Ocean Conservation News
Courtesy of Ocean Conserve

Canada to investigate disappearing Pacific salmon Reuters: Canada will launch an investigation into why far fewer sockeye salmon than scientists had predicted returned to the Fraser River on the Pacific Coast this summer. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the judicial inquiry on Thursday, saying the federal government was concerned about the declining sockeye population. Federal government scientists had predicted that as many as 13 million sockeye salmon would return to the river this year to breed, but it is now estimated that ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Reuters: none given) Publ.Date : 06 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Can Oceans Survive The Human Appetite For Seafood? National Public Radio: IRA FLATOW, host: You're listening to SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR News. I'm Ira Flatow. And for most of us, whatever lies behind - beyond the beach is pretty much a mystery. Maybe you've been snorkeling or you're scuba diving a few times a year or you watch "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel, but do you really know the ocean? Someone who has been there, done that, walked the depths of the seas, literally, is Sylvia Earle. She's lived in a coral reef, celebrated birthdays ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (National Public Radio: none given) Publ.Date : 06 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST The unsung heroes who risk their lives to save the planet Telegraph: Monday was one of the best days of the year. But then it always is. On the first Monday of every November, I help give away $900,000 (£542,000) of someone else's money, as one of the judges of one of the world's biggest green awards. Even better, the cash goes to some of the most remarkable and courageous -- if largely unknown -- people on earth. Most of the best-known environmental prizes are normally scooped up by the great and (not always) good, whose shelves are already sagging ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Telegraph: none given) Publ.Date : 06 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST EU to fight for tuna protection at global talks Reuters: Fishing nations must cut the amount of Atlantic bluefin tuna they catch and protect porbeagle and thresher sharks, European fisheries commissioner Joe Borg said on Friday ahead of international talks. Atlantic bluefin is prized by sushi lovers and commands huge prices in Asia, particularly in Japan where a single fish can fetch up to $100,000. As a result, industrial fishing has drastically reduced numbers in the Mediterranean and east Atlantic, and scientists warn the ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Reuters: Pete Harrison) Publ.Date : 06 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Canada: Scientists warn caribou collapse not unlike disappearance of cod stocks Canadian Press: Once, caribou wandered over the Arctic tundra in herds that took days to pass. So great were their numbers - even 20 years ago - that they were able to shake off man's puny imprint on the great barren lands like so many flies on a rump. "There was so much caribou all over that even our plane, our scheduled flights, couldn't land on the airstrip," recalled Alfonz Nitsiza of Wha Ti, a tiny aboriginal community northwest of Yellowknife. "The caribou were on the airstrip. It ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Canadian Press: Bob Weber) Publ.Date : 06 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Bluefin tuna on edge of extinction, environmentalists warn Agence France-Presse: An international fisheries group set up to protect Atlantic tuna has done the opposite and driven one species of the fish, the bluefin, to the edge of extinction, environmentalists said Thursday. On the eve of a 10-day meeting in Brazil of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), environmentalists accused the group of ignoring the advice of its own scientists and setting fishing quotas for bluefin tuna that have drastically depleted ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Agence France-Presse: none given) Publ.Date : 05 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST U.S. requests talks with Mexico over tuna dispute Reuters: The United States on Thursday sought formal talks with Mexico to settle a spat between the neighbors over which international body should hear a complaint about "dolphin-safe" tuna. In March, Mexico filed a World Trade Organization complaint challenging U.S. labeling rules for tuna caught using methods less harmful to dolphins that swim near the fish. The United States bars the "dolphin-safe" label on tuna caught by boats using purse seine nets that also snare dolphins -- a ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Reuters: none given) Publ.Date : 05 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Radar Reveals Dynamic World Under Antarctica's Ice National Public Radio: A NASA DC-8 plane equipped with lasers, ice-penetrating radar, and a gravity meter is revealing a dynamic and complex world beneath the massive ice sheet that covers Antarctica. The plane is flying over Antarctica for six weeks as part of a mission to use airplanes to replace a dying NASA satellite that's been monitoring polar ice. But the stopgap measure is providing a major scientific bonus: The DC-8 flies just 1,500 feet above the ice and carries instruments that let ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (National Public Radio: Jon Hamilton) Publ.Date : 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Australia launches inquiry into major oil spill Agence France-Presse: Australia launched an inquiry on Thursday into a major oil spill off its coast which has been described as one of the country's worst environmental disasters. Retired senior civil servant David Borthwick was appointed to probe the leak, which gushed from a damaged oil well in the Timor Sea for some 10 weeks and then burst into flames before finally being contained on Tuesday. "I simply say that we aspire to learn from this incident and take any necessary steps to stop similar ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Agence France-Presse: none given) Publ.Date : 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Calm Before The Spawn: Climate Change And Coral Spawning redOrbit: What's the point of setting up marine reserves to protect coral reefs from pollution, ship groundings and overfishing if climate change could cause far more damage? A study published this week in London in Proceedings of the Royal Society B provides the answer. For decades researchers have known that corals synchronize their release of eggs and sperm into the water but were unsure of how and why. Robert van Woesik, a biologist at the Florida Institute of Technology, explains why ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (redOrbit: none given) Publ.Date : 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Governments, public failing to save world's species Mongabay: According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 2008 report, released yesterday, 36 percent of the total species evaluated by the organization are threatened with extinction. If one adds the species classified as Near Threatened, the percentage jumps to 44 percent--nearly half. "It's time to recognize that nature is the largest company on Earth working for the benefit of 100 percent of humankind – and it's doing it for free. Governments should put as much ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Mongabay: Jeremy Hance) Publ.Date : 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Bangladesh: Combating climate change impacts Daily Star: THE European Union (EU) parliamentary delegation's commitment that the EU will be on Bangladesh's side in spite of the outcome of the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen is a hope giving one. Especially, we are reassured at the concern and empathy it expressed for us in the event of any catastrophe befalling the country, for example, in the form of triggering an exodus of climate refugees. As a frontline state in the fight for survival against the impact of global ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Daily Star: Editorial) Publ.Date : 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Coral bleaching gives rise to reef bullies Australian Broadcasting Corporation: To the average snorkeller a coral reef might seem like a watery paradise, but new research has found coral bleaching could turn reefs into rough neighbourhoods. With the decline in the reef, bigger fish could bully smaller varieties out of the best positions and those smaller fish would then become much easier targets for predators, leading to dramatic changes in a reef's ecosystem. Coral bleaching is expected to become more widespread because of the effects of global ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Timothy McDonald) Publ.Date : 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST China pushes CO2 capture, storage questions loom Reuters: Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Reuters: Emma Graham-Harrison) Publ.Date : 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Paleoecologists Offer New Insight Into How Climate Change Will Affect Organisms redOrbit: An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science written by a team of ecologists, including Robert Booth, assistant professor of earth and environmental science at Lehigh University, examines some of the potential problems with current prediction methods and calls for the use of a range of approaches when predicting the impact of climate change on organisms. According to Booth and his colleagues, one of the biggest challenges facing ecologists today is trying to ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (redOrbit: none given) Publ.Date : 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Overturn of CO2 transportation ban promises North Sea CCS boost Business Green: The prospect of depleted North Sea oil and gas fields continuing to generate revenue for the UK as storage facilities for capture carbon emissions moved a step closer last week after International Maritime Organisation (IMO) voted in favour of the international ban on the cross-boundary transport of CO2 being lifted. The repeal of the ban could still take several years to ratify, but experts said it would provide a major boost to the development of international carbon capture and ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Business Green: Tom Young) Publ.Date : 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Warming could create 150 million 'climate refugees' Guardian: Global warming will force up to 150 million "climate refugees" to move to other countries in the next 40 years, a new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) warns. In 2008 alone, more than 20 million people were displaced by climate-related natural disasters, including 800,000 people by cyclone Nargis in Asia, and almost 80,000 by heavy floods and rains in Brazil, the NGO said. President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, who presented testimony to the EJF, said ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Guardian: none given) Publ.Date : 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Deep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change ScienceDaily: Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (ScienceDaily: none given) Publ.Date : 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Taiwan coral reefs need 100 years to recover: scientists Agence France-Presse: Coral reefs off Taiwan will need up to 100 years to recover from Typhoon Morakot, which lashed the island in early August killing more than 600 people, a scientist said Tuesday. Latest research shows the reefs, near volcanic Orchid Island southeast of Taiwan, have sustained even worse damage than initially feared, according to Academia Sinica, a Taipei-based scientific institution. "Some of the shallow-water coral reefs look as if they've been crushed by road rollers," said ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Agence France-Presse: none given) Publ.Date : 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Over 1,000 fish species 'threatened with extinction' Agence France-Presse: More than 1,000 freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction, reflecting the strain on global water resources, an updated global "Red List" of endangered species showed Tuesday. The list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the most respected inventory of biodiversity covering more than 47,000 of the world's species. Scientists looked at 3,120 freshwater fish this year, 510 more than a year ago. They found that 1,147, or a third, are now ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Agence France-Presse: none given) Publ.Date : 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST The Perils Of Overfishing, Part 2 National Public Radio: Daniel Pauly, a professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia, warns that the global fishing industry has drastically depleted the number of fish in the oceans. In an Oct. 7, 2009 article entitled "Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish," published by The New Republic, Pauly writes that in the past 50 years "we have reduced the populations of large commercial fish, such as bluefin tuna, cod, and other favorites, by a staggering 90 percent." Pauly writes that ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (National Public Radio: none given) Publ.Date : 03 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST Indonesia: Climate change to affect marine tourism Antara: Sea and Coastal Areas Director of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry Subandono Diposaptono said that climate change could affect the marine tourism, particularly natural tourism in coastal areas. "When the climate changes as a result of global warming the sea surface would rise so that white sand will disappear because it is submerged with water," Diposaptono told a seminar on climate change here on Tuesday. He said that the increase in global warming would also bring ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Antara: none given) Publ.Date : 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 PST Catastrophic climate change Age: IT WAS a grand plan that would have transformed a small Victorian coastal town. The $200 million resort development known as Great Ocean Green would have spanned 165 hectares, expanded Apollo Bay by 500 blocks and added an 18-hole, championship golf course for good measure. The development was to be built on the Barham River flood plain between Marengo and Apollo Bay and became a hot issue in the local community. Three local councillors were sacked by Local Government Minister ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Age: Ason Dowling, Peter Ker AND Adam Morton) Publ.Date : 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 PST Australians 'could be forced to evacuate seaside homes' Times (UK): Australia's fabled beachside life of sea, surf and sundowners overlooking the ocean is under threat from rising sea levels. Those living in coastal areas most at risk could be ordered out of their homes for their own safety, while construction in other sensitive seaside areas may be banned. A government report on climate change says that urgent action is needed to protect thousands of miles of coastline and to maintain an Australian way of life. The issue is already coming to a ... Author : info@ecologicalinternet.org (Times (UK): Anne Barrowclough) Publ.Date : 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 PST