Northern Ireland’s herring catch climbs back to 2011 levels

FIS By Natalia RealAugust 9, 2012Northern Ireland Fisheries Minister Michelle O’Neill MLA announced this week that a deal had been struck with the European Commission (EC) for an in-year increase to the catch of Irish Sea herring.“I was disappointed and frustrated that the final settlement at the December Council last year had resulted in a 10 per cent cut for Irish Sea herring in 2012,” Read More…

Chinook salmon may have record run on the Klamath

The Record SearchlightBy Damon ArthurAugust 10, 2012The number of Chinook salmon swimming up the Klamath River this year is expected to be the largest in decades, with estimates ranging from 352,000 to 380,000 fish returning this fall.While the huge numbers of fish returning to the Klamath basin this year is generating excitement, it also has fish biologists worried about a repeat of September Read More…

Ray-finned fishes get new family tree

FIS By Natalia RealAugust 8, 2012A genetic analysis by Yale University researchers shows that the earliest ray-finned fishes called teleosts are more ancient than originally thought and emerged on Earth almost 300 million years ago. The much more diverse and familiar species of teleosts, however, arose at about the same time as birds and mammals: about 120 to 60 million years ago. This means that Read More…

New pathway for invasive species — science teachers

Science DailyAugust 7, 2012A survey of teachers from the United States and Canada found that one out of four educators who used live animals as part of their science curriculum released the organisms into the wild after they were done using them in the classroom.Yet only 10 percent of those teachers participated in a planned release program, increasing the likelihood that the well-intentioned Read More…

Fishers, divers help track marine species

Australian GeographicBy Clementine ThuilierAugust 7, 2012Thanks to a helping hand from the public along with government grants, scientists will be able to map the migration of fish, turtles, sharks and other marine species around the Tasmanian coast. In 2009, researchers from the University of Tasmania set up the interactive REDMAP (Range Extension Database and Mapping Project) website, where Read More…

Study shows widespread climate changes underway in B.C’s oceans…

Market WatchAugust 7, 2012A newly-released report by WWF and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) reveals that the effects of climate change are reducing fish habitat on B.C.'s coast, threatening the province's lucrative groundfish and shellfish fisheries.The study is the first regional synthesis of its kind to document observed and expected impacts of a changing global climate on Read More…

Project to study contaminants in urban water

UC NewsroomBy Shelly LeachmanAugust 7, 2012What contaminants lurk in the urban subsurface, and what happens to them once they're there? Do they make their way into storm drains and creeks to reach groundwater, or even oceans? Or do they naturally attenuate as they migrate through soils, somehow allowing them to self-cleanse as they travel? A UC Santa Barbara researcher hopes to find out, thanks Read More…

Thai lawsuit threatens to derail Laos plans for Mekong River dam

Bloomberg BusinessweekBy Daniel Ten KateAugust 7, 2012A group of Thai villagers moved to block a state-run company from buying electricity generated by a hydropower dam in Laos in a bid to halt the $3.6 billion project on the Mekong River that is opposed by downstream nations.The 37 villagers filed a lawsuit in the Administrative Court today to cancel an agreement for the Electricity Generating Read More…

New bill supports end of ‘overfishing subsidies’

FISAugust 8, 2012United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a new bill this month that signals US support for international action to stop government subsidies that lead to overfishing.Specifically, the Fair Trade in Seafood Act (S. 3518) would establish the issue as a Principal Negotiating Objective of the US in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and World Trade Organisation Read More…

US Coast Guard cutter in Pacific pursues vessel suspected of illegal…

The Washington Post August 7, 2012A Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter is off the coast of Japan, pursuing prosecution of an unregistered fishing vessel suspected of catching 40 tons of fish with an illegal high seas driftnet.Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr., the Coast Guard commandant, on Monday announced that the 378-foot cutter Rush had been assigned to Alaska waters but had followed the fishing Read More…