News
March 24, 2010
No felt-soles in Alaskan streams and rivers
The Alaska Board of Fisheries has come out in support of a state-wide ban on felt-soled wading boots, seen as a potential threat to the environment. Felt-soled boots are worn by fishermen in creeks and streams to improve footing on wet rocks. The felt stays wet longer and carries more river sediment than rubber boots, … Continued
March 23, 2010
CITES doesn’t go for sharks, either
Only one out of eight purportedly endangered shark species won protection at the ongoing UN CITES meeting in Doha, Qatar. The porbeagle sharks were included in Annex II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Annex II comprehends some 32,500 species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but may become so … Continued
March 23, 2010
No more pills from occupied waters
Several Swedish health store chains have halted sales of omega-3 pills after a TV magazine has showed that fish used for the capsules originates in occupied Western Sahara. An earlier program from “Uppdrag granskning” (“Mission: Under scrutiny”) had showed how the owner of one of Sweden’s largest fishing vessels had taken advantage of the newly … Continued
March 23, 2010
Sweden withdraws from Norwegian shrimp
Since the Swedish allotted 2010 catch quota for shrimp in the Norwegian economic zone has all but been exhausted already, the Swedish Board of Fisheries has decided to stop those Fisheries from March 29. From March 30 no landings or transhipments of earlier catches in the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the North Sea … Continued
March 23, 2010
Diversity in nature getting thinner every day
For the first time since the era of the dinosaurs, there are now more species becoming extinct than new ones evolving, according to a British leading biodiversity expert. Simon Stuart, chair of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the body which officially declares species threatened and … Continued
March 18, 2010
No tuna trade ban, probably
The UN meeting in Doha, Qatar, has voted down the proposal to ban international trade in bluefin tuna. The meeting on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is to consider measures to save a number of threatened species, including the bluefin tuna. A proposal to include the fish, a price ingredient in … Continued
March 18, 2010
EU bureaucrats save pregnant cod
It does happen that bureaucracy works in favour of the fish: a sector request to open closed cod fisheries in the western Baltic because of the extreme winter conditions has been rejected, since the EU consultation route, including the new co-decision process with the Parliament, would “take too much time”. The Baltic Fishermen’s Network, chaired … Continued
March 17, 2010
Better fish than farm, US Prof says
Land based agriculture has a far greater effect on biodiversity than fisheries, a prominent American professor says. To replace the protein from global fisheries, grazing land would be needed that equals the world’s rain forests 22 times over. In a meta-study, Professor Ray Hilborn of Washington University has evaluated published research into the effects on … Continued
March 17, 2010
First French MSC thumbs-up
A saithe fishery comprising five huge vessels has become the first French fishery to receive MSC certification. EURONOR, based in Boulogne-sur-Mer on the English Channel, was awarded the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificate for sustainable fisheries after a 13-month assessment. The fishery’s five vessels target saithe (Pollachius virens) off Western Scotland in the North Sea, … Continued
March 16, 2010
Contraceptives have side-effects for fish
New Swedish research has confirmed earlier reports that residues from human contraceptives in lakes, rivers and sea water may threaten fish reproduction. Scientists at the universities in Umeå and Gothenburg filled aquariums with water that had passed through three different sewage treatment plants – including the biggest one in Stockholm – and let rainbow trout … Continued