The federal government on Tuesday rejected a bid by a consortium of U.S. marine-park and aquarium owners — including SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. — to import 18 beluga whales that had been captured from the wild. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service said it would not grant an import permit for the whales, which were taken from the Sea of Okhotsk off the eastern coast of Russia, because it could not say whether the move would harm the wild population from which they were captured. That is the standard required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. @orlandosentinal
NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?
While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here
Judge Boasberg has ruled! A new accurate ESA analysis has been ordered by next June. The National Marine Fisheries Service just needs to put the lobster entanglement facts Read More »
Legislative updates, Bill updates, Calendar, >Click here to read the Weekly Update<, to read all the updates >click here<, for older updates listed as NCFA >click Read More »
Weather permitting, Mayor Jon Mitchell on Wednesday will be in Washington giving testimony to Congress about an underwater marine monument which former President Obama created with Read More »
HALIFAX – Canadian scientists are appealing to the federal government not to hold up a unique set of United Nations-sponsored guidelines that would around the world. Read More »
Fishermen in France are vehemently opposed to an offshore wind project under development off Le Treport. Commercial fishing within offshore wind installations is banned in most Read More »
Fishermen who took the government to court may have to pay for it. Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy wants their legal costs to be paid Read More »
Operation Salmon Rescue is in full swing in Yolo County, where hundreds of the endangered fish are getting a second shot at life. Since as early Read More »
Those of us who grew up in the Bible Belt are very familiar with the good book’s many “woe-to-the” passages. Woe to the shepherds who destroy Read More »
A fisheries vessel departed St. John’s Tuesday with a 30-day mission to study the northern cod fishery, part of a five-year research project. The Celtic Explorer Read More »
A surge of Yukon River king salmon crossed the Canada border this week, which fulfilled a treaty obligation to deliver Chinook to their Canadian spawning grounds. Read More »
Last summer’s white shark attacks off Cape Cod beaches, one resulting in the first human fatality in the state in over 80 years, highlight the fact Read More »
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound in Seattle received the medevac request from the captain of the 110-foot fishing vessel Ocean Pearl at about 1 Read More »
Geoff Diehl, the Republican challenger to incumbent U. S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, would retain Carlos Rafael’s forfeited groundfish permits in New Bedford and would push to Read More »
The moratorium addressed in the bill Jones’ cosponsored was for a federal court ruling in California in 2006 that said EPA was required under the Clean Read More »
Governor Lolo has signed an executive order placing a ban on the removal of sea cucumbers from local waters. The worm-like and usually soft-bodied echinoderms keep Read More »
Research scientist Joël Chassé says as the atmosphere warms, the ocean waters around P.E.I. are also heating up. “Changes are happening. It’s not deniable anymore. And Read More »
This weekend marks the 49th Blessing of the Fleet in Darien, and the festivities that attendees have come to expect will be there in spades under Read More »
The UK officially quit the EU last January 31, but an 11-month transition period to allow for agreement on a new relationship ends on December 31. Read More »
A Montauk fishing boat traveling 60 miles south of Long Island rescued a penguin-like sea fowl called a dovekie struggling in the waters Thursday. Doug Davidson, Read More »
At least four fishing boats that were stuck on a sandbar in Tabusintac for about five hours on Monday afternoon have now been freed up and are Read More »
A conflict of interest involving a floating oyster farm in a popular creek has spawned hard questions about government secrecy, insider dealing and the sanctity of Read More »
The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday kicked off a public hearing on its investigation into the abandoning and sinking of the fishing vessel Alaska Juris off the coast Read More »
Armstrong Marine, the aluminum boat fabricator on U.S. Highway 101 midway between Port Angeles and Sequim, launched Coastal Explorer last week. For the past three weeks, Read More »