Latest Fisheries science Stories

Science Article Weighs in on International Whaling Commission Debate WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Culling whales will not increase fisheries catches in tropical waters, according to a new paper supported by the Lenfest Ocean Program and published today in the journal Science. For years, Japan has argued that reducing the number of baleen whales in the oceans would improve fisheries because whales eat fish that are caught for human consumption. The study published today...

HILO, Hawaii -- New technology deployed on airplanes is helping scientists quantify landscape-scale changes occurring to Big Island tropical forests from non-native plants and other environmental factors that affect carbon sequestration. U.S. Forest Service and Carnegie Institution scientists involved in the research published their findings this month in the journal Ecosystems and hope it will help other researchers racing to assess threats to tropical forests around the world. "Our...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lee Crockett, director of Federal Fisheries Policy at the Pew Environment Group, today issued the following statement in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service finalizing its annual catch limit rule "This is an important step toward ending overfishing. This rule establishes a good framework for creating annual catch limits based on sound science to end overfishing and help rebuild struggling fish populations. It also requires...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "We kill carelessly," Nobel Laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said last week as he spoke in support of a global campaign to stop whaling by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.ifaw.org ). Tutu launched Sacred Ocean - Global Voices Against the Cruelty of Whaling in Cape Town with a speech that made an analogy that compared rape and murder, with the killing of whales. "Are we surprised that we have lost a...

A recent study has found that the Southern Ocean has proved more resilient to global warming than previously thought and remains a major store of mankind's planet-warming carbon dioxide.Oceans act as a brake on climate change by absorbing large portions of the extra CO2 released by mankind through burning fossil fuels or deforestation and experts say the Southern Ocean is the largest of these "carbon sinks."Researchers in the past have suggested the vast ocean between Australia and...

Conservationists say living reef aquariums may be endangering Florida's coral reefs. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the use of crabs, snails and other invertebrates in high-end aquariums could upset the ecology of Florida's reefs, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Monday. There has been a change in consumer demand, biologist Jessica McCawley told the newspaper. People used to just keep a fish in a tank with some dead coral. They want invertebrates now,...

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which is actively lobbying state and local officials in Oregon regarding ocean fisheries issues, has admitted to offering payment to current and former elected officials - county, port and city commissioners - from Oregon coastal communities to attend and testify at a hearing of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council this week (Nov 3-7) in San Diego, Calif. The Coastal Jobs Coalition learned of the actions on Friday, Oct. 31 and is demanding that the...

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), which will meet in San Diego November 3-7 to vote on a preferred alternative for an Individual Quota system, released a report detailing potential impacts of an unbalanced plan. The report, pointed out by the Coastal Jobs Coalition, analyzes the scenario of 100 percent quota share granted to harvesters and the negative effects it would likely have on coastal communities and jobs. Coastal ports and processing jobs throughout the West Coast would...

How best to map "˜boreal' or northern forest with spaceborne radar is the focus of an ESA campaign currently underway in northern Sweden. By answering this question, the campaign addresses one of the key objectives of the candidate Earth Explorer BIOMASS mission. BIOMASS is one of six candidate Earth Explorer missions that has just completed assessment study and will be presented to the science community at a User Consultation Meeting in January 2009. Up to three of the missions will...

By Peter Harrison Lundy Island is to feature in a new service provided by the website Google Earth. Google Earth already provides extensive mapping, imagery, galleries and information on all parts of the world, but now web users will be given access to undersea landscapes, including the habitat of threatened species which live off the coast, as part of a new facility. The new layer of Google Earth Outreach will feature video streams, photo galleries and stories from marine protected areas...