The crew of the Prolific discarding their catch

So at last the sheer waste involved in modern trawling has been captured on camera. Last week a Norwegian coastguard cutter filmed the crew of a Shetland trawler, the Prolific, openly dumping over 5,000 kg of cod and other dead white fish in UK waters. Now this footage is rightly causing a wave of revulsion in the media at the scale of unnecessary waste at a time of rapidly rising food prices and, ironically, when our own Prime Minister is telling us not to waste food.

Tinned tuna is big business - there's a can in almost everyone's cupboard. Here in the UK we can't get enough of it - we're the second biggest consumer in the world after the USA. Globally tuna exports are worth more than any other fish species, at around 2.7 billion dollars per year.

But there are big problems with the way tuna is caught. Our new briefing paper, Tinned Tuna's Hidden Catch, explains how large numbers of sea turtles, sharks and other fish are all being wiped out by the global tuna industry. And tuna is in trouble itself, with some species critically endangered by overfishing.

A new report by the Institute of Marine Sciences at the National Research Council in Barcelona links the rapid growth of jellyfish populations throughout the world's oceans to overfishing of their natural predators such as tuna and as a result of global warming.

Interesting news in from Japan (where as you'll remember, the government recently took the bizarre step of prosecuting two of our activists for exposing corruption between their own Fisheries Agency and whaling company Kyodo Senpaku).

Whale expert and former councellor for the Institute of Cetacean Research (in whose name the commercial whaling operation which masquerades as 'scientific reseach' is officially conducted), Shigeko Misaki, has written a blistering letter to the Japan Times demanding that all whaling in the Southern Ocean should be ended:

Updates on the scandal involving the corrupt and powerful Japanese whaling industry (which is funded with taxpayers' money). Plus ways in which you can support our two activists, Junichi and Toru, who are still awaiting trial for intercepting a box of stolen whale meat, and delivering it to the police.

Full story on Greenpeace International website »

See all Climate Camp updates.

This summer's Camp for Climate Action takes place next week at Kingsnorth in Kent, where German utility company E.On aims to build the UK's first coal-fired power station for decades. If the government gives the go-ahead, which could happen in October, the CO2 emissions from this one new plant would equal that of the 30 lowest emitting countries in the world combined.

Coal is the most polluting of all fossil-fuels, and if Kingsnorth is built then plans for six similar plants are likely to be approved, emitting a colossal 50 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. So this decision is crucial, which is why activists from all over the country and around the world will be coming to make their voices heard.

Stop Climate Chaos activists were at Kingsnorth in Kent this morning to urge the Prime Minister to abandon plans for a new generation of coal-fired power plants. They planted flags outside the existing power station as a symbol of opposition to Kingsnorth 2, a new development which, if it gets the go-ahead, will be the first new coal plant to be built in the UK for 30 years.

Developer E.ON UK plans to demolish the existing plant and replace it with a new coal-fired unit that is 20 per cent cleaner. But coal is the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fuel known to mankind, and despite the industry's efforts to talk up 'clean coal' technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS), such developments are in their infancy and would not be available for at least a decade, even if they can be made to work.

Colman's in South Shields has been described as "the nearest thing to an eco-chippy you're likely to find", a fish and chip restaurant which only serves wild fish from sustainable grounds, uses additive-free vegetable oil and sends its waste fat to be made into bio-fuel. Noted for its welcoming atmosphere, Colman's has featured regularly for the past few years in the Times' Top 10 UK Fish and Chip Shops, and was voted Best UK Takeaway at the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2007.

Update July 15 2008: After 23 days on remand Junichi and Toru have finally been released on bail today. We'd like to say a huge thank you to the many international Non-Governmental Organisations who signed a Statement of Concern about the situation, and above all to the quarter of a million people who sent an email to the Japanese government demanding their release.

Update July 1 2008: 23 days in custody without charge for Greenpeace Japan activists

Greenpeace supporters gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in London this lunchtime. They held a peaceful protest to express solidarity with the two anti-whaling campaigners currently being held without trial in Japan for their role in exposing a large scale embezzlement scandal within the Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean whaling program.

Among the ranks was Greenpeace UK Director John Sauven, who handed in a letter to Ambassador Shin Ebihara asking him to make urgent representation to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda for their immediate release, and to order a further investigation into the scandal exposed by Greenpeace.