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The Pacific Commons: looks can be deceiving
Posted by lisa on 19 May 2008.
Many of us are filled with a great sense of wonder and awe when we have the opportunity to experience the ocean. It can excite and calm, mystify and inspire. The ocean stimulates all of our senses. We can see it, hear it, touch it, smell it and taste it. We can completely immerse ourselves in it.
As much as I love tramping through rainforest, admiring mountain views, watching rivers meander through impressive landscapes and discovering all kinds of plants an animals on land... there's something about the ocean that grabs me every time I'm near it.
At last some action on bottom trawling
Posted by jossc on 9 May 2008.
Bottom trawling, possibly the most destructive fishing method yet devised by man, is to be regulated across the whole North Atlantic ocean. The process, which involves dragging nets weight down by metal girders across the seabed, is notorious for its wastefulness. Besides legitimate target species such as cod, plaice and sole, vast quantities of corals, sponges and other deep sea creatures are destroyed as bycatch. The devastation caused is so great that Greenpeace has been calling for some time for a moritorium (suspension of activity) on bottom trawling. Now it looks as though some progress may be being made.
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Bering fruit - our expedition discovers a new species
Posted by jossc on 29 April 2008.
Video: the discovery of Aaptos kanuux
Fascinating news just in - our two month research expedition to the Bering Sea last summer led to the discovery of a new species. Using manned submarines and a Remote Operated Vehicle, the crew of the Esperanza explored two of the world's deepest underwater canyons and took samples of never before seen life on the sea floor. Now, careful analysis has revealed one of them to be an entirely new species of sponge. Discovered in Pribilof Canyon, the new discovery is to be named Aaptos kanuux.
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Bluefin thinking
Posted by John Sauven on 24 April 2008.
Our Executive Director John Sauven, writing for comment is free explains why tuna, once the 'chicken of the sea', is now at grave risk from overfishing.
The MV Esperanza confronts overfishing and pirate fishing in the Pacific.
Tuna, particularly the canned variety, has long been one of the UK's staple foods and most of us probably have a couple of tin or two somewhere in our cupboards. More recently, we've been developing a taste for raw tuna, as sushi bars continue to spread throughout the country.
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Tuna traders shut down at world's largest fish market
Five of the world's principal tuna suppliers were forced to stop doing business at the seafood industry's largest trade fair by almost 100 environmental campaigners this morning.
The Greenpeace volunteers entered the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels - where many UK supermarkets buy from the 1,600 exhibitors - at 10am. Using fishing nets and chains, they shut down the tuna traders' stands and used the public address system to urge industry buyers to purchase only sustainable seafood.
The campaigners are calling for a worldwide ban on the sale of threatened tuna, such as bluefin, until stocks recover.
The European Seafood Exhibition is the largest event of its kind in the world and exhibitors' average sales reach millions of euros.
The five seafood suppliers shut down by Greenpeace are: Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, the world's largest tuna trader and owner of Princes, the UK food and drink group; Spain's Ricardo Fuentes, which controls an estimated 60 per cent of Mediterranean bluefin tuna production; Dongwon Fisheries from Korea, which has a 75 per cent share of the Korean tuna market; Azzopardi Fisheries of Malta, the largest tuna farmers in the Mediterranean; and the Taiwanese Moon Marine, who are heavily involved in tuna longline fisheries in Indonesia.
Speaking from the Seafood Exposition, Willie Mackenzie of Greenpeace said:
"These companies are responsible for pushing tuna towards commercial extinction. Unless urgent action is taken, overfishing and the destructive and short-sighted methods of these companies could see the end of the tuna trade, because there won't be enough left.
"Put simply, there are too many ships chasing too few fish.
"Designating large areas as ‘marine reserves', would allow the seas and fish stocks to recover and ensure a sustainable future for the fishing industry. Failing to do so spells disaster for conservation, disaster for fish stocks, and disaster for the long term interests of fishermen."
Worldwide, up to 90 per cent of stocks of large predatory fish - including tuna, swordfish, cod, and halibut - have already been lost.
For more information, contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.
Can the Marine Bill save our seas?
Posted by jossc on 3 April 2008.
Today sees the long overdue publication of the Draft Marine Bill. The Bill presents a key opportunity not just to improve the management of our national waters, but to begin the concerted action that is needed to protect marine biodiversity and reverse the decline in our fish stocks.
But the Marine Bill is only a tool, not the finished product. Read more »
Get up and dance for cod's sake!
Posted by jossc on 15 February 2008.
Do you like eating fish? Did you realise that around 75 per cent of the world's fish stocks are now fished to their limit or over-fished? While you can still eat some species of fish with a clear conscience, others are being rapidly fished close to extinction. Oxford-based band Stornoway has helpfully recorded a song that tells you which are which. 'The Good Fish Guide' is based on the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) guidelines to ethical fish consumption. It will shortly be released as a downloadable single via the Truck label, an environmentally proactive record label, with all profits to the MCS.
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Dead seas: human activities are killing off the oceans
Posted by jossc on 15 February 2008.
It's official; mankind is killing off our oceans far faster than previously thought. The first global-scale study of human impacts on marine ecosystems, published today in the flagship US journal Science, reveals a picture of widespread destruction with few if any areas remaining untouched.
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The great Mediterranean tuna massacre
Posted by jossc on 22 June 2007.
While Arctic Sunrise was out in the North Sea protesting against the over-fishing of cod, the Rainbow Warrior's been in the Mediterranean keeping an eye on the bluefin tuna situation. Tuna 'ranching', where wild bluefin are caught in sea-pens and fattened for sale is one of the Med's most profitable industries - growing explosively since the late 1990s in response to increasing demand for Japanese-style sushi. This in turn has provoked a 'gold rush', with legal quotas being totally ignored as pirate fishing boats seek to hoover up every last bluefin in the Sea.
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Deconstructing destruction
Posted by Willie on 4 May 2007.
Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog
We often talk about 'destructive' fisheries on the oceans campaign - so I thought it was maybe time I explained what that means when we talk about cod. A purist could say that all fishing is destructive, in that it destroys the fishes' life at least, I guess.
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