Quick Key Facts What Are ‘Coral Reefs’? Coral reefs consist of hundreds of thousands of coral polyps — marine animal invertebrates with hard calcium carbonate exoskeletons. Different species grow to form a variety of measurements and shapes — from the size of a pinhead to as large as a foot in diameter. Coral colonies are […]
Not only does the ghost fishing gear account for about 46 percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a new study has found that the amount of commercial fishing line left in Earth’s oceans each year is enough to stretch to the moon and back, reported The Guardian.
From coral bleaching to ocean acidification, there is lots of discussion about how the climate crisis harms marine life. But is it possible that the loss of undersea animals could actually worsen the impacts of climate change? A study published in Science Advances last year found that the amount of carbon sequestered as fish dung […]
Ambiguous pet food labels like “fish,” “ocean fish,” or “white bait” may be hiding a secret ingredient: endangered shark meat. A new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science Friday found that 31 percent of samples of pet food tested by the researchers contained shark DNA. “The majority of pet owners are likely lovers of […]
More than a third of shark and ray species are directly threatened by extinction, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warned on Saturday. The revelation came in the IUCN’s updated Red List assessment on endangered wildlife, which was released at the body’s World Conservation Congress in Marseilles, France. The most comprehensive survey […]
Are Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) effective? Yes, but not as well as we thought, a new study finds. Globally, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is known as one of the biggest threats to the health and future of the oceans. MPAs attempt to protect enough critical marine habitat to ensure survival of ocean life […]
Last week, on World Oceans Day, the U.S. Senate took two major legislative steps to support our oceans for the future: banning the commercial shark fin trade in the U.S. and addressing forced labor and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act (S. 1106) — a bill that targets the […]
By Reynard Loki There is one main U.S. law that governs the management of marine fisheries in federal waters: The Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). Originally intended to address the concern over foreign fisheries operating near U.S. waters, the MSA, which was passed in 1976, extended the nation’s exclusive fisheries zone from 12 […]
By Tara Lohan It’s not too hard to find salmon on a menu in the United States, but that seeming abundance — much of it fueled by overseas fish farms — overshadows a grim reality on the ground. Many of our wild salmon, outside Alaska, are on the ropes — and have been for decades. […]