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Scientists Find 75 Percent Of Red Snapper Sold In Stores Is Really Some Other Species CHAPEL HILL ? While learning in a course how to extract, amplify and sequence the genetic material known as DNA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate students got a big surprise. So did their marine science professors. In violation of federal law, more than 75 percent of fish tested and sold as tasty red snapper in stores in eight states were other species. How much of the mislabeling was unintentional or fraud is unknown, said Dr. Peter B. Marko, assistant professor of marine...

SAN FRANCISCO — State wildlife officials announced plans recently to revive a program to create marine reserves along California's 1,100-mile coast. The program would set up restricted fishing zones expected to serve as models for protecting ocean habitat. Plans for the state-mandated network were shelved eight months ago because of budget woes. State agencies have now secured $2 million from private donors and $500,000 in state funding. "This governor is committed to protecting and restoring these oceans, particularly in California," state Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said. The program represents a new approach to marine conservation. Rather than protecting individual fish...

Recreational anglers may be responsible for landing nearly 25 percent of over-fished salt water species caught off U.S. coasts, a study released Thursday suggests. Citing federal data from the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. Pacific coast, researchers at Florida State University said the impact of 10 million U.S. recreational anglers was far more significant than previously thought. Across the country, recreational and commercial fishers have been pointing fingers for decades over which group is responsible for dwindling stocks of sports fish. In Florida, anglers successfully backed a 1994 constitutional amendment severely restricting commercial fishing in coastal waters. Overall,...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Environment activists piled thousands of dead fish at the foot of Berlin's biggest tourist attraction, the Brandenburg Gate, Tuesday in a demonstration against over-fishing and pollution in the North Sea. "It's not the fish but the politics that really stink," said Bjoern Jettka, press officer for Germany's Greenpeace. On a hot August day at peak tourist season, visitors to the famous neo-classical landmark were greeted by the smell of 11,000 rotting fish displayed on a 100 meter long table under banners bearing the slogan "Don't waste life!." "We caught the fish in the North Sea on board...

SAN FRANCISCO-- In a victory for environmentalists, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration cannot change the standards commercial fisheries must meet before the tuna they catch can carry the "dolphin-safe" label. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson found that Commerce Secretary Donald Evans not only failed to conduct the scientific research required to relax existing tuna-labeling laws, but engaged in "a pattern of delay and inattention" to build support for his position. "The record is replete with evidence that the secretary was influenced by policy concerns unrelated to the best available scientific evidence," Henderson wrote in a strongly...

In the past year, two landmark reports have provided stark evidence that the oceans are in a serious biological decline. Both reports have also provided plausible road maps for recovery. As a rule, reports like these, however exhaustive and worthy, cause a momentary stir and then sink from view. It is thus heartening to find that several bills inspired by these reports have recently been introduced in Congress. There is not enough time left for Congress to pass them this year, but their very existence should provide momentum heading into next year. And, who knows, they may even persuade a...

Opening section: "Where's Teddy Roosevelt when we need him? Nearly a century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt showed his passion for the outdoors and his vision for the future by preserving millions of acres of wild land as national forests and parks for the benefit of all Americans. He made science the basis of land management and turned back the tide of rapacious short-term exploitation. Now such a tide besets our oceans. Populations of some important species, such as tuna, swordfish and shark, have been reduced by 90 percent [since 1950]. Agricultural chemicals flowing downstream have created a dead zone the...

Response to U.S. Commission report on the state of the oceans J. Geubtner 24 May 2004 On April 20, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy (appointed by President Bush in 2001) released their report on the state of the world’s oceans. The report came 35 years after the last global ocean study by the Stratton Commission in 1969. The current Commission calls for legislative and regulatory changes to improve marine management and promote long-term sustainable uses of the oceans. AFS testified on fisheries issues for the Commission when it began its work in 2001. Prior to the release, AFS had...

Japan has drawn up plans to replace the International Whaling Commission, whose annual meeting will start on 19 July. The IWC remains deadlocked between the countries opposed to a resumption of commercial whaling and those, led by Japan, which say it should go ahead. Members of Japan's ruling party now say they are prepared to go it alone and establish a new pro-whaling alliance. They say in any case they may withhold part of their subscription to the IWC, in protest at its conservation work. Implacable opposition A paper prepared by a special working group of the ruling Liberal Democratic...

SORRENTO, Italy (Reuters) - Whales and dolphins are not depleting the world's fish stocks despite the sea mammals' enormous appetites, according to a scientific study unveiled at the International Whaling Commission (news - web sites) (IWC) conference on Monday. The study, partly funded by U.S.-based group Humane Society International, counters arguments put forward by pro-whaling nations that whales, protected under international law, devour valuable fish stocks that could be used to feed humans. Some whaling countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland, have suggested controlled killing of such animals would help reduce the growing strain on the fishing industry. "The bottom...

You know things are getting bad when a conference sponsored by seemingly mainstream groups like the Ocean Conservancy and the Pew Charitable Trusts includes a panel on "direct action" featuring the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's "Captain" Paul Watson. An open promoter of violence, Watson declares there's "nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win." Yesterday he told the self-described "seaweed rebels" at the conference on ocean health: "We can no longer afford to eat any seafood." After announcing that Sea Shepherd is "proudly a pirate organization," Watson insisted: ... we have got to cease and desist and...

July 16, 2004 Marine animals harmed by CO2 Studies show it interferes with shell formation; North Atlantic has highest levels; Separate report suggests new approach to fisheries By Dennis O'Brien Sun Staff The world's oceans not only have fewer fish these days, but carbon dioxide pollution threatens the survival of shellfish, coral and other hard-bodied sea animals, researchers said in three studies released today. "The chemistry of seawater is changing in dramatic ways and it's having a significant impact on organisms that live in the water," said Richard Feely, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle...

VLADIVOSTOK (AP) -- Border guards discovered 30,000 tons of humpback salmon and 100 kilograms of red caviar in the hold of a Japanese fishing boat that was detained in Russian waters, a guard spokeswoman said Tuesday. The schooner was detained Sunday.

June 16, 2004 — The “Status of Fisheries of the United States” report, released today by NOAA, shows considerable progress was made in 2003 to address excessive fishing rates and rebuild fish stocks to healthy levels. In 2003, four fish stocks were fully rebuilt, a record ten species were removed from the list of overfished stocks and overfishing practices were stopped for five species. “The American public can feel confident that U.S. fisheries are becoming more sustainable each year as we rebuild fish stocks that were once overfished,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce...

<p>The oceans of the world are being overfished. The solution: roaming robots that bring fish farming to the open seas.</p> <p>About 9 miles southeast of New Hampshire, near the Isles of Shoals, what seems to be an ordinary yellow navigation buoy sways in the Atlantic chop. Like a regular buoy, it's a metal cylinder that extends 10 feet above the surface and blinks its lights to warn away passing ships. Unlike a regular buoy, though, it has an access hatch that leads to an inner chamber crammed with enough electronics to merit its own IT staff. Indeed, this may be the first buoy in history that had its launch delayed by a software glitch.</p>

No More Cod in 15 Years WWF Report Warns 5/12/2004 6:01:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National and International desks, Environment Reporter Contact: Martha Wilson of World Wildlife Fund, 202-778-9517 or martha.wilson@wwfus.org WASHINGTON, May 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A new World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report shows that global cod catch has suffered a 70 percent drop over the last 30 years, a trend that could cause the world's cod stocks to disappear in 15 years. Despite the dramatic collapse of North American cod populations in the mid-1990s signaling damaging overfishing of the species, fishing management on the far side of the...

Say marine mammals depleting fish supply PORTLAND -- Columbia River smelt, salmon and sturgeon are being gobbled up by hungry seals and sea lions at alarming rates, according to fishermen in Oregon and Washington. When smelt were in the Cowlitz River recently, a pack of eight to 10 sea lions would swoop in and "blow the smelt right off the spawning beds," Bruce Crookshanks, a Cowlitz County commercial fisherman, said at a hearing this past week to set salmon-fishing seasons. Seals and sea lions are protected species under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. "You've got a major predator problem,"...

SAN FRANCISCO – The federal government banned commercial fishing for swordfish in a large swath of the Pacific Ocean in order to protect endangered sea turtles that were being killed or injured by the hooks. The new rules, released Thursday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, mean that longline fishing for swordfish will be prohibited in a 1,600-mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean between the West Coast and Hawaii. The ban is scheduled to take effect on April 12 and will affect about two dozen fishing boats based in California, Oregon and Washington. Recreational fishing is not affected. "It's an...

Stalin's last army - hordes of gigantic crabs on their way to invade Europe - By Julius Strauss in Kirkenes, northern Norway (Filed: 28/02/2004) Millions of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway's coast, devouring everything in their path. The monster crabs, which can weigh up to 25lb and have a claw-span of more than three feet, are proving so resilient that scientists fear they could end up as far south as Gibraltar. Energised by a mysterious population explosion a decade ago, whole armies of the crustaceans...

Nip in the air as piranha drops in Mark Oliver and agencies Friday February 20, 2004 As if the denizens of London did not already have enough to worry about trying to safely navigate muggers, backpackers and street performers, they now face a new threat: piranhas falling from the skies. It may be a discomforting thought, but earlier this week a seagull flew over London carrying one of the razor-toothed fish in its beak, which it then proceeded to drop onto the deck of a boat on the Thames. This, at least, was the theory put forward yesterday by the...