May 27, 2020 By Jennifer E. Telesca Hakai Magazine
Buying fish with a clear conscience isn’t easy these days. The ocean is so depleted and the demand so high that only half of the world’s seafood comes from the wild. The rest is farmed. Well-intentioned consumers want to know how to minimize harm through their purchasing power when at retailers such as Marks and Spencer, Walmart, and Whole Foods. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) offers one of several guides. I’m afraid it’s a sham.
May 26, 2020 By Lynda Mapes Seattle Times
Today Columbia and Snake River salmon, and orcas that depend on them, are at risk of extinction. And Washington state regulators are taking a new regulatory role to chill fish-killing hot water at four dams in the lower Columbia, and four in the lower Snake.
May 18, 2020 By James Dinneen Undark
In 1995, biologist Daniel Pauly made a shrewd observation: Scientists in his field had forgotten about the past. Pauly, who studied commercial fishing at the University of British Columbia, observed that fisheries scientists tended to measure change in the abundance and species composition of the fish stocks they studied relative to what they were like at the beginning of their careers. As fish stocks declined, each new generation of scientists generally accepted the new normal as the natural state of things.
May 15, 2020 By Jimmy Thomson The Narwhal
Transformations of Arctic sea ice are altering the ferocity of storms, the deadliness of polar bears and even the ovulation of ringed seals, according to a new report from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the State of the Arctic Ocean. The broad, overarching study finds changes in ocean ice are influencing habitat and animals in the country’s North in unpredictable ways. These changes, largely due to climate change, are leaving natural systems in chaos.
May 15, 2020 By Hannah Hickey UW News
A new study led by the University of Washington finds that the animals’ ability to breathe in that water may be key to where and when they thrive. The study, published May 15 in Science Advances, uses recent understanding of water breathability and historical data to explain population cycles of the northern anchovy. The results for this key species could apply to other species in the current.