Ocean Sentry
(From rushprnews.com) New York – Guess what the Bush Administration left out when it issued a new plan for “protecting” polar bears?The protection! Instead of throwing a lifeline to polar bears, this new plan abandons them to the ravages of global warming and melting ice. The Bush plan won’t save …
July, 2008
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10 July
Seals Released In Biddeford
(From wcsh6.com) Biddeford – Three baby seals are now back in the wild, thanks to the work of the University of New England”s Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center. The seal pups, who were all still dependent on their mothers when they came in for help, were fed a new formula, which …
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10 July
Battle to Save Cambodian Dolphin
(From news.bbc.co.uk) Sun Mao leans forward in the boat, shades his eyes with his hand, and squints across the wide expanse of the Mekong River where it twists through the town of Kratie.He is looking for one of the world”s rarest mammals – the Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin. Little effort was …
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9 July
Corals, Already in Danger, Are Facing New Threat From Farmed Algae
(From nytimes.com) Butaritari, Kiribati – Corals are being covered and smothered to death by a bushy seaweed that is so tough even algae-grazing fish avoid it. It settles in the reef’s crevices that fish once called home, driving them away. Dead coral stops supporting the ecosystem and, within a couple …
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9 July
Feds Look to Ban Fishing of Krill, an Ocean Staple
(From mercurynews.com) The half-inch-long krill may not appear on restaurant menus nor stir much talk of special protections like, say, salmon or rockfish. But federal regulators think restricting the catch of the shrimp-like crustacean may be just as important. Currently, no large-scale krill fisheries operate on the West Coast of …
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9 July
Namibian Trawler Netted in Pacific for Illegal Fishing
(From namibian.com.na) A Namibian-flagged fishing vessel, the Paloma V, faces an international ban after a New Zealand court ruled that it was linked to illegal toothfish fishing in the Antarctic Ocean. The vessel might be blacklisted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), preventing it …
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9 July
Polar Bear Harassment by Oil Companies Challenged
(From ap.google.com) ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Two conservation groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Bush administration”s decision to let oil companies unintentionally harass or harm polar bears and walruses off the northwestern Alaska coast. “These regulations set the parameters for how oil exploration will be done in the …
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9 July
House Moves to Keep Shark Fins Out of Fancy Soups
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House took steps Tuesday to keep shark fins out of soups served in pricey Asian restaurants. In a voice vote, the House tightened a 2000 law that bans the practice of shark finning, whereby mainly Pacific Ocean fishermen cut off a shark”s fin and throw the …
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9 July
Overfishing Worse Than Thought
(From nature.com) Tropical fishermen catch far more species than reported officially. Global fisheries statistics generally paint a grim picture of ocean health, revealing rampant overfishing and declining fish catches in various regions. But a new study suggests that, in the tropics at least, the statistics have been telling only half …
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8 July
Linda’s a Tough Old Bloke
(From smh.com.au) He is, despite being named Linda, one tough little penguin. When found by life savers on Bronte Beach on March 17, he was just one more victim of the deadly rubbish abandoned along the coast by thoughtless humans. Entangled in an abandoned fishing line, his left flipper had …
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8 July
Endangered or Threatened? Beluga Status Still in Llimbo
(From alaskajournal.com) Federal fisheries officials expect to have a final management plan in place in early August for future belugas whale hunts in Cook Inlet, but a larger decision on whether to list the belugas in that area as threatened or endangered won”t come until October. Endangered means there is …
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8 July
Global Shark Population Threatened
(From seattletimes.nwsource.com) The Mediterranean Sea, Francesco Ferretti says, is “a very dangerous place for a shark.” So dangerous that in the past two centuries, the shark population there has plummeted by more than 97 percent, both in relative numbers and collective weight, according to a study by the graduate student, …