Tag Archives: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Sides battle over Monterey Bay’s anchovy population

A fishing industry group says it has new findings supporting its contention that there is a healthy population of anchovies, which is counter to a nonprofit’s lawsuit challenging how the number of anchovies are determined. Meanwhile, Monterey fishermen say there are tons of the little guys in the local fishery. Gino Pennisi and Neil Guglielmo have been fishing out of Monterey for years, in Guglielmo’s case, since 1956. Both say anchovies are plentiful. But the nonprofit group Oceana,,, >click to read< 13:07

Scientists Admit ‘Mistakes’ Led To Alarming Results In Major Global Warming Study

The scientists behind a headline-grabbing global warming study did something that seems all too rare these days — they admitted to making mistakes and thanked the researcher, a global warming skeptic, who pointed them out. “When we were confronted with his insight it became immediately clear there was an issue there,” study co-author Ralph Keeling told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Tuesday. Their study, published in October, used a new method of measuring ocean heat uptake and found the oceans had absorbed 60 more heat than previously thought. >click to read<12:46

How False killer whale’s remove bait from longline fishing gear captured on video for first time

How Hawaiian false killer whales remove fish from longline fishing gear has for the first time been observed by a team of researchers and fishermen. The team, coordinated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego scientist Aaron Thode, used video and audio recordings to observe false killer whales removing fish from a longline fishing hook, a behavior known as depredation. They gained new insight into a behavior that has caused false killer whales to entangle with fishing gear at rates deemed unsustainable by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. To observe false killer whales removing fish from hooks, the Alaskan and Hawaiian research team deployed an underwater camera, sound recorder, and vibration detector on long-line fishing gear deployed by fishing vessels off Hawaii. Read the article here 16:40

A Tale of Two Whales: Seven-Year Study Indicates Steady and Upward Trends for Blue and Fin Whales in Southern California

A new study led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego indicates a steady population trend for blue whales and an upward population trend for fin whales in Southern California.Blue and fin whales are common inhabitants of the Southern California Bight, the curved region of California coastline with offshore waters extending from San Diego to Point Conception (near Santa Barbara, Calif.), but little is known about their use of the area. Read the rest here 19:31

New technique improves forecasts for Canada’s prized salmon fishery

A method for analyzing and predicting nature’s dynamic and interconnected systems has improved forecasts of populations of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon, a highly prized fishery in British Columbia, has been developed by scientists. Read the rest here 18:12

Exposed; “The Devolution of the Seas,”, Alan Sielen opts for outdated and refuted information on tuna stocks

logoWASHINGTON (Saving Seafood)February 24, 2014 — Writing in an essay originally published in Foreign Affairs, (“The Devolution of the Seas,” November/December 2013) Alan Sielen, a Senior Fellow for International Environmental Policy at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, paints a dire picture of the state of the world’s oceans, claiming that “humanity has come perilously close to reversing the almost miraculous biological abundance of the deep.”  But in his highly selective and misleading portrayal of the current state of fisheries management, Mr. Sielen gets several key facts wrong, and recirculates ideas that are either highly disputed or have been thoroughly refuted by the marine science community. Read more here  18:52