Latest James Cook University in Australia Stories

Study finds seine net elimination an important step to the recovery of robust fish communitiesMarine conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society working in Kenya have found that better fisheries management that includes restricting fishing gear is producing more predatory and longer-lived species and is improving fishing even in adjacent areas where no management is taking place.During a 10-year study, conservationists recording fish catches found that the implementation of...

Children of baby boomers aren't the only ones who have taken to setting up home far from where their parents live. A new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences documents how larval dispersal connects marine fish populations in a network of marine protected areas "“ information that is critical for fisheries managers."What this study does for the first time is to demonstrate that a percentage of larvae spawned on one marine reserve actually make it...

Overfishing on coral reefs isn't simply caused by too many people, according to a new report published in the February 10th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Rather, the researchers found that the biomass of fish found on coral reefs in the western Indian Ocean depended mostly on the complexity of the reefs themselves and the socioeconomic status of the people living on the shores.Specifically, they found, overfishing is at its worst in areas that have climbed only part way...

One species faces possible extinction this centuryAs concerns about the effects of global warming continue to mount, a new study published in the December issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology finds that an increase in average temperature of only two degrees Celsius could have a devastating effect on populations of Australia's iconic kangaroos."Our study provides evidence that climate change has the capacity to cause large-scale range contractions, and the possible extinction of...