Climate
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on April 22, 2013 With corals across the globe bleaching due to advancing ocean temperatures, many of the world’s coral reef experts believe these centers of marine biodiversity may become the first casualty of climate change. But while the news on corals has been largely grim, it is not beyond hope.
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Dolly Varden trout can expand their organs to more than two times their regular sizes, a new study says.
Posted by By Carl Safina and Elizabeth Brown In the 1990’s many U.S. fisheries found themselves in crisis. The fish they relied on were deeply depleted from decades of getting caught faster than they could reproduce. After years of bitter argument and concerted conservation-group efforts, Congress in 1996 passed a sweeping set of amendments to the federal…
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The Great Lakes are the largest supply of freshwater in the world, and more than 36 million people depend on them for drinking water. As a result, monitoring and maintaining the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem is an urgent priority. Of the diverse organisms inhabiting freshwater systems, fishes are familiar to scientists and laypeople…
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Tropical lakes in East Africa don’t grab headlines the way polar bears do, but climate change is having an effect on them, too. Although the changes are not as visible as melting polar ice caps, they are no less real. As in many lakes around the world, water temperature is on the rise in Lake…
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The two whale sharks turned around to face me, opened their huge mouths and sieved the water filled with tiny baby anchovies. I had to tell myself that they would not bite, but I also remembered these are sharks, not whales and moved out of their path to avoid getting bumped into. It was the…
Yes, I am lucky. I have been able to sail the waters of Eastern Indonesia over nearly 20 years, and I have dipped underwater, swimming around some incredible lagoons, reefs, and seamounts. When people ask me where to see some remote coasts I say, go anywhere east. Staring at a coastline from a boat anywhere…
By Alex Muñoz of Oceana I’m happy to start 2013 by sharing some inspiring news from my country, Chile, one of the world’s top fishing nations. The good news is that our Government and National Congress, following campaigning by Oceana, overhauled our fishing laws by banning bottom trawling in all vulnerable marine ecosystems (including…
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has seen a lot in its 70-year history but nothing quite like this. More than 128,000 people flooded the commission’s inboxes with postcards and emails last month, a new record for public comment. Scientists, small business owners, nature lovers, and anglers sent letters and spoke out at public…
By Elizabeth Brown and Carl Safina A few years ago, some scientists at the University of British Columbia were thinking about how climate change would affect fish. Climate change results from the collection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from our burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas), which causes the earth to warm. The…
Bubba Cochrane always knew he wanted to be a fisherman. So, despite concerns from his family, he began his career as a deck-hand and eventually saved enough to buy a permit and boat of his own. He’s 43 years old now and owns a commercial fishing business out of Galveston, Texas. Business is good –…
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November’s “National Geographic” cover story is about life in Cuba — but it’s also about the ocean. Explorer Clare Fieseler shares photos from the Cuban coast that help illuminate the human-ocean challenges embedded in the new article.
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In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, local food networks, including local fisheries, need your help. Last week, we spread the word about funding disaster relief efforts for fisheries and fishery-related businesses. Now, with more news from the coastal zone trickling out, there’s more that consumers can do. Shellfish Village Fishmonger NYC works with fishermen in…
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The following piece was originally published by the Center for American Progress. Hurricane Sandy’s terrible toll in lost lives and decimated communities is still being measured. But as we start to sort out the pieces, it’s also worth noting that the storm sent shockwaves through the mid-Atlantic region’s fishing industry. Harbors and infrastructure were pummeled…
Over the past few days, Hurricane Sandy barreled through the Mid-Atlantic Ocean, making landfall late Monday night in New Jersey. Thoughts and well-wishes have been flowing in from all over the world – with millions in the dark and no way to travel, the NY-NJ region (the most densely populated stretch of U.S. coastline) is…
By Carl Safina and Andrew Read Every twelve hours in the Gulf of Maine, a porpoise swims into a net it cannot see, struggles until it runs out of breath, and drowns. That’s because New England gill-net fishermen simply refuse to use a proven solution that they helped develop, a solution fishermen on the West…
The following piece was originally published by the Center for American Progress. It seems there’s a never-ending see-saw battle in scientific research about certain consumables. Red wine will decrease incidence of cardiovascular disease! No it won’t. Dark chocolate will lower your body mass index! Or not. Seafood is no different. For every report that Omega…
The following piece was originally published by the Center for American Progress. Earlier this week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its annual report on the state of U.S. fisheries and overall, the news was fairly positive. U.S. fishermen caught 10.1 billion pounds of fish in 2011, up nearly 20 percent from 2010. They…
Today We Have a Lovely Sharkfin Soup to Go With Your MSC-Certified Lobster
Posted by Miguel Jorge of National Geographic's Ocean Initiative in Ocean Views on September 10, 2012 
Where do you go to foster dialogue and partnerships leading to an environmentally, socially sustainable seafood marketplace? Why, Hong Kong of course – the epicenter of demand-driven ocean destruction! A strange location for the 10th International Seafood Summit? No, actually it’s a brilliant and timely move on the part of SeaWeb, the conference organizers.…
The following piece was originally published by the Center for American Progress. At the end of last September, I wrote a column, enthusiastically titled “Optimism for the New England Groundfishery.” My theory was that after a history of overfishing, subsequent belt-tightening, and implementation of a new management system, the industry was on the cusp of…
I recently wrote about some good news from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service regarding improvements in the health of U.S. ocean fish populations. In a little publicized but very important milestone, NOAA fisheries and the regional fishery management councils have completed a task set out by Congress in 2006: establishing enforceable, science-based annual catch limits (ACLs)…
