Marine Reserves

At last, some good news on marine reserves...

Posted by jossc — 12 November 2009 at 4:34pm - Comments

Location of the proposed new South Orkneys MPA. Map © UKFCO

... or Marine Protected Areas, in government speak. On Tuesday the Foreign Office announced the creation of the South Orkneys MPA. Covering a large area of the Southern Ocean in the British Antarctic Territory, it will be the world's first "high-seas" reserve - off-limits to all types of fishing and dumping.

Article tagged as: marine reserves, south orkneys, southern ocean

Tomorrow will be too late...

Posted by jossc — 20 August 2009 at 10:32am - Comments

Every once in a while in my meanderings through the web, I come across something that really hits the spot - like this amazing animation from Phil Reynolds, for example. Phil's taken an idea from Charles Clover's book about overfishing, The End of the Line, and he uses it beautifully to illustrate the problem of 'bycatch' - the non-commercial species which are also killed during the process of bringing our favourite fish species to the table.

Article tagged as: bottom trawling, charles clover, destructive fishing, end of the line, marine reserves, overfishing

Good news for fisheries - if we take the right action?

Posted by Willie — 31 July 2009 at 1:34pm - Comments

So. Is the glass half full, or half empty?

There are of course other options, and it may well be difficult to tell because you are looking at the glass from a funny angle. That certainly seems to be the conclusion when reading the various media interpretations of an important new study published in the journal Science on the world's fisheries.

Article tagged as: boris worm, end of the line, marine reserves, overfishing

Turkey gobbles up tuna

Posted by Willie — 11 May 2009 at 1:59pm - Comments

Lords of the sea no longer... bluefin tuna carcasses await auction at a Tokyo market - Japan is the main destination for Turkish tuna (image by stewart, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)

No, this is not another story about the crazy things we feed to our farm animals, but rather yet another sad tale of failure in fisheries management … and yet another nail in the coffin for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean.

Article tagged as: bluefin, iccat, marine reserves, mitsubishi, nobu, overfishing

Revealed: the true state of the world's oceans

Posted by jossc — 5 March 2009 at 12:37pm - Comments

A clean, healthy and biodiverse sea area around Appo Island, Philipinnes

Clean, healthy and biodiverse : the reef around Appo Island in the Philipinnes

Behind many a Greenpeace action and every campaign lies a large amount of science related work. Much of the analysis and some of the research backing our campaigns comes from the scientists of the Greenpeace Research Laboratories,  based at Exeter University. Over the years they have accumulated a vast amount of expertise and thousands of scientific papers on a wide range of issues including many that are related to the health of the worlds oceans. From bycatch to ocean acidification, the team has been uncovering the facts behind the changes we are now witnessing happening at sea.

Article tagged as: books, greenpeace international research laboratories, marine conservation, marine reserves, science

One fish, two fish, red fish…

Posted by Willie — 26 January 2009 at 1:11pm - Comments

Red fish alert!

Red fish alert! Guppies hit the slopes to help promote 'End of The Line' © Greenpeace / Mackenzie.

Update: guppies go skiing - watch the video »

Park City during Sundance is crazy busy. The Main Street, hotels, and carparks are all chockablock, and everyone has a film to sell or see. So, clearly we needed something to attract a bit of attention and make obvious Greenpeace's support for the End Of The Line film. If you've read my previous posts, you'll be aware that part of the solution (after some complicated logistics) involved five Greenpeace US volunteers  plus two red fish suits from Greenpeace Netherlands (thank you guys!).

Article tagged as: destructive fishing, end of the line, films, marine reserves, oceans, overfishing, sundance

What's Greenpeace doing at the Sundance Film Festival?

Posted by Willie — 19 January 2009 at 12:53pm - Comments

Guppy goes to Sundance

Oi - Oishi, No! (to bluefin tuna on the menu, that is). Guppie spreads the word at Sundance © Greenpeace / MacKenzie

I'm writing this from Utah, a landlocked state in the US, which hosts the Sundance Film Festival each year. Sundance is known as the place for new independent films, and we're here to support a great new documentary movie called 'End of the Line', based on former Daily Telegraph environment correspondent Charles Clover's book about what overfishing is doing to our oceans.

Article tagged as: destructive fishing, end of the line, films, marine reserves, oceans, overfishing, sundance

Every clown has a silver lining...

Posted by jossc — 7 January 2009 at 4:15pm - Comments

Marine reserves not only protect the ocean life within them - they help to sustain surrounding ecosystems and animals that pass through them - like whales

Marine reserves not only protect the ocean life within them - they help to sustain surrounding ecosystems and animals that pass through them - like whales

Ok, this might take some believing, but apparently outgoing US President George W Bush just made a major contribution to protecting the oceans.

Yesterday the man better known for threatening our entire planet's future by dragging his feet on climate change and paying less attention to environmental conservation than any US president in history, announced plans for three 'national monuments' to be created in the Pacific. A total of 505,775 square kilometres [195,280 square miles], containing some of the most ecologically-rich areas of the world's oceans, will be protected - creating the largest marine reserves in the world.

Article tagged as: climate change, george bush, marine reserves, pacific

A tale of two fishies

Posted by jossc — 25 November 2008 at 1:07pm - Comments

Mediterranean bluefin tuna - kings of the ocean

Imagine you were in a car that was rolling quickly towards the edge of a cliff. The sensible thing to do would be to slam on the brakes as much as possible, knowing that it will take some time to stop, even with your best efforts and your foot to the floor. Another option would be just to take your feet off the pedals and hope it slows down in time. If it was an EU fisheries regulator who found themselves at the wheel, though, chances are they'd consult widely to ensure that they had the best advice possible on how to get out of the situation, and then totally ignore it...

All the available data shows that many fisheries around the world are in serious decline. Some face complete collapse (hence the 'falling off a cliff' analogy) unless drastic action is taken to end over-fishing and give threatened stocks time to recover. This can only happen by setting aside large areas of ocean as marine reserves, off-limits to all forms of fishing. But sadly the fishing industry itself still seems incapable of taking any meaningful steps to address the problem.

Article tagged as: callum roberts, cod, EU fisheries, iccat, marine reserves, tuna
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