AES 2011 Day 3

Time for the recap of day 3 of JMIH/AES 2011.  Read on below the jump…

European Dogfish Updates

Still up in Massachusetts doing a little dogfish tagging, but we’ve taken a couple days off to recuperate and let the weather finish clearing up.  It’s already been much better weather and far more productive than the last time we came up, and I’ll have…

Twitter Discoveries: Bycatch.org and RJ Dunlap

I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical about Twitter for a while.  However, since jumping on the bandwagon I’ve actually found it to be an incredible source of information and news that I would never have had the time to track down on my own. …

NOAA Asks Fishermen to Release Makos

NOAA/NMFS has released a statement asking commercial fishermen to release mako sharks caught alive.  They also ask that fishermen report where the makos are released so they can update their information on mako movements and distribution.  The reason for this is that stock assessment research…

Spiny Dogfish Can Still Be Finned in Oregon

Tip o’ the hat to Jen for bringing this to my attention.  Oregon is among the states putting through bans on the trade and sale of shark fins.  However, looking at the legislation itself, I can’t help but notice a key part.  The legislation explicitly…

Carcharhinus plumblinkus

Quite a bit of interesting stuff happening since the last bit of linkage.  Let’s do this. The biggest news has obviously been that U.S. forces have finally taken out Osama Bin Laden.  This was verified by positively identifying the body using DNA, which many were…

Groupers and Sand Tigers, Oh My

Apologies for the lack of action here lately.  I’ve been out of town on a much-needed vacation and am gearing up for some summer field work that starts, oh, next week.  I’ll be trying to put up a more substantial post a little later, but…

Protected Sharks Still Eat Fish

Amid the constant talk of lowered biodiversity, invasive species, habitat destruction, global climate change, and any other examples of how thoroughly we as a species have wrecked the planet, it’s always good to hear an actual success story in conservation.  Obviously it’s never good news…

The Future of Sharks

Tip o’ the hat to @sharksandlasers for linking to this (Twitter is actually useful!).  The PEW Environmental Group has released a report on the state of shark fisheries worldwide, and it contains some interesting facts and figures.  You can download the entire PDF file here,…

How to Not Catch Dogfish

Even the biggest fan of spiny dogfish can’t deny that these little sharks sure are great at choking up entire nets.  This is especially problematic for commercial fishermen who are trying to catch anything other than dogfish, and particularly for fishermen targeting silver hake, one…