Great white sharks get more protection

Summit County Voice February 28, 2013 Just a few decades after Jaws, there’s been a sea change in public attitudes about sharks, as people recognize the importance of the ocean’s apex predators. Along with other recent shark conservation measures, the shift is reflected by the efforts to list great white sharks under the California Endangered Species Act. Starting March 1, great whites Read More…

Scientists to consider management options for Pacific albacore tuna

Pacific News Center February 26, 2013 The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) that advises the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council will convene Feb. 26-28, at the Council office, 1164 Bishop St., Suite 1400, Honolulu, to discuss management of federally managed fisheries in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the remote US Read More…

Using amount of fish caught as measure of fisheries health is…

University of Washington February 21, 2013 “The sea is a big place. Most fish are small. So it stands to reason that it is difficult to work out with any degree of accuracy just how many fish live in the sea. One way is to measure how many fish we pull out of it. But is that the best way? Or even an accurate way?” asks an editorial in this week’s (Feb. 21) issue of Nature. The topic Read More…

Drought, salinity attack Mekong Delta

VietnamNet February 28, 2013 The 4% salinity has encroached by 40-50 kilometers far into the Mekong Delta. Hydrologists say the saltwater intrusion this year comes too early, which is unusual and unprecedented. In Soc Trang province, drought and salinity both have seriously affected the agricultural production, damaging tens of thousands of hectares of the winter-spring rice fields in the Read More…

Thanh Hoa’s stream of odd fish

VietnamNet February 24, 2013 Tens of thousands of fish cram in a small stream of over 100 meters long. No one knows when they appeared. The local Muong people considered the fish as treasures. The Cam Luong stream is located at the foot of the Truong Sinh (Immortality) Mountain, in Luong Ngoc village, Cam Luong commune, Cam Thuy district, Thanh Hoa province, more than 80 km to the Read More…

Overfishing depleting sea resources

China Daily February 21, 2013 Deteriorating fish stocks off the coast of East China's Shandong province are forcing fishermen to travel increasingly farther from the shore. "About a decade ago, we could catch lots of fish after traveling about 90 nautical miles away from land, but now we have to go as far as 130 to 160 nautical miles," said Hou Jiwei, from Wulian county, Shandong Read More…

Myanmar, Laos start building Mekong River friendship bridge

Global Times 19 February 2013 Myanmar and Laos have started building Mekong River-Crossing Friendship Bridge with stakes driven at both sides of the construction sites in the weekend, official media reported Tuesday. The Myanmar-Laos Mekong River-Crossing Friendship Bridge is of steel truss type which links Louangnamtha province of Laos and Kengluk, Tachilek of Myanmar's Shan state. The Read More…

Climate change threatens Asian birds

Times of India 11 February, 2013 Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are among the six countries whose bird species will suffer, in the future, from the effects of climate change, according to a research conducted by two British scientist institutions. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, along with Bhutan, Nepal, and India, were taken as samples in a research whose representative results will be used to Read More…

EU parliament pushes to end overfishing in landmark vote

Washington Post 6 February, 2013 The European Union parliament on Wednesday pushed for a drastic reform of fishing policy in a landmark vote seeking to end decades of overfishing that have decimated many of the stocks in Atlantic and Mediterranean EU waters. Under the parliament’s plan, there would also be a legally binding obligation to end overfishing and rebuild stocks, stop aid to Read More…

Ocean conservation: A big fight over little fish

Nature 30 January, 2013 One April day, a fisherman named Johan Norman reeled in a female cod near the Norwegian village of Moskenes, where snow-capped mountains rise straight from the sea. He measured the fish: 82 centimetres from the tip of its snout to the tip of its tail. Then he pulled out his knife and sliced off several scales, placing them in a small envelope to deposit at the Read More…