Secrets of the Mekong: An interview with Harmony Patricio

The Mekong Fish Network recently spent some time in the spotlight. The environmental and conservation news website mongabay.com interviewed FISHBIO's conservation director, Harmony Patricio, about the importance and challenges of studying Mekong River fishes, and about the launch of the Mekong Fish Network. “The world needs to realize that the Mekong is like the Amazon rainforest,” Patricio Read More…

Global biodiversity panel urged to heed local voices

SciDev.Net 3 May, 2013 A newly established global panel on biodiversity faces being sidetracked by niche interests and northern agendas if it does not tread carefully, a meeting has heard. The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was formed in April 2012, with a mandate to assess the state of the planet's biodiversity and ecosystems, and provide Read More…

China’s new war front: Natural resource as a political tool

The Times of India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, asked for more openness on Chinese dam building. Singh said Xi assured him that he would have his proposal for a joint monitoring mechanism "looked into". Beijing has now conveyed its response rebuffing the transparency idea. This snub is no surprise: China, the world`s most dammed Read More…

Water diversion project under fire

Bangkok Post Activists have voiced their opposition to Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi's plan to divert water from the Salween and Mekong rivers to feed the water-starved Northeast. The proposed projects are not the right solution to the drought problem in the region, they said. Mr Plodprasop, who chairs the government's Water Management and Flood Prevention Commission, said last Read More…

Delta ecosystems under threat

Vietnam Net Uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources has weakened or completely destroyed many of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta's ecosystems, experts said at an annual forum last Friday. More than 200 scientists, policymakers from ministries as well as officials of the 13 Delta provinces, representatives from international conservation and development organisations, research institutes Read More…

Banned super-trawler in new troubled waters

The Age The outcast super-trawler Margiris has found a new place to go - one of the world's most troubled jack mackerel fisheries in the South Pacific. Banned by the federal government because of doubts over its impact on Australia's small pelagic fishery, the Margiris left Australia in March, and was this week tracked down off Chile. The giant factory-freezer ship anchored near the port Read More…

Toothfish numbers declared sustainable

ABC News Tasmania's toothfish fishery has been declared sustainable by two influential bodies following adjustments in fishing methods. Just 15 years ago the fishery was on the verge of being decimated by poachers in the Southern Ocean. In an unusual partnership, environmentalists and the industry campaigned together to encourage consumer boycotts as well as increased surveillance at sea Read More…

California creates a globally significant network of marine protected…

CDFW News California recently completed an historic overhaul of how it manages its coastal waters by revising and expanding its system of marine protected areas (MPAs). This system of MPAs is the largest scientifically based network in the U.S. and second largest in the world. How California accomplished this consequential achievement is the subject of a March special issue of the journal Read More…

‘Sustainable fishing’ certification too lenient and…

PhysOrg The certification of seafood as "sustainable" by the nonprofit Marine Stewardship Council is too lenient and discretionary, a study by a consortium of researchers has found. "When consumers want sustainable fish there are two options to meet the demand: fisheries can become more sustainable or the definition of sustainable can be watered down to be practically meaningless—with MSC Read More…

Ministers urged to end overfishing

World Fishing & Aquaculture More than 217 civil society groups have written to EU Fisheries Ministers urging them to support the European Parliament’s aim to restore fish stocks by 2020 and end overfishing by 2015. The letter has been sent as negotiations on the reform of the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy enter the final and decisive stage. Although in February the Read More…