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November 27, 2012

2012-11-27T06:32:00.002-08:00

ADF&G releases "how-to" burbot fishing videos

ust in time for the ice fishing season, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has rolled out a new web page on how to fish for burbot.
The highlight of the page, located on the Division of Sport Fish’s web site, is a pair of informative “How-to” videos — “How to Set Line for Burbot” and “How to Clean a Burbot.”

Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - entry ADF G releases how to burbot fishing videos

Just in time for the ice fishing season, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has rolled out a new web page on how to fish for burbot.

The highlight of the page, located on the Division of Sport Fish’s web site, is a pair of informative “How-to” videos — “How to Set Line for Burbot” and “How to Clean a Burbot.”

Just in time for the ice fishing season, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has rolled out a new web page on how to fish for burbot.
The highlight of the page, located on the Division of Sport Fish’s web site, is a pair of informative “How-to” videos — “How to Set Line for Burbot” and “How to Clean a Burbot.”

Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - entry ADF G releases how to burbot fishing videos

November 27, 2012

2012-11-27T06:30:00.001-08:00

Christmas trees may help fish

Riverside County supervisors today will consider a proposal to give all the Christmas trees collected this year for recycling to a state program aimed at securing fish habitat.

November 27, 2012

2012-11-27T06:26:00.002-08:00

USGS: Outbreak of coral disease is an epidemic

A report by the U.S. Geological Survey finds that an outbreak of coral disease along Kauai's North Shore is an epidemic.

November 27, 2012

2012-11-27T06:23:00.000-08:00

Manitoba fish off to China

Local officials are using cargo-tracking technology to try and snag a potentially huge new overseas market for Manitoba fish.

CentrePort Canada Inc. and Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp. announced Friday that for the first time, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags have been used on a shipment of frozen, wild-caught, Manitoba walleye (pickerel) and lake whitefish that was exported to China earlier this week.

November 22, 2012

2012-11-22T05:46:00.000-08:00

Scientists learn how to attract live fish to robot fish

A new study analyses how zebrafish are attracted or repelled by robotic fish with a similar body shape and colour pattern. The live fish were found to be more attracted to robots with tail motions that mimicked their own.

November 22, 2012

2012-11-22T05:39:00.003-08:00

Gulf spill harmed small fish, studies indicate

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Two years after BP’s Deepwater Horizon well blowout, laboratory studies are finally offering clues to the spilled oil’s impact on sea life. Brief, very low exposures to oil were capable of killing many fish embryos and hatchlings, new studies show. Those that survived often exhibited major deformities that would diminish an animal’s fitness.

November 22, 2012

2012-11-22T05:38:00.001-08:00

To Salvage One Endangered Fish Species, Scientists Consider Breeding It with Another

The Devils Hole pupfish is an endangered species whose only natural habitat is Devils Hole, a hot spring at the bottom of a hole 500-feet deep which leads to limestone caverns. The fish is suited to its niche environment, requiring extremely hot water, low oxygen levels, and a particular limestone ledge to spawn on. If University of Colorado conservation biologists have their way, it could be the subject of a conservation experiment, writes Hillary Rosner at Wired: in order to salvage some of dying species’ genes, they want to mate it with another species, creating a vigorous hybrid that could supplant the original species.

November 22, 2012

2012-11-22T05:36:00.007-08:00

Taking Stock: World Fish Catch Falls to 90 Million Tons in 2012

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projects that the world’s wild fish harvest will fall to 90 million tons in 2012, down 2 percent from 2011. This is close to 4 percent below the all-time peak haul of nearly 94 million tons in 1996. The wild fish catch per person has dropped even more dramatically, from 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds) per person at its height in 1988 to 13 kilograms in 2012—a 37-year low. While wild fish harvests have flattened out during this time, the output from fish farming has soared from 24 million tons in the mid-1990s to a projected 67 million tons in 2012.

November 22, 2012

2012-11-22T05:35:00.002-08:00

Eating fish is wise, but it’s good to know where your seafood comes from

Most of us are probably aware that eating fish — which is low in saturated fat and high in protein, omega-3 fatty acids and such nutrients as selenium and vitamins D and B₂— is an important part of a healthy diet.

November 22, 2012

2012-11-22T05:32:00.003-08:00

Male fish being feminized in Okanagan wastewater

Scientists from UBCO who have been studying the impacts of estrogenic compounds in wastewater from sewage treatment plants in the Okanagan have found that male goldfish in a treated effluent reservoir are becoming feminized.

November 21, 2012

2012-11-21T05:58:00.004-08:00

Acting Secretary Of Commerce Declares Disaster For NJ & NY Fishery

As part of the Administration’s focus on providing those affected by Sandy with all available federal support, Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank announced the determination of a fishery resource disaster to help coastal communities in New Jersey and New York.

November 21, 2012

2012-11-21T05:57:00.002-08:00

L.A. Task Force: 74% of Seafood Surveyed Mislabeled

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- There's something fishy when it comes to seafood in the Southland. A special task force found that you may not be eating what you think you are.

2012-11-17T08:10:00.002-08:00

Treating farmed salmon for sea lice prevents transfer to wild fish

Salmon farmers in British Columbia have effectively broken a “transmission cycle” in which sea lice were being spread from farmed to wild fish, according to a new scientific paper.

Environmental pressure creates demand for sustainable fish

2012-11-17T08:03:00.003-08:00

Atlantic salmon are prized as a farm fish by growers - because they grow to harvest size quickly - and by cooks and chefs for their firm flesh and mild flavour. Vancouver-based Albion Fisheries is developing a local market for closed containment Atlantic salmon, putting samples grown in research facilities in West Virginia into the hands of chefs.

November 15, 2012

2012-11-15T05:31:00.003-08:00

Concerns raised about imported seafood

WASHINGTON - Health experts say fish is a good addition to any diet, but new information suggests buyers should beware.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports seafood tainted with antibiotics and bacteria are showing up on U.S. dinner tables.

November 15, 2012

2012-11-15T05:29:00.000-08:00

Sea Lice Pose Significant Threat to Wild Salmon Says New Research

About 39% of salmon mortalities were attributable to the impact of sea lice on wild salmon fisheries, according to a new international study.

November 14, 2012

2012-11-14T07:43:00.000-08:00

University Stands by Sea Lice Figures

SCOTLAND , UK - The University of St Andrews and authors of a recently published sea lice report have stood by their figures after receiving criticism from the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO).

The announcement comes after the Chairman of SSPO, Professor Phil Thomas, said some of the figures in the media statement published by the University of St Andrews were misleading. In particular, Professor Thomas stated that the report's figure of 39 per cent of ocean mortalities of wild salmon in the Northeast Atlantic being due to sea lice is inaccurate.

November 14, 2012

2012-11-14T06:52:00.003-08:00

Nations set to discuss bluefin tuna quotas

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- After defeating a proposal in 2010 to ban the export of an endangered fish that is a key ingredient of sushi, Japan and Asian nations argued it should be left to quota-setting international fisheries bodies to bring the species back from the brink.

Two years on, their strategy for rebuilding stocks of Atlantic Bluefin tuna appears to be working.

November 14, 2012

2012-11-14T06:47:00.001-08:00

Large Numbers of Salmon are Killed by Parasites, finds New Study

SCOTLAND, UK - An “unexpectedly large” number of free-ranging salmon are being killed by parasitic lice in European waters every year, according to the results of a major international study.

The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, involved experts at the University of St Andrews and is the first evidence of the full impact of sea lice on salmon mortality levels.

November 14, 2012

2012-11-14T06:46:00.000-08:00

'It is a major blunder' — St Andrews University accused of 'misleading the nation' with salmon statement

St Andrews University rejected a claim it ''misled the nation'' after it reported huge numbers of wild salmon are being wiped out by parasites every year.

Sustainable Blue

2012-11-06T11:05:00.001-08:00

World Leading Aquaculture in the Heart of Nova Scotia

Sustainable Blue is a Canadian producer of both exotic and native species of fish, situated close to The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. It uses world leading aquaculture technology, designed in-house, in the operation of land based recirculation fish farms. It is committed to product quality, environmental responsibility and commercial success through technological excellence.

Read more at: http://www.sustainableblue.com

GM maize 'has polluted rivers across the United States'

2012-11-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

An insecticide used in genetically modified (GM) crops grown extensively in the United States and other parts of the world has leached into the water of the surrounding environment.

The insecticide is the product of a bacterial gene inserted into GM maize and other cereal crops to protect them against insects such as the European corn borer beetle. Scientists have detected the insecticide in a significant number of streams draining the great corn belt of the American mid-West.

The researchers detected the bacterial protein in the plant detritus that was washed off the corn fields into streams up to 500 metres away. They are not yet able to determine how significant this is in terms of the risk to either human health or the wider environment.

"Our research adds to the growing body of evidence that corn crop byproducts can be dispersed throughout a stream network, and that the compounds associated with genetically modified crops, such as insecticidal proteins, can enter nearby water bodies," said Emma Rosi-Marshall of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York.

GM crops are widely cultivated except in Britain and other parts of Europe. In 2009, more than 85 per cent of American corn crops were genetically modified to either repel pests or to be tolerant to herbicides used to kill weeds in a cultivated field.

The GM maize, or corn as it is called in the US, has a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuriengensis (Bt) inserted into it to repel the corn borer beetle. The Bt gene produces a protein called Cry1Ab which has insectidical properties.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, analysed 217 streams in Indiana. The scientists found 86 per cent of the sites contained corn leaves, husks, stalks or cereal cobs in their channels and 13 per cent contained detectable levels of the insectidical Cry1Ab proteins.

"The tight linkage between corn fields and streams warrants further research into how corn byproducts, including Cry1Ab insecticidal proteins, potentially impact non-target ecosystems, such as streams and wetlands," Dr Rosi-Marshall said.

All of the stream sites with detectable insecticidal proteins were located within 500 metres of a corn field. The ramifications are vast just in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, where about 90 per cent of the streams and rivers – some 159,000 miles of waterways – are also located within 500 metres of corn fields.

After corn crops are harvested, a common agricultural practice is to leave discarded plant material on the fields. This "no-till" form of agriculture minimises soil erosion, but it then also sets the stage for corn byproducts to enter nearby stream channels.

Read more at: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/gm-maize-has-polluted-rivers-across-the-united-states-2091300.html

Peru cuts commercial fishing drastically on worries about stocks

2012-11-03T10:18:00.002-07:00

(Reuters) - Peru has slashed its commercial fishing quota as warmer water temperatures and controversial practices deplete stocks of anchovy in one of the world's richest fisheries.

The government cut its quota for this summer's anchovy season by 68 percent to 810,000 tonnes, the smallest allowance in 25 years. Anchovy is rarely eaten fresh, but is instead dried, ground up and exported as a protein-rich feed for livestock and farmed fish.

The stricter quota will allow just enough anchovy to swim into spawning season, reproduce, and keep the size of the fishery more or less stable, according to a report by the government marine institute IMARPE.

"Technically we should have said the quota is zero. That's how bleak the panorama is," Production Minister Gladys Trevino told reporters late on Tuesday.

The anchovy population has shrunk 41 percent since last summer and is 28 percent smaller than the average of the past 12 years, IMARPE says.

The quota for the November to February fishing season could push the price of fishmeal up even further. The price of the commodity has more than doubled over the past decade, and rose some 20 percent in the past year, according to data from the World Bank.

Peru is the world's top fishmeal exporter, producing about a third of worldwide supply. Last year it shipped abroad more than $2 billion in fishmeal and fish oil.

The anchovy pulled from Peru's Pacific Ocean is sold as fishmeal that feeds pigs in China and farmed salmon in Europe. It's also squeezed into increasingly popular Omega-3 supplements.

The government could impose additional restrictions if the warmer waters that IMARPE predicts reach Peru in coming months.

Anchovy prefer the cold waters of the nutrient-rich Humboldt current, which is home to a fifth of the world's fish stocks and flows northward from Chile to Peru.

IMARPE said Peru is experiencing the effects of a mild "El Nino" and that the warm waters that the climatological phenomenon brings produced a mass die-off of anchovy earlier this year. El Nino phenomena have been linked to extreme weather globally.

Three Kelvin waves - the warm equatorial swells that stretch hundreds of miles across - shored up on Peru's coast between May and September, the institute said, and it predicts two more by the end of the year. Kelvin waves signal El Nino seasons and make landfall on the western coast of South America.

"But we can't just blame what's going on in the environment," said Arturo Gonzales, director of the sustainable fishing advocacy group CeDePesca. "There are a lot of questions about how much this is driven by the industry's discarded catches, and that's something we can control."

IMARPE says that industrial fishermen at times return young fish they catch unintentionally back to the sea to avoid fines the government has set to try to protect them. The fish are already dead by the time they are thrown back into the water.

The fishing interest group, the National Fishery Society, was unavailable to comment on the new quota, but the industry had already been bracing for reduced catches and has set a new rule that pushes large vessels 10 miles from shore.

The regulation, designed to protect shallow-water spawning, reserves the first five miles from the coast for smaller fishermen and the five-10 mile zone for medium-sized boats.

That would cut Peru's anchovy exports by about $300 million, the National Fishery Society has said.

(Reporting By Mitra Taj and Teresa Cespedes; Editing by Terry Wade; and Peter Galloway)

Culling of 70,000 seals endorsed by Canada

2012-10-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

Canadian senators on Tuesday endorsed a plan to cull 70,000 grey seals in the southern Gulf of Saint Lawrence in an effort to preserve groundfish stocks.

The Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans called for the "targeted removal" of grey seals whose hefty appetite for cod, they say, is preventing the recovery of the cod fishery.

"After hearing from more than 40 witnesses representing diverse viewpoints on seal management, the committee is persuaded that seal predation is preventing the recovery of groundfish stocks" in the region, said Senator Fabian Manning, chair of the committee.

"This is the best course of action under the circumstances to enable a healthy cod fishery and the continuation of vibrant and prosperous coastal communities in Atlantic Canada and Quebec," Manning said.
Critics say that in this multi-species ecosystem one cannot count on a reduction in seals having a positive impact on cod stocks.

The committee itself acknowledged that more research is needed to determine the percentage of cod in a seal's diet, and how far they will swim to feed.

What is more, even supporters of the cull note that the market collapsed for seal meat and pelts after the European Union in 2010 banned seal products from Canada.

According to government figures, the total population of grey seals in eastern Canada increased from about 13,000 animals in 1960 to between 330,000 and 410,000 animals in 2010.

In the southern Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the grey seal population reached a record 104,000 animals during the same period.
- AFP