Green Options

The last time you visited an aquarium, you probably saw one. With their zebra-like stripes, multiple spines, and elaborate fins, they’re quite beautiful and incredibly distinctive. But red lionfish are also voracious carnivores that breed like rabbits and are poisonous to boot. And they’re invading the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

An analysis of the Mediterranean bluefin tuna population by the WWF shows that the breeding population of the species will be disappear by 2012 if the fisheries continue with business as usual, and urges the immediate closure of the fishery to stop the impending collapse.

“Mediterranean bluefin tuna is on the slippery slope to collapse, and here is the data to prove it. Whichever way you look at it, the Mediterranean bluefin tuna collapse trend is dramatic, it is alarming, and it is happening now.” - Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean

The first two sea lions were captured today in the joint Oregon and Washintgon sea lion killing program, with one being euthenized shortly after capture. The sea lions are being targeted because they eat salmon.

The animal was given a health exam when a veterenarian noticed a potentially contagious wound and decided to euthanize the it. Some captured animals may be placed in zoos or aquariums, but since very few such vacancies exist, many of the sea lions will be killed.

Apparently sea lions like salmon a little too much. People in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho are threatened — they want all the tasty salmon for themselves.

Okay, perhaps that’s a bit of an oversimplification. But I have to wonder — if salmon didn’t taste good, would people be going to such great lengths to prevent a natural predator-prey relationship between a sea mammal and a fish?

The economic downturn is making it tough to be a member of the middle class, now there’s evidence that ‘middle class’ coral reef fish are hurting too.

According to a new Wildlife Conservation Society study, reef fish levels along middle class coastal communities in Eastern Africa tend to be significantly lower– up to 4 times lower– than along areas bordering wealthy or poor communities.

Reasons for the disparity are numerous, and they involve a complicated interplay between traditional customs, economic development and population dynamics. But middle class apathy could also be to blame.

According to this year’s report, Americans consumed a total of 4.908 billion pounds of seafood in 2007, slightly less than the 4.944 billion pounds in 2006. The average American ate 16.3 pounds of fish and shellfish in 2007, a one percent decline from the 2006 consumption figures of 16.5 pounds. But what most concerns scientists is the growth in imported farm-raised seafood coupled with declines global fishstocks.

Over the past several weeks, thousands upon thousands of starfish have washed up dead on Britain’s beaches. The cause, as usual, appears to be humans: investigators say the most likely cause is fishing boats that dredge the sea bottom for mussels, either ripping starfish loose and casting them adrift, or suffocating them under mud and sand.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user M. Buschmann.

Last week, I posted about my love for wild salmon, which is as pure and whole as love gets. The day after I posted — the very next day! — there was some sobering news from the West Coast: wild chinook salmon that run upstream in the Sacramento River are vanishing without a trace. Vanishing. Woosh. They’re gone. We’re talking about the most dependable source of Chinook salmon south of Alaska.

Not surprisingly, this is gloomy news for fishing communities. It’s likely that California and Oregon salmon fishing will be halted altogether. Washington fisheries are under threat. Alaska — the source of the majority of wild salmon — is okay for now, but Blogfish reminds Alaska not to get too giddy. Overfishing has threatened Alaskan salmon in the past, too.

But why? Why is this happening? No one knows for sure.

Most of Earth might be covered with water, but the large population of bipedal animals that crowd the planet’s land masses is doing its best to leave its imprint on the oceans as well.

A new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finds that humans have had a heavy impact on more than 40 percent of the world’s oceans. That’s an [...]

What do you do when fisheries collapse? With a quarter of the world’s fish stocks depleted, there’s concern that by 2050 we’ll have no other fish to fry. This may be the biggest fish crunch in history. Still, it’s not the first.

When fishermen in Sinnam, South Korea started pulling up empty nets, they did the only logical thing. Finding themselves in a hard place, they erected huge penis statues.

It turns out that not long before the fishing scare, a young woman–still a virgin–had drowned near the village within sight of her lover. Locals feared that her frustrated spirit was spooking the fish away.

Economic development in the world’s richest countries has exacted a high ecological cost that’s disproportionately borne by poor nations, according to a study from the University of California, Berkeley.

Graphic by Thara Srinivasan, courtesy of [...]