Category Archives: Fish

‘Apoplectic’ environment groups halt Coalition attack ads to take aim at Albanese over species’ ‘death warrant’

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Exclusive: Australia’s top green organisations suspend anti-nuclear power ads to fund campaign against Labor’s move to protect salmon industry

Australia’s leading environment organisations have abruptly suspended advertising campaigns attacking the Coalition’s plan to introduce nuclear power and are instead funding ads accusing Anthony Albanese of signing “the death warrant” of an endangered species.

The shift from criticising the Coalition to Labor on the cusp of an election campaign was agreed by the bosses of green groups – including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, the WWF Australia and the Climate Council – at what campaigners described as an emergency meeting on Saturday.

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Bob Brown urges Greens to punish Labor at election if Albanese amends law to protect salmon farming

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PM’s pledge to protect Tasmanian industry will weaken laws already failing to protect natural sites and at-risk species, environmentalists say

Former Greens leader Bob Brown has urged the minor party not to preference Labor ahead of the Liberal party in Tasmanian seats at the upcoming election if the Albanese government legislates to effectively exempt salmon farming from national environment laws.

Conservationists have sharply criticised Anthony Albanese’s pledge that he will rush through legislation next week to protect the salmon industry in Macquarie Harbour, on the state’s west coast, from the potential results of a long-running legal review.

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Once named world’s ugliest animal, blobfish wins New Zealand’s fish of the year

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Made up of blobby tissue and living deep in the ocean, the distinctive species beat the longfin eel and pygmy pipehorse in the annual contest

It was once crowned the “world’s ugliest animal” and now the disgruntled-looking gelatinous blobfish has a new gong to its name: New Zealand’s fish of the year.

The winning species of blobfish, Psychrolutes marcidus, lives in the highly pressurised depths off the coasts of New Zealand and Australia and has developed a unique anatomy to exist. Blobfish do not have a swim bladder, a full skeleton, muscles or scales. Instead, their bodies are made up of blobby tissue with a lower density than water that allows them to float above the seafloor.

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Balance of power: why Loch Ness hydro storage schemes are stirring up trouble

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As Scottish energy firms race to meet challenges of storing power, critics fear plans will affect delicate hydrology of loch

Brian Shaw stood at the edge of Loch Ness and pointed to a band of glistening pebbles and damp sand skirting the shore. It seemed as if the tide had gone out.

Overnight, Foyers, a small pumped-storage power station, had recharged itself, drawing up millions of litres of water into a reservoir high up on a hill behind it, ready for release through its turbines to boost the UK’s electricity supply. That led to the surface of Loch Ness, the largest body of freshwater in the UK, falling by 14cm in a matter of hours.

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Shimmering oarfish rarely seen near ocean surface pops up on Mexico beach

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Distinctive, slender deep-sea creature, also known as ‘doomsday’ fish, seen wriggling on Baja California beach

A shimmery, slinky oarfish – a deep-sea creature that is rarely seen near the surface – was spotted in Baja California Sur, along Mexico’s Pacific Coast, this month. A group of people visiting the area noticed the shiny, wriggling fish along the beach, and tried to guide it back into the water.

The slender creatures live at depths between 660 and 3,280ft underwater, and on the rare occasions that they have been seen by humans, they have usually been dead – washed ashore after storms. In Baja California Sur, Robert Hayes of Idaho, who was visiting the beach with his wife, saw a live fish and quickly began filming it.

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Albanese sparks anger with pledge over controversial salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour

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Prime minister tells Salmon Tasmania of promise to change legislation and allow ‘sustainable’ farming to continue

Anthony Albanese has promised to introduce legislation that will allow “sustainable salmon farming” to continue in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour, sparking anger from conversationists and researchers who urged for the local industry to be scaled back.

The promise, made in a letter to industry group Salmon Tasmania, came after years of lobbying for action in Macquarie Harbour to save the threatened Maugean skate from extinction.

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Norway to open protected rivers to hydropower plants

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Green politicians describe plan as ‘a historic attack on Norwegian nature’

The Norwegian parliament has voted to open up protected rivers to hydropower plants, prompting fury from conservation groups who fear for the fate of fish and other wildlife.

The bill allows power plants bigger than 1MW to be built in protected waterways if the societal benefit is “significant” and the environmental consequences “acceptable”. It was voted through on Thursday as part of measures to improve flood and landslide protection.

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Britain’s favourite fish at risk of wipeout within decades, predicts report

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Brown trout unlikely to survive in most rivers at height of summer by 2080, says Environment Agency

It has been native to Britain for thousands of years and was heralded as the national fish on the BBC’s Springwatch, but a government report suggests the brown trout risks being wiped out in large parts of England within decades.

The first national temperature projections for English rivers by the Environment Agency forecasts that by 2080 the water will be too warm almost everywhere in England at the height of summer for the Salmo trutta species to feed and grow.

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Salmon swim freely in Klamath River for first time in more than 100 years

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News comes after Iron Gate dam was removed to let river near California-Oregon border return to natural flow

For the first time in more than a century, salmon are swimming freely along the Klamath River and its tributaries, just days after the largest dam removal project in US history was completed.

Researchers determined that Chinook salmon began migrating on 3 October into previously inaccessible habitat above the site of the former Iron Gate dam, one of four towering dams near the California-Oregon border that were demolished as part of a national movement to let rivers return to their natural flow and to restore ecosystems for fish and other wildlife.

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Bottom-breathing turtle among Queensland endangered species under threat from invasive fish

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Record floods propel aggressive Mozambique tilapia throughout Mary River, compromising efforts to save ancient fish and endangered turtles

Record floods have propelled an aggressive invasive fish species across a south-east Queensland river catchment, compromising efforts to save endangered and ancient fishes and turtles.

The Moonaboola (Mary) river catchment is home to several threatened species, including the Mary River turtle, the white-throated snapping turtle (known for breathing through its bottom), the Mary River cod and the Australian lungfish, which has survived for 150m years and is considered a living fossil.

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New ghost shark species with unusually long nose discovered in deep seas off New Zealand

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The narrow-nosed spookfish is also found in Australian waters and is distinctive for its elongated snout and whip-like tail

A new species of ghost shark, with an unusually long nose and a whip-like tail, has been discovered in the inky depths of New Zealand waters.

Scientists at New Zealand’s National Institute for Water and Atmospherics (Niwa) initially believed the creature was part of an existing species found around the world, but further investigation revealed it was new, genetically distinct, species.

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Japanese eels can escape predators’ stomach through their gills, finds study

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Eels use tail-first technique to back up digestive tract of fish towards oesophagus before coming out of gills

It sounds like the plot of a horror movie – a predator swallows its prey only for the creature to burst out of its captor’s body. But it seems Japanese eels do just that.

Scientists in Japan have discovered that when swallowed by a dark sleeper fish, the eels can escape.

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‘Strange and mysterious’: rarely seen, 12ft-long oarfish found in waters off San Diego

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Group finds elusive deep sea fish that has washed up in California only 20 times since 1901

A group of people kayaking and snorkeling off the San Diego coast made an unusual discovery when they came across an oarfish, a rarely seen deep sea fish that has washed up in California only 20 times in over a century.

The 12ft-long silvery fish was found floating dead in the water last weekend. The group, along with marine experts, helped bring the creature ashore for study.

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Band’s gig postponed amid deportation call – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Weather update for Victoria and New South Wales: rain, floods, gusts and snow

Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology, spoke with ABC News Breakfast earlier to provide an update on the rainfall across Victoria.

That has given us minor to moderate flood warnings including in parts of the Yarra River this morning, as all of the rain from last night and yesterday evening drains out through the river network and out towards the ocean.

Take actions to protect your life and property against potential hazards caused by flooding.

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Canada to ban open-net pen salmon farming in British Columbia

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Environmentalists hail decision to end practice in five years but aquaculture industry warns of 6,000 jobs at risk

Canada will ban open-net pen salmon farming in British Columbia coastal waters in five years, the government has announced, a decision that has been welcomed by environmental groups but opposed by the aquaculture industry.

The Liberal government made the decision in 2019 to transition to closed containment technologies to protect declining wild Pacific salmon populations.

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Threatened species and chips? Other fish frequently sold as flake, Australian study finds

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Scalloped hammerhead and greeneye spurdog among at-risk shark discovered in genetic testing of fillets

One in 10 fillets of shark meat bought by Australians at fish and chip shops and markets – often labelled as flake – is from a threatened species, according to a study that has uncovered widespread mislabelling of shark sold to the public.

Nine of 91 fillets were found to be either scalloped hammerhead, greeneye spurdog or school shark – all considered threatened in Australia – after scientists at Macquarie University used DNA analysis to check what they were sold.

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Scottish salmon industry challenged over move to drop ‘farmed’ from labels

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Fish welfare campaigners say Defra decision facilitates greenwashing and will mislead consumers

Animal welfare campaigners are challenging the decision to allow producers of Scottish salmon to drop the word “farmed” from labelling.

An application by the industry body claimed changing the protected name wording on the front of packaging from “Scottish farmed salmon” to “Scottish salmon” made sense because wild salmon was no longer sold in supermarkets, which consumers were aware of.

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Greece becomes first European country to ban bottom trawling in marine parks

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The law will come into force in national parks within two years and in all of the country’s marine protected areas by 2030

Greece has become the first country in Europe to announce a ban on bottom trawling in all of its national marine parks and protected areas.

The country said will spend €780m (£666m) to protect its “diverse and unique marine ecosystems”.

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Record number of river barriers removed across Europe in 2023

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Removal of nearly 500 barriers last year will help restore disturbed waterways to their natural state, says Dam Removal Europe

Europe removed a record number of dams and other barriers from its rivers in 2023, a report has found, helping to restore its disturbed waterways to their natural states.

Nearly 500 barriers were taken out of European rivers last year, according to figures compiled by Dam Removal Europe, an increase of 50% from the year before.

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Swapping red meat for herring, sardines and anchovies could save 750,000 lives, study suggests

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Switch could also cut prevalence of disability linked to diet-related disease and help tackle the climate crisis, researchers found

Swapping red meat for forage fish such as herring, sardines and anchovies could save 750,000 lives a year and help tackle the climate crisis, a study suggests.

Mounting evidence links red meat consumption with a higher risk of disease in humans as well as significant harm to the environment. In contrast, forage fish are highly nutritious, environmentally friendly and the most abundant fish species in the world’s oceans.

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