- Carl Safina Pattern recognition: An international tuna commission that Japan belongs to sets catch levels, then Japan is found guilty of systematic, planned overfishing. An international commission that Japan belongs to bans commercial whale hunting, but Japan continues killing whales for commercial sale, while widening its kill to more species in more regions of [...]
Recent notables: George W. Bush, again. For those who’ve forgotten, this guy is still president. Associated Press updated 8:46 pm ET Nov 19, 2008: Bush Set To Relax Endangered Species Rules WASHINGTON – Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and [...]
A bit of a news roundup here: New York Times food writer Mark Bittman had a good piece called “A Seafood Snob Ponders the Future of Fish.” He has his knives out for overfishing, bycatch, and bad aquaculture, but also points the way forward, with some good sidebar graphics. It’s at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/weekinreview/16bittman.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2 More on [...]
Though the Bluefin is a special fish, its problems are just one instructive example of how management can go off the tracks if the scientific part of the process is corruptible by short-term economics and political lobbying. We call for a five-year moratorium on possession of Bluefin tuna throughout the western Altantic and the closure [...]
Outgoing Fisheries Service director William T. Hogarth writes in The Washington Post on December 29 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802570.html?sub=AR) that his agency “has followed recommendations from top scientists for managing the bluefin tuna.” Not so. Since 1982, when scientists recommended a “near-zero” quota, fisheries managers in his agency and internationally have often set much higher quotas than scientists [...]
The story goes like this: It’s one of the largest, fastest, most gorgeous fish in the sea. Unfortunately, its extraordinary warm-bloodedness makes its muscle delicious to the strange seafood-loving creatures that live on land. The value of bluefin tuna meat goes up due to global demand for sushi and sashimi. As the price goes up, [...]
Paul Greenberg’s New York Times op-ed on the deep depletion of bluefin tuna, that mighty last buffalo of the sea, struck a nerve. The ocean is a much lonelier place without the fall run of giant fish hundreds of pounds in weight, swimming through the ocean like speeding automobiles. And the acres of “small” tuna [...]
The Bluefin Tuna, that magnificent thousand-pound-plus, ocean-crossing, warm-blooded fish, is headed toward extinction in the western part of the Atlantic Ocean, that is, off the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. And this week the European Union agreed to what amounts to a plan for its collapse in the east Atlantic and Mediterranean. [...]
Blue Ocean Institute