How to clean up fish farms and raise more seafood at the same time

NPRLast month, we told you about companies that are growing salmon on dry land. That's an effective — but expensive — way to reduce water pollution caused by fish farms. After all, marine aquaculture provides about half of the seafood we eat.So a Canadian researcher named Thierry Chopin is pushing to develop a less expensive technology that could be used to clean up the many fish farms that Read More…

The case of the missing sockeye

Northwest Fisheries Science CenterA team of NOAA scientists is using an advanced network of receivers along the Salmon River in Central Idaho to detect where and why young sockeye salmon are disappearing on their way to the ocean. The initial results have prompted new measures to boost survival of this endangered species.The research is led by Gordon Axel of the Northwest Fisheries Science Read More…

Rare Willamette Valley salmon and steelhead habitat protected

Albany TribuneThe hope of restoring plentiful salmon and steelhead runs to the Willamette Valley was bolstered today by a successful habitat conservation effort on the North Santiam River, once a powerhouse of fish production in the Willamette Basin.A partnership between Western Rivers Conservancy, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and Oregon Department Read More…

China escalates drug war into Southeast Asia’s Mekong River

ScoopAfter executing four killers from Thailand, Laos and Myanmar last year, China's security forces have extended their reach by uniting those countries along the Mekong River in a "war on drugs" and arrested 812 people in the narcotics-rich Golden Triangle.China's new push into Southeast Asia is described as an anti-drug operation which began on April 19 and will end on June 20.It includes Read More…

EPA survey ranks California No. 1 in water infrastructure needs

Los Angeles TimesCalifornia could use $44.5 billion to fix aging water systems over the next two decades, according to a federal survey that placed the state at the top of a national list of water infrastructure needs.Texas, at nearly $34 billion, and New York, with about $22 billion, were next in line.The assessment, conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2011 and released Read More…

Hundreds of communities rely on contaminated water

Capital Public RadioIt’s estimated that a quarter of a million people there rely on groundwater contaminated with nitrates, including some of the poorest people in the state.Springfield lies along a single dusty road near Watsonville in Monterey County. Strawberry fields surround the road. In the middle of one of those fields, Don Rosa, with the Pajaro Sunny Mesa Community Services District, Read More…

Catching 1,300-pound mako shark ‘scariest thing’ ever

Los Angeles TimesThe fishermen who caught what may be a record-setting mako off the coast of Huntington Beach described an intense struggle to hook the 1,323-pound shark.Boat Capt. Matt Potter, 34, who owns a store in Huntington Beach called Mako Matt's Marine, said he and his buddies usually go sport shark fishing 20 days a year.On Monday, they were on the third day of a three-day fishing trip Read More…

Fukushima tuna study finds minuscule health risks

CNNGo ahead, order the sushi.Levels of radioactivity found in Pacific bluefin tuna that spawned off Japan around the time of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident are far below anything that would pose a health risk and have dropped in fish caught the following year, U.S. researchers reported Monday.The latest findings follow up on a 2012 study that found radioactive cesium, a nuclear reactor Read More…

Fear of sharks helps preserve balance in the world’s oceans

PhysOrgA prey's fear of a shark is critical to protecting ocean biodiversity, according to researchers at Florida International University. Without this fear, a cascading effect within the ecosystem could destabilize the world's oceans.Seagrass beds provide habitats for other fish and marine life—many of which people rely on. When predators, such as tiger sharks, rove in areas near seagrasses, Read More…

Anger floating downstream

Phnom Penh PostIn a united stand against hydropower dam projects on the Mekong River and its tributaries, villagers and NGO workers from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam yesterday called on governments to cancel projects such as Laos’s Xayaburi dam.Frustrated that their governments either financially support such projects or have failed to publicly oppose them, about 200 people who live along the Read More…