News
February 19, 2009
Rising importance of aquaculture, WWF scientist predicts
A WWF scientist recently hailed the controversial aquaculture industry as “the future”, predicting doubled production over the next two decades. “It will be a major industry in the (developing) South and will be a major source of employment and income, replacing wild catch in terms of importance,” said Jason Clay, a scientist with the U.S. … Continued
February 18, 2009
Climate change will move fish, too
Climate change may soon shift the world sea fish stocks dramatically, a new scientific study shows. Some northern countries may benefit, but shifts of more than 200 kilometres polewards by 2050 will hurt tropical, mostly developing nations badly, according to the study, lead by Dr William Cheung, and presented at the recent American Association for … Continued
February 13, 2009
Ground-breaking US Arctic fisheries ban
A unanimous decision by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) has banned all future industrial fisheries in US waters north of the Bering Strait. The move is preventive: there are currently no large-scale commercial fisheries operating in the area, covering nearly 200,000 square miles (518,000 square kilometres), but the diminishing Arctic icecap caused by … Continued
February 13, 2009
Some say “Good”, some say “Not good enough” about EU Shark Plan
The new European Union Action Plan for the Conservation and Management of Sharks, released by the Commission last week, has met mixed reactions from conservationist NGO’s. The Oceana organisation expressed “disappointment” that it was not as ambitious as expected, while The Shark Alliance said it represented “a great step forward for the conservation of sharks … Continued
February 12, 2009
Sweden to implement transferable quotas
As a part of a plan with the goal of reducing the nation’s trawler feet by a third, the Swedish Government today introduced a proposal for transferable fishing rights in pelagic fishing. According to the proposal, it will be possible for some vessels to take over allotted quotas from other fishers, thereby improving the profitability … Continued
February 12, 2009
Multi-dimensional approach in new study of Canadian fisheries
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for fisheries in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia is almost back to the level before the groundfish collapse of the early 1990’s, but a new study suggests that it may mask great underlying problems, as it did two decades ago. The report, published by the Nova Scotia-based GPIAtlantic organisation, … Continued
February 10, 2009
American lobster threat to Sweden
American lobsters on the lam may constitute an ecological threat to its European cousins, experts say After more than a dozen findings along the Norwegian coast and an American lobster (Homarus americanus) was caught off Lysekil on the Swedish Skagerrak Coast last fall, the Swedish Board of Fisheries offered an award for anyone handing in … Continued
February 10, 2009
Google Earth for Conscientious Consumers
As a special feature in the new “Ocean on Google Earth” Internet program, users can check the sustainability of fish stocks. A map layer, based on information from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), shows where in the world some of the most sustainably-sourced kinds of fish come from, and, accordingly, which fish available to consumers can … Continued
February 5, 2009
A first for the Kilowatt-days system in Sweden
The fishing capacity for Swedish cod fishers in the Kattegat and Skagerrak and the North Sea, will be reduced by up to 25 per cent, after a new effort-management system was introduced on Feb.1. The new system, implemented under the EU Cod Recovery Plan approved by the Council last November, is based on the “kilowatt-days” … Continued
February 5, 2009
Slow progress in national reporting on balance in fisheries, Commission says
Steadily improving, but still far from perfect – that is how the EU Commission marks the member states’ annual reports on their efforts to balance fleet capacity and available fishing opportunities. The first reports submitted covered the year 2003, and in its recently published annual compilation, of reports covering 2007, the Commission concluded that the … Continued