Blog Archives

U.S. researchers examining three species of a fish called a blenny, studied for 100 years, say they’ve found they’re actually looking at 10 distinct species.

Scientist from the Smithsonian Institution say a century of study of blennies, native to shallow coral and rock reefs in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans, would suggest there was little left to discover about them, but modern DNA techniques have proved them wrong, a Smithsonian release said Friday.

The longstanding classification of the three species was contradicted by DNA studies of coral reef fish from larvae to adults, finally yielding seven previously unclassified species new to science, the researchers say.

“DNA analysis has offered science a great new resource to examine old questions,” said Carole Baldwin, a zoo...

The Gulf of Mexico will have largely recovered from the BP oil spill by the end of 2012, the administrator of the $20bn (

Conservationists have unveiled plans to preserve and protect the world’s most important species of coral, in a response to increasing threats that they say will lead to “functional extinction” within decades.

Led by scientists at the Zoological Society of London, the Edge Coral Reefs project has identified 10 coral species in most urgent risk of becoming extinct.

The scientists say that reefs are under pressure from a variety of threats including rising sea temperatures due to climate change, increased acidity, overfishing and pollution.

The Edge plan, which focuses on the most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species will take a regional approach to conservation.

This means focusing on the “coral triangle” around the Philippines, the west Indian ocean around the Mozambique ...

The global consumption of fish has hit a record high, reaching an average of 17kg per person, a UN report has shown.

Fisheries and aquaculture supplied the world with about 145m tonnes in 2009, providing about 16% of the population’s animal protein intake.

The findings published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also stressed that the status of global fish stocks had not improved.

It said that about 32% were overexploited, depleted or recovering.

“That there has been no improvement in the status of stocks is a matter of great concern,” said Richard Grainger, one of the report’s authors and FAO senior fish expert.

“The percentage of overexploitation needs to go down, although at least we seem to reaching a plateau,” he observed.

The authors added that it was estimated that the...

Laws banning the killing of seals in Scotland without a licence have come into force.

The legislation, part of the Marine (Scotland) Act passed by Holyrood last year, is aimed at regulating seal shooting and protecting animal welfare.

It makes it an offence to kill or injure a seal, except under licence, and carries a penalty of up to six months imprisonment or a heavy fine.

A new licensing system and seal conservation areas around Scotland have also been introduced.

Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, said: “These seal management measures deliver a significant improvement to how we manage the impact of seal predation on fisheries and fish farms around our coast.”

The measures have been implemented by Marine Scotland, which will issue the first annua...

Failure to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions effectively has led to intensifying debate on geoengineering – deliberate large-scale schemes to slow the rate at which Earth is heating up.

The public debate often mixes opinion with fact so scientists have now released the first summary for policymakers on ocean fertilization, one of the earliest geoengineering proposals.

The authors report that the chances of success of using ocean fertilization to deal with climate change is minimal.

Ocean fertilization involves adding iron or other nutrients to the surface of the ocean to trigger growth of microscopic marine plants...

Abnormally hot sea temperatures at Ningaloo Reef are bleaching the area’s coral, environmental officers say.

Ocean surface temperatures at the reef have been 3C higher than average since October and peaked at 29C in the past two weeks – the ‘trigger level’ for bleaching.

The Department of Environment and Conservation detected the patches of bleached corals using satellite imaging.

The Thai government plans to raise rates to divers and limit the number of tourists to stop the degeneration of coral reefs, local media reported.

Three huge marine reserves totalling 435,163ha are to be established in the Subantarctic Islands, Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson and Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley announced today.

The NZ Ministers’ decisions will see a marine reserve cover the entire territorial sea – out to 12 nautical miles – surrounding Antipodes Island, with two further marine reserves around the Bounty Islands and Campbell Island, covering 58 percent and 39 percent of those islands’ territorial seas respectively.

New prohibitions on Danish seining will be introduced in the remaining territorial sea around the island groups, ensuring the entire area – 688,548ha – achieves Marine Protected Area status.

Ms Wilkinson says securing marine reserves around New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands recognises how unique ...

Many countries whose fishing fleets catch large numbers of sharks have failed to meet a 10-year-old pledge on conserving the species, a report says.

The wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic and the Pew Environment Group say most of the main shark fishing nations do not manage fisheries well.

Ten years ago, governments agreed a global plan to conserve sharks.

An estimated 100 million sharks are killed each year, with nearly a third of species at risk of extinction.

Many fisheries target the fins for use in shark fin soup; and a number of countries, inclduing the US, have recently passed measures aimed at regulating the trade.

Neither of the two countries catching the most sharks – Indonesia and India – has yet finalised national plans of action for protecting sharks.

This was one of th...