AES 2012: Day 2 Highlights
What a busy day. I’ve only got a little bit of time to get this up before I have to head over to the poster session, and I saw a lot of very good talks today. Keep following #AES2012 on Twitter to keep up with…
conservation
White Sharks Now Interacting With People at Cape Cod
I suppose it was only a matter of time. I’ve waited until more information was available before writing anything about this, but it looks like the first confirmed Massachusetts white shark attack since 1936 has occurred at Ballston Beach on Cape Cod. The victim, Christopher…
Shark Week 2012 Preview
It’s getting to be that time of year again. Shark Week, the seven-day Super Bowl for shark nerds and casual viewers alike, is celebrating its 25th year this summer. This year it runs a little later than usual (probably to avoid conflicting with that little…
Notes on Some of Those 79 “New” Shark Species
By now it’s somewhat old news that a recent study by Gavin Naylor and other researchers from all over (freely available here) has revealed that there may be up to 79 previously undiscovered shark and ray species, which complicates conservation and fisheries management considerably. This…
Declining Predators eat Mediterranean Jellies
It wasn’t my intention to keep picking on the Mediterranean, but this paper was just too damn interesting. In the Mediterranean, like many other marine environments worldwide, numbers of jellyfish and ctenophores (those really colorful comb jellies, actually not related to jellyfish) have recently exploded. …
How Italy Ate Up All Its Sharks
As dramatically imperfect as U.S. fisheries management can be, I still stand by my stance that we have the best-managed fisheries in the world. Fishermen gripe about it being too restrictive and quick to change, conservationists complain about it being too lenient and slow to…
Enjoying Seafood While Knowing Too Much
I freely admit that I enjoy seafood. I grew up in New England, where the American seafood industry was practically invented, and now live in North Carolina, where the confluence of cold and warm water at Cape Hatteras makes for some of the richest fishing…
The Case Against Dolphin-Safe Tuna
Here’s another shining example of a post I should have had up a week ago before life intervened. Last week the World Trade Organization ruled that the dolphin-safe label on canned tuna unfairly discriminates against Mexican fishermen. The debate could result in trade sanctions against…
NOAA/NMFS Not Actually Culling Sharks and Whales
Just to clarify, that previous post was intended to be an April Fool’s joke. Apparently it was a lot more convincing than my “pictures of dogfish attacking a pelican” post from last year, and is now threatening to go viral as a legitimate news story. …
NOAA/NMFS Plans to Reduce “Problem Species” Populations
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is often painted by fishermen as a rabidly pro-conservation agency hell-bent on putting them out of a job by protecting every species they used to fish. However, leaked internal memos show that the agency is taking a turn back…