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How a Celebrity Chef Learned to Love Farmed and Frozen Fish
To feed a growing population, sustainable seafood advocate Ned Bell is encouraging fellow chefs and seafood consumers to look beyond ‘fresh’ and ‘wild.’
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Fisheries
Exploring the impact of overfishing, climate change and pollution and efforts to create sustainable fisheries through innovative reforms and policies.
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- Marine Protected Areas
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Could the High Seas Be Closed to Fishing?
As the United Nations prepares to begin negotiations next month on a high seas biodiversity treaty, some scientists and advocates say a spate of recent research supports banning commercial fishing in international waters to protect remote ecosystems.
- Biodiversity
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How DNA Sequencing Is Revealing New Insights About Ocean Health
Ann Bucklin
Ann Bucklin
Despite the critical role marine zooplankton play in ocean ecosystems, scientists know little about the tiny species. Ann Bucklin, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Connecticut, describes how her laboratory is changing that.
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Rich and Poor Divide: Which Nations Benefit From Global Fishing?
A new study finds that industrial fishing vessels flying the flags of wealthy nations are catching the majority of the world’s fish, adding to a growing discussion over how food security and sustainable fishing are connected.
- Biodiversity
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Exploring a Great White Shark Nursery in the Shadow of New York City
With one of the ocean’s iconic predators globally threatened, a shark tagging program off the shores of Long Island is an effort to understand behaviors of young in a marine region where their numbers may be increasing.
- Biodiversity
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What It’s Like to Personify a Shark on Twitter
The combination of tagging and social media has helped both scientists and the public engage with the ocean’s most feared predator in new ways. Jim Ware, who has tweeted as Mary Lee – the world’s most famous shark since Jaws – tells Oceans Deeply about his experience.
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Taiwan Pushed to Confront Work Abuse in High Seas Fishing Fleet
The Taiwanese government is starting to listen to its critics as it works to improve monitoring of conditions for foreign workers on its large long-distance tuna fishing fleet. But local and international labor advocates say reforms aren’t happening quickly enough.
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Inside the Frenzy for Japan’s Mysteriously Glowing Firefly Squid
Near the coast of Japan, the annual spawning ritual of the normally elusive deep-sea creatures attracts the attention of fishers and scientists. Despite years of study, no one fully understands how or why they bioluminesce.
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Gambians Fight Chinese Fishmeal Factory as Fish Prices Soar, Stocks Fall
As foreign-owned fishmeal factories proliferate in West Africa to supply feed for overseas aquaculture operations, prices for a key staple of the local diet are skyrocketing and Gambian fishers find it increasingly hard to compete against industrialized trawlers.
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Study: Do Coral Reef Reserves Protect Ocean Life? Yes, But….
With data from 1,800 tropical coral reefs, new research weighs in on an ongoing conservation debate: whether it’s better to preserve marine areas that are still pristine or those that need the most protection.
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‘Storminess’ Could Make Fishing More Risky as Climate Warms
Researchers say the effects of more frequent and intense weather would hit hardest in developing countries that rely on fishing for livelihoods and sustenance. But few have studied the potential catastrophic impacts on global fisheries – or the potential solutions.
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Scientists Track Elusive Giant Manta Rays as Poaching Threats Grow
Researchers hope tagging efforts will yield new insights into mantas’ life cycle and behavior, including their migration from what could be the first confirmed nursery for juveniles in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Follow the Fish: Why Marine Protected Areas Should Be Mobile
Jennifer McHenry
PhD Student, Florida State University
Heather Welch
Researcher in Ecosystem Dynamics, University of California
Jennifer McHenry PhD Student, Florida State University
Heather Welch Researcher in Ecosystem Dynamics, University of California
Marine mammals, sea turtles and other species don’t always stay within the boundaries of ocean reserves. Two scientists say marine preserves should be designed with enough flexibility to extend protections to where animals migrate.
- Climate Change
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The Race to Decode Secrets of Antarctica’s Most Important Ocean Animal
The future of krill – and all the marine wildlife that feed on them – is uncertain in the changing Southern Ocean. Krill biologist Stephen Nicol says they may be adaptable to climate change, but new technologies need to be deployed to study their enigmatic behavior.
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Trump Takes U.S. Ocean Policy in the Wrong Direction
Roberta Elias
Deputy Director for Ocean Policy, World Wildlife Fund
Whitley Saumweber
Ocean Policy Consultant
Roberta Elias Deputy Director for Ocean Policy, World Wildlife Fund
Whitley Saumweber Ocean Policy Consultant
We must reorient our ocean management to adapt to new climate realities, say Whitley Saumweber, former ocean and coastal adviser to President Obama, and Roberta Elias of the World Wildlife Fund.
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Deeply Talks: U.S. Ocean Politics – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Following Capitol Hill Ocean Week, Oceans Deeply’s Jessica Leber and Kristen Sarri of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation discuss the ocean and coastal priorities of the Trump administration and Congress.
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Sharp Fall in Australian Fish Stocks Stokes Fight Over Marine Reserves
A hotly debated study that found a big decline in fish populations over the past decade comes as the government proposes to open up some marine protected areas to recreational and commercial fishing.
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Beyond the Great Barrier Reef: Bleaching Undoes India Coral Restoration
In India’s Gulf of Mannar, more than a decade of efforts have spurred a slow recovery of coral reefs that protect the coast and feed communities. But climate change has reversed that success.
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Why Famed Ocean Advocate Sylvia Earle Is Looking South
A coalition hopes to achieve a network of marine protected areas in the vast Southern Ocean by 2020. Earle argues that the health of the planet itself is at stake.
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New Technology Is Lighting Up ‘Dark’ Fishing Fleets
Global Fishing Watch is using satellites to monitor brightly lit fishing vessels at night, adding to its ability to monitor a growing portion of the world’s commercial fleet. The goal: to help crack down on illegal fishing and make seafood more sustainable.
- Biodiversity
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How New Fishing Rules Could Save Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales
Kimberley Davies
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dalhousie University
Kimberley Davies Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dalhousie University
The need for new protections for North Atlantic right whales in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence underscore these animals’ dire situation – and how little we still know about them.
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A Grass-Roots Movement to Create Marine Protected Areas
On the Greek isle of Santorini, fishers, divers, scientists, government officials and environmentalists have devised their own plan to preserve the marine ecology of the waters surrounding an island dependent on fishing and tourism.
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Meet the Small Fishing Community Regrowing Coral Reefs in Kenya
As fishers on Wasini Island began seeing the effects of coral ecosystem degradation, including declining catches, they revived an age-old tradition of conservation to replant and protect their reef.
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How Greenpeace and Thai Union Turned up the Heat on the Tuna Industry
Oliver Knowles
Senior Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace International
Oliver Knowles Senior Oceans Campaigner, Greenpeace International
The environmental group and the world’s biggest tuna producer are collaborating to improve working conditions and environmental practices. Now other seafood companies need to join a global effort to make tuna fishing sustainable.
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Why Wild Seafood’s Carbon Footprint Is Growing – and How to Reduce It
Robert Parker at the University of British Columbia has calculated greenhouse gas emissions from the global fishing industry. He talks about what the data show and why not all fisheries are alike.
- Biodiversity
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Why Sea Otters Are Moving Inshore and Alligators Are Hitting the Beach
Coastal predators are increasingly living in habitats beyond their traditional niches – a sign, a new paper argues, that they may be more resilient than thought.
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The High-Stakes Battle Over Obama’s Atlantic Ocean National Monument
A lawsuit challenging the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument could undo a decade of ocean protections. But environmentalists say the Trump administration – which is defending the monument in court – is the bigger threat to the unique ecosystem.
- Biodiversity
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Rigs-to-Reefs: Giving Oil Platforms a Second Life for Conservation
Projects to convert retired oil rigs into artificial reefs are controversial. But advocates and consultants Emily Callahan and Amber Jackson argue this practice provides valuable habitat at a time when natural coral reefs are disappearing.
- Biodiversity
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- The Conversation
Global Fish Catch Could Plummet as Climate Change Takes Hold
Jefferson Keith Moore
Professor of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine
Jefferson Keith Moore Professor of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine
Over the next two centuries, warming oceans could trap nutrients at the poles and starve out many of the world’s fisheries, according to a recent study.
- Biodiversity
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Expedition Reveals the Mysteries at the Bottom of the Gulf of Mexico
The Okeanos Expedition has returned from a 23-day exploration of the deep ocean in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientist Daniel Wagner says that much of what they saw was new to science and could affect management of the Gulf.
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The Future of Food: Fish Not Fowl Best for Planet, Scientists Say
Researchers analyzed the environmental impacts of replacing land-raised meat with farmed seafood to feed a burgeoning population and found aquaculture could preserve nearly 750 million hectares. But there could be nutritional tradeoffs.
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New Weapons in the War on Lionfish, a Beautiful but Deadly Invader
Lionfish are decimating valuable native species in the western Atlantic Ocean, but spearing the predators hasn’t been enough to slow their spread. Now scientists and fishers are developing traps and other technology to catch the voracious fish en masse.
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Goldman Prize Goes to Activist Who Fought Deep-Sea Industrial Trawling
Claire Nouvian, one of the winners of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize, has successfully battled to protect marine life from destructive fishing practices.
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Race to the Bottom: Impact of Deep-Sea Fishing Severely Underestimated
Scientists recalculated historical catch data to find that bottom trawlers that scrape the seafloor with huge nets may be killing far more fish – and destroying more habitats – than previously thought.
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California Mobilizes to Save Invaluable Kelp – Will Efforts Be in Vain?
Residents and scientists are working to cull urchins that ravage environmentally important kelp ecosystems. But experience shows that once urchins take over, restoration is difficult and may become even harder as the ocean warms.
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Fish Fight: Is Aquaculture Feeding the People Who Need it Most?
Marine scientist Edward Allison says his research shows that in some developing countries, fish farming is not benefiting nutritionally vulnerable communities. That has triggered a backlash from other researchers and the aquaculture industry.
- Climate Change
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Fish Crossing Genetic Borders as Oceans Warm
Scientists have identified a ‘biogeographic boundary’ for commercially valuable marine animals in the northwest Atlantic that divides genetically distinct populations of the same species. As temperatures rise, that dividing line is moving north.
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Report: Offshore Fish Farms Could Thrive in California
Aquaculture proponents view the ocean off Southern California as an ideal place for an emerging industry. The key, new research found, will be to carefully locate facilities to minimize environmental risks and conflicts with other marine uses.
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Report: Antarctica’s Krill Fisheries Threaten Penguins, Whales
The activist group Greenpeace, which tracked krill fishing vessels near sensitive Southern Ocean habitats, argues that the fishery is putting pressure on an ecosystem already threatened by climate change.
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10 Billion Oysters: A Splashy Goal to Restore Chesapeake Bay
After years of work to bring oysters back, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation found funding and interest harder to maintain, says scientist Chris Moore. So it helped form a new partnership that aims to plant 10 billion oysters by 2025 and grow a bigger oyster-farming industry.