Scientists across the Mediterranean say a surge in the number of jellyfish this year threatens not just the biodiversity of one of the world’s most overfished seas but also the health of tens of thousands of summer tourists. “I flew along a 300km stretch of coastline on 21 April and saw millions of jellyfish,” said […]
Tag: fishing
Record-setting shark catch sparks talk of overfishing
A giant mako shark caught by a sports-fisherman in California Monday has spurred a conversation about declining shark populations worldwide, reports the Associated Press. The female shark caught Monday off Huntington Beach by Jason Johnston of Mesquite, Texas, weighed in at 1,323 pounds and measured 11 feet long and eight feet around at its midsection. […]
More Than 600 Seabirds and Penguins Found Dead
Last month, in the Coquimbo region of northern Chile, more than 600 guanay cormorants and penguins were found dead on the beaches. The citizen control that monitors the area reported that on May 10, ten fishing boats were seen approaching the beach opposite the Los Choros ravine. Two days later, the Movement in Defense of […]
Manta ray tourism worth 28 times more than killing them for Traditional Chinese Medicine
A new study in the open access journal PLoS ONE estimates that manta rays are worth $140 million a year in tourism across 23 countries, significantly outweighing the worth of manta ray gill plates, which have become the newest craze in Traditional Chinese Medicine. “As an example in Indonesia, revenue to fishermen from manta gill […]
Shark tourism expected to double as fishing value declines
Sharks swimming free in the oceans may soon become more valuable as tourist attractions than when caught, sliced up and served in soup, according to a global study published on Friday. The study urged better protection for the fish, from Australia to the Caribbean, to reduce catches of an estimated 38ma year to meet demand […]
Featured video: saving sea turtles in Mexico’s Magdalena Bay
A new short film, Viva la tortuga documents the struggle to save loggerhead and green sea turtles in Magdalena Bay, Mexico. Once a region for a massive sea turtle meat market, the turtles now face a new threat: bycatch. Loggerhead sea turtles are drowning in bottom-set gillnets, unable to escape from the nets once entangled. […]