Category Archives: Fish

How Tunisia’s shrinking economy and fish stocks put shark on the menu

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A lack of awareness and ever-increasing competition among fishing boats threaten one of the sea’s most vital species

The temperature is cooling down in the fish market in Monastir, Tunisia. Still, the suffocating smell of the fish guts that have sat through the full force of the day’s heat hangs heavy in the air. The stallholders have left now, but on the floor amid the detritus is the unmistakable shape of a severed shark’s head.

Nearby, in a skip, the bodies of two guitarfish rays lie discarded, stripped of meat to the cartilage.

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‘It’s terrifying’: can anyone stop China’s vast armada of fishing boats?

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Ecuador stood up for the Galápagos, but other countries don’t stand a chance against the 17,000-strong distant-water fleet

The recent discovery by the Ecuadorean navy of a vast fishing armada of 340 Chinese vessels just off the biodiverse Galápagos Islands stirred outrage both in Ecuador and overseas.

Under pressure after Ecuador’s strident response, China has given mixed signals that it could begin to reel in its vast international fishing fleet. Its embassy in Ecuador declared a “zero tolerance” policy towards illegal fishing, and this week it announced it was tightening the rules for its enormous flotilla with a series of new regulations.

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‘They just pull up everything!’ Chinese fleet raises fears for Galápagos sea life

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A vast fishing armada off Ecuador’s biodiverse Pacific islands has stirred alarm over ‘indiscriminate’ fishing practices

Jonathan Green had been tracking a whale shark named Hope across the eastern Pacific for 280 days when the satellite transmissions from a GPS tag on her dorsal fin abruptly stopped.

It was not unusual for the GPS signal to go silent, even for weeks at a time, said Green, a scientist who has been studying the world’s largest fish for three decades in the unique marine ecosystem around the Galápagos Islands.

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Why we need sharks: the true nature of the ocean’s ‘monstrous villains’

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Why did dolphins get Flipper while sharks got Jaws? These majestic, diverse animals bring balance to the ocean ecosystem – and they’re in grave danger

Each day, as the sun sets over the coral-fringed Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia, an underwater predator stirs. As predators go, it’s not especially big or ferocious – an arm’s length from head to tail, with a snuffling, moustachioed snout.

What’s unique is that it doesn’t so much swim along the seabed as walk. Using its four fins as legs, and twisting its spine like a lizard, it can emerge from the water and hold its breath for an hour, strutting across the exposed reef and clambering between tide pools to find prey.

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Snake eels burst through the stomach of predators in bid to escape being eaten alive

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Creatures’ attempts are in vain, and as they are unable to burrow through the fish’s ribcage, the eels become trapped in the gut of their captor

It’s no secret that nature can be brutal and violent, but a new Queensland Museum report on the death of some snake eels reads more like the plot of a horror movie than a scientific paper.

Snake eels are a family of eel species that live most of their lives burrowed in the soft sand on the floor of the ocean.

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‘Really amazing’: scientists show that fish migrate through the deep oceans

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Analysis of underwater photographs has demonstrated what marine biologists have long suspected – seasonal fish migrations

New research has finally demonstrated what many marine biologists suspected but had never before seen: fish migrating through the deep sea.

The study, published this month in the Journal of Animal Ecology, used analysis of deep-sea photographs to show a regular increase in the number of fish in particular months, suggesting seasonal migrations.

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Fish ponds and water harvesting: climate-smart farming comes to Kenya

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Unable to rely on the catch from Lake Victoria, locals are finding success with new and sustainable agriculture methods

It might not be clear why a fish pond project should take root in a region surrounding the great Lake Victoria. After all, as the second largest freshwater lake in the world, it should be able to support the fish and the people that depend on its resources.

But the fact that fish farming is fast expanding here highlights a worrying trend – that the fish population in Lake Victoria has been in steady decline and the quality of what is being caught has been going down too, jeopardising the livelihoods of millions.

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Race to exploit the world’s seabed set to wreak havoc on marine life

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New research warns that ‘blue acceleration’ – a global goldrush to claim the ocean floor – is already impacting on the environment.

The scaly-foot snail is one of Earth’s strangest creatures. It lives more than 2,300 metres below the surface of the sea on a trio of deep-sea hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Here it has evolved a remarkable form of protection against the crushing, grim conditions found at these Stygian depths. It grows a shell made of iron.

Discovered in 1999, the multi-layered iron sulphide armour of Chrysomallon squamiferum – which measures a few centimetres in diameter – has already attracted the interest of the US defence department, whose scientists are now studying its genes in a bid to discover how it grows its own metal armour.

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Hundreds of thousands of fish dead in NSW as bushfire ash washed into river

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Ecologist fears the Macleay River may take decades to recover, with heavy rains likely to affect other waterways

Hundreds of thousands of native fish are estimated to have died in northern New South Wales after rains washed ash and sludge from bushfires into the Macleay River.

Parts of the Macleay River – favoured by recreational fishers – have been turned into what locals described as “runny cake mix” that stank of rotting vegetation and dead fish.

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Electric eel lights up Christmas tree in Tennessee aquarium – video

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The Christmas tree at the Tennessee aquarium is being powered by an unusual renewable energy source – an electric eel. Miguel Wattson is the resident eel and through a special system that connects his tank to a nearby tree, the natural shocks he produces when he is looking for food or when he is excited, is being channelled to power fairy lights

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Healthy coral sounds lure fish back to abandoned reefs, study finds

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With global heating damaging corals worldwide, experts find potential tool in ‘acoustic enrichment’ to recolonise reefs

Playing sounds of a healthy coral reef can attract fish back to reefs that have become degraded and abandoned, researchers have found.

Global heating together with factors such as pollution are causing widespread damage to coral and harming delicate reef ecosystems.

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To eat or not to eat: 10 of the world’s most controversial foods

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From beef to cod to avocados to soya, many of our best-loved foods raise big ethical and environmental questions. What do the experts say?

Deforestation. Child labour. Pollution. Water shortages. The more we learn about the side-effects of food production, the more the act of feeding ourselves becomes fraught with anxiety. How can we be sure that certain foods are “good” or “bad” for society and the planet? As Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University of London and the co-author of Sustainable Diets, puts it: “When you come to ‘judge’ food, you end up with an enormous list of variables, from taste to health outcomes to biodiversity.” Here are some of today’s most controversial products – and some thoughts that may help you when shopping.

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Australia launches emergency relocation of fish as largest river system faces collapse

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There are doubts the Noah’s Ark plan for the Lower Darling will be enough to prevent more mass fish kills

Faced with a looming ferocious summer with little rain forecast, the New South Wales government has embarked on a Noah’s Ark type operation to move native fish from the Lower Darling – part of Australia’s most significant river system – to safe havens before high temperatures return to the already stressed river basin.

Researchers have warned of other alarming ecological signs that the Lower Darling River – part of the giant Murray-Darling Basin – is in a dire state, following last summer’s mass fish kills.

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Canada: workers race to free millions of salmon trapped after huge landslide

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  • Rockslide on banks of Fraser River created impassable barrier
  • Heavy machinery and helicopters used to help gather fish

Helicopters, heavy machinery and nearly 200 workers are frantically working to free millions of salmon trapped by a landslide in western Canada.

Government crews in the area have worked relentlessly along the banks of the Fraser River to clear debris after a rockslide, discovered in a late June, created an impassable 5m-high waterfall.

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Heathrow eateries to take least sustainable fish off menus

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Airport will be world’s first accredited for serving sustainably sourced fish

Heathrow is to become the world’s first airport accredited for serving sustainably sourced fish and seafood, as all its restaurants pledge to help tackle overfishing.

Outlets whose menus still include “red-rated” fish – deemed by the Marine Conservation Society to be the least sustainable – have pledged to remove them by June 2020. Fish in that category include wild atlantic salmon, bluefin tuna and king prawns from non-certified farms.

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Major tuna brands failing to tackle slavery in Pacific supply chains – report

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Research shows only four of biggest companies in £17bn industry said they conducted due diligence specifically to uncover abuses

The world’s biggest canned tuna brands are failing to tackle modern slavery in their Pacific supply chains, leaving thousands of workers at sea under threat of human rights abuses, a report has found.

According to findings published on Monday by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), an international corporate watchdog, only four of the world’s 35 largest tuna retail brands said they conducted due diligence with the specific aim of uncovering modern slavery in their supply chains.

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Cyprus begins lionfish cull to tackle threat to Mediterranean ecosystem

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Voracious fish are bleeding into ocean ‘like a cut artery’, says top marine biologist

Cyprus has held its first organised cull of lionfish after numbers of the invasive species have proliferated in recent years, threatening the Mediterranean ecosystem and posing a venomous danger to humans.

“They’re actually very placid,” said Prof Jason Hall-Spencer, a marine biologist, after spearing 16 of the exotic specimens in the space of 40 minutes in the inaugural “lionfish removal derby” off the island’s southern coast. He added: “The problem is they are not part of the natural ecosystem and we are seeing them in plague proportions.”

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Very fishy: warming oceans linked to rise in tropical species in New Zealand waters

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Scientists have identified a spike in ‘vagrant’ species of fish including damselfish, wrasse and triggerfish

Warming ocean temperatures have been blamed for luring tropical fish thousands of kilometres into New Zealand waters, threatening vulnerable native species as they compete for resources.

Scientists have identified increasing numbers of what they call “vagrant” species rarely seen in the New Zealand’s oceans and said their extended visits were raising concerns about how the islands’ unique local wildlife would adapt.

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New antibiotics could be developed using fish slime, scientists say

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Mucus that protects fish contains substances that could help tackle MRSA and E coli

Fish slime could be key to the development of new antibiotics, researchers say.

Antibiotic resistance is a growing danger, with experts warning of a return to a situation where everyday infections could become life-threatening. The NHS is aiming to cut antibiotic use by 15% by 2024 in a bid to tackle the problem – which has been called a danger to humanity – while the government has also announced it is looking into offering incentives to drug companies to come up with new antibiotics.

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‘More plastic than fish’: Greek fishermen battle to clean a cruel sea

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In a new scheme, fishermen are paid €200 a month to recycle waste found in nets rather than dump it in polluted waters

The fish market at Keratsini comes alive at night. Under floodlights, crews in rubber waders and boots wash down the decks of boats moored in the harbour, repair nets dangling from cranes, and put on ice the shrimp, calamari, mullet and hake that are their latest pickings.

Recently other things – objects that might never have been pulled from the sea – have also supplemented hauls. “We’re talking about lots of waste, lots of garbage,” says Dimitris Dalianis. “We’re finding it almost everywhere.”

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