Category: Fisheries

As COVID-19 Batters Fishery, Indonesia’s Sharks Get a Respite

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May 4, 2020 By Basten Gokkon Mongabay
Conservationists see an opportunity to strengthen oversight of the shark trade in Indonesia as fishing activity grinds to a halt amid the COVID-19 outbreak. West Nusa Tenggara province, home to one of the world’s biggest shark and ray markets, saw its trade in the species in the first quarter of 2020 drop by 68% from a year earlier, to less than 1,900 kilograms (4,200 pounds). Much of the shark and ray products from the province are exported to China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the U.S. and elsewhere.

Ocean Ecosystems Are More Sensitive to Climate Change

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May 4, 2020 By Katie Pavid Natural History Museum
Climate change is having a bigger impact on animals and plants in the ocean than those on land, according to new research. This could be because organisms that live on land are better able to avoid the negative consequences of global warming than their ocean counterparts.

Commercial Whaling May Be Over in Iceland

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May 1, 2020 By Kieran Mulvaney National Geographic
As public opinion changes and consumption of whale meat declines, commercial whaling may be one step closer to a permanent end in Iceland and possibly the world. For the second year in a row, Iceland, one of three remaining whaling nations, will not hunt any whales.

‘Microplastic Hot Spots’ Are Tainting Deep-Sea Ecosystems

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April 30, 2020 By Matt Simon Wired
Off the coasts of Corsica and Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea swirls an omnipresent yet vanishingly small menace: microplastics. By this point, it comes as no surprise to scientists that they would find the tiny bits of plastic in seafloor sediments—last year researchers found them in samples off the coast of Southern California. But in the Mediterranean, the sheer concentration of them is astounding.