Tag Archive for: Overfishing

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Action Alert: Grand Canyons of the Bering Sea

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Action Alert - Ocean Doctor


Protect the Bering Sea’s Grand Canyons

Background

In 2007, Greenpeace launched a groundbreaking expedition to explore the two largest underwater canyons in the world, in the heart of the Bering Sea. It was the first time manned submersibles ever entered these canyons and human eyes gazed directly upon their treasures. Ocean Doctor president, Dr. David E. Guggenheim served as a sub pilot and scientific consultant during the 2007 expedition. The expedition revealed an extraordinary tapestry of life thousands of feet below the surface, including beautiful, brightly-colored deepwater corals, sponges, anemones, octopus and fish and resulted the discovery of new species and species ranges. Read more

Slice Up Your Sunday Funnies and Save Endangered Sharks!

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Click image to enlarge. © 2008 Jim Toomey.
On Sunday, April 20, 2008, Newspapers Around the Nation Carried this Special Edition of “Sherman’s Lagoon” by Jim Toomey

Cartoonist and devout conservationist, Jim Toomey, has dedicated his April 20 “Sherman’s Lagoon” comic strip to protecting sharks. His regular strip has delighted millions, featuring the antics of a variety of sea creatures, especially sharks. Here is what Jim recently wrote about this special edition of his beloved comic strip: “I have devoted my color Sunday Sherman’s Lagoon comic strip to creating awareness and public interest in shark conservation. Recent populations studies done by numerous independent marine biologists confirm that many species of large sharks from great whites to hammerheads to tiger sharks are being overfished to the point that only 10% of their historic populations remain. Read more

Next-Generation Aquaculture: The Future of Fishing on Planet Earth

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This next-generation land-based recirculating aquaculture facility in northern Denmark supplies 20 percent of the eel consumed by the European market. (Photo courtesy of Aquaculture Developments, LLC)

After being nearly ignored for decades, marine conservation issues are increasingly at the forefront of the environmental agenda today, thanks in large part to the report of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and subsequent U.S. Ocean Action Plan as well as the results of the independent Pew Oceans Commission, and current actions of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative. The similarity of the findings of these efforts has been striking, recognizing that urgent steps are required to restore marine ecosystems. Among the most serious problems cited is overfishing and the recognition that U.S. fisheries are increasingly unsustainable and many populations will take decades to recover.

Of course, this trend is not limited to the U.S. and global overfishing is viewed as one of the principal causes of the loss of integrity of marine ecosystems and is considered a major factor in the decline of coral reef communities. Read more