Blog: Oceans

Tinned tuna industry polices itself, and it smells so fishy

Posted by Willie — 24 May 2010 at 4:17pm - Comments

There's a well-known model of how dodgy big business deals with campaigns against them. To summarise, it goes a bit like this:

  • Company X gets some bad press for doing something wrong, especially bad press if it kills lots of charismatic megafauna;
  • Company X initially retaliates saying, 'It's all lies, honest';
  • Company X then admits it isn't all lies, but comes up with some way of kicking the issue into the long grass, usually some commission or foundation (ideally with a word like 'conservation' or 'sustainable' in its title) or some interminable period of gathering research, in the hope it all blows over and people forget what they were upset about.

Article tagged as: bycatch, oceans, overfishing, princes, tinned tuna, tuna

Rainbow Warrior sails the Med to help bluefin tuna's holiday romance

Posted by Willie — 21 May 2010 at 12:18pm - Comments

An ex-bluefin tuna found during the Rainbow Warrior's previous visit to the Mediterranean in 2007 © Greenpeace/Care

Imagine you are an Atlantic bluefin tuna. You've been out at sea most of the year in cooler waters, feeding away and generally getting on with being a big ol' fish at the top of your food chain. You have not a care in the world, save the occasional orca or shark scare.

Then spring is sprung, and the urge takes you. Forces you don't really understand compel you to head back to warmer waters, and a certain key place, sacred to you bluefin. The bluefin equivalent of a romantic dinner and some subdued lighting is a sheltered warm sea, and conditions have to be perfect, or it ain't happening. But even that's not enough. Because of the, er, messy, way most fish reproduce, they congregate together, and only release sperm and eggs when the time and the temperature is right: 23 degrees Celsius. It's the perfect temperature for a bluefin love-in.

Article tagged as: bluefin, marine reserves, oceans, rainbow warrior, ships, tuna

Rainbow Warrior sails the Med to help bluefin tuna's holiday romance

Posted by Willie — 21 May 2010 at 12:18pm - Comments

An ex-bluefin tuna found during the Rainbow Warrior's previous visit to the Mediterranean in 2007 © Greenpeace/Care

Imagine you are an Atlantic bluefin tuna. You've been out at sea most of the year in cooler waters, feeding away and generally getting on with being a big ol' fish at the top of your food chain. You have not a care in the world, save the occasional orca or shark scare.

Then spring is sprung, and the urge takes you. Forces you don't really understand compel you to head back to warmer waters, and a certain key place, sacred to you bluefin. The bluefin equivalent of a romantic dinner and some subdued lighting is a sheltered warm sea, and conditions have to be perfect, or it ain't happening. But even that's not enough. Because of the, er, messy, way most fish reproduce, they congregate together, and only release sperm and eggs when the time and the temperature is right: 23 degrees Celsius. It's the perfect temperature for a bluefin love-in.

Article tagged as: bluefin, marine reserves, oceans, rainbow warrior, ships, tuna

Purse-seining: when fishing methods go bad

Posted by Willie — 18 May 2010 at 3:41pm - Comments

When good things go bad: a purse-seine in action

Greenpeace is not against purse-seining, which may surprise some people. Sure it's a big industrial-looking fishing operation, involving huge nets and catching lots of fish. But that's not always a bad thing.

If we are to assume we're still going to catch and eat fish, then purse-seining as a method is probably going to be something that continues. Purse-seining involves setting a large circular wall of net around fish, then 'pursing' the bottom together to capture them. Where purse-seining is best used is with large single-species schools of fish, that shoal tightly together. Examples like herring or mackerel spring to mind. These can be caught relatively 'cleanly' by purse-seining.

Article tagged as: bycatch, FAD, fishing, oceans, overfishing, purse-seining

Purse-seining: when fishing methods go bad

Posted by Willie — 18 May 2010 at 3:41pm - Comments

When good things go bad: a purse-seine in action

Greenpeace is not against purse-seining, which may surprise some people. Sure it's a big industrial-looking fishing operation, involving huge nets and catching lots of fish. But that's not always a bad thing.

If we are to assume we're still going to catch and eat fish, then purse-seining as a method is probably going to be something that continues. Purse-seining involves setting a large circular wall of net around fish, then 'pursing' the bottom together to capture them. Where purse-seining is best used is with large single-species schools of fish, that shoal tightly together. Examples like herring or mackerel spring to mind. These can be caught relatively 'cleanly' by purse-seining.

Article tagged as: bycatch, FAD, fishing, oceans, overfishing, purse-seining

Bad days for bluefin tuna

Posted by Willie — 14 May 2010 at 6:00pm - Comments

Now is not a good time to be an Atlantic bluefin tuna.

I mean, it's bad enough that rampant overfishing has already decimated the species to a mere sliver of its former abundance. And it's even worse that the international community couldn't be bothered to ban the international trade that drives the overfishing. The brink of extinction is never a good place to be. The obvious solution for species like tuna the way out of that is to produce lots of healthy baby tuna, that then grow up to be healthy adult tuna, and so on.

Acid test for the oceans

Posted by jamie — 13 May 2010 at 3:43pm - Comments

Ever wondered what this ocean acidification thing is? Wonder no longer, as this new animation from our international office explains everything you need to know in just over a minute. 

The basic upshot is that climate change is not just making the oceans warmer, it's also making them more acidic. It's only by a relatively small amount so you won't lose your toes if you go paddling, but the effects on the ocean's chemistry is dramatic. Most widely reported is the threat this poses to coral reefs - as the water becomes more acidic, the polyps aren't able to create the calcium carbonate skeletons which form the reefs.

The consequences travel up the food chain - watch the video to find out more.

Article tagged as: climate change, emissions, ocean acidification, oceans, videos

Acid test for the oceans

Posted by jamie — 13 May 2010 at 3:43pm - Comments

Ever wondered what this ocean acidification thing is? Wonder no longer, as this new animation from our international office explains everything you need to know in just over a minute. 

The basic upshot is that climate change is not just making the oceans warmer, it's also making them more acidic. It's only by a relatively small amount so you won't lose your toes if you go paddling, but the effects on the ocean's chemistry is dramatic. Most widely reported is the threat this poses to coral reefs - as the water becomes more acidic, the polyps aren't able to create the calcium carbonate skeletons which form the reefs.

The consequences travel up the food chain - watch the video to find out more.

Article tagged as: climate change, emissions, ocean acidification, oceans, videos

So long, and thanks for all the fish: biodiversity in dire straits

Posted by jamie — 10 May 2010 at 5:52pm - Comments

The Chinese river dolphin is just one of the thousands of species lost in recent times (© Idolector)

The great Douglas Adams once said: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." He was no doubt talking about writing deadlines but another deadline is fast approaching, one Adams would have been very interested in and one which is far more significant than whether a manuscript gets delivered on time.

Back in 2002, parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - or in other words, most nations on the planet - agreed on a target to stem the loss of biodiversity by 2010, which by no coincidence is also the International Year of Biodiversity. There are still more than six months to go before that deadline officially expires but the results of the global efforts already being called and it's not good news.

Article tagged as: biodiversity, CBD, forests, oceans

So long, and thanks for all the fish: biodiversity in dire straits

Posted by jamie — 10 May 2010 at 5:52pm - Comments

The Chinese river dolphin is just one of the thousands of species lost in recent times (© Idolector)

The great Douglas Adams once said: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." He was no doubt talking about writing deadlines but another deadline is fast approaching, one Adams would have been very interested in and one which is far more significant than whether a manuscript gets delivered on time.

Back in 2002, parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - or in other words, most nations on the planet - agreed on a target to stem the loss of biodiversity by 2010, which by no coincidence is also the International Year of Biodiversity. There are still more than six months to go before that deadline officially expires but the results of the global efforts already being called and it's not good news.

Article tagged as: biodiversity, CBD, forests, oceans
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