arctic fishing | Southern Fried Science

Banning Arctic fishing and protecting public beach access: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, October 4th, 2018

Posted on October 4, 2018 by David Shiffman

Cuttings (short and sweet):

Follow fisheries biologist Justin Rizzari on twitter!
Commercial fishing banned across much of the Arctic. By Fiona Harvey, for the Guardian.
Slavery with your seafood. By the Save Our Seas Foundation blog.
The top fish books for kids. By Abigail Lynch, for the Fisheries Blog.

Spoils (long reads and deep dives):

Supreme Court refuses to take up Martins Beach case. Surfers, beachgoers relieved. By Peter Fimrite, for the San Francisco Chronicle. This case is important for the right of public access to beaches, and involved a wealthy Californian who tried to keep people off of “his” stretch of beach.
Indonesian Tsunami Was Powered by a Deadly Combo of Tectonics and Geography. By Andrea Thompson, for Scientific American. A fascinating (but scary) look at what made this tsunami so powerful and deadly.
Largely banned industrial chemicals could wipe out killer whales, study warns. By Shreya Dasgupta, for MongaBay. Harmful chemicals can continue to wreak environmental havoc even years after they’ve been banned.

Please add your own cuttings and spoils in the comments!

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Narwhal stress and coral disease: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, December 14th, 2017

Posted on December 14, 2017 by David Shiffman

Cuttings (short and sweet):

Watch this amazing scene from Blue Planet 2!
Follow Cat Horswill, a PostDoc studying the life history of marine predators, on twitter!
In the Arctic, at least, diplomacy works. Bloomberg Editorial.
Mysterious “white plague” threatens South Florida coral reefs. By the Associated Press.
Climate change and overfishing are pushing seabirds to extinction. By Matthew Taylor, for the Guardian.
Not all that glitters is gold, some is plastic. By George Leonard, for the Ocean Conservancy Blog.

What can be done to protect the incredibly long-lived Greenland shark?

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Guest Writer

Sonja Fordham
President, Shark Advocates International

Sonja Fordham founded Shark Advocates International as a project of The Ocean Foundation in 2010 based on her two decades of shark conservation experience at Ocean Conservancy. She is Deputy Chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and Conservation Committee Chair for the American Elasmobranch Society, has co-authored numerous publications on shark fisheries management, and serves on most of the U.S. federal and state government advisory panels relevant to sharks and rays. Her awards include the U.S. Department of Commerce Environmental Hero Award, the Peter Benchley Shark Conservation Award, and the IUCN Harry Messel Award for Conservation Leadership.

A new study confirming the mysterious deepsea Greenland Shark as the world’s longest lived vertebrate has made huge news in the last few days – from Science News and BBC to People magazine and the Wall Street Journal. While some scientists are questioning whether these sharks live quite as long as estimated (392 years ± 120), most agree they could well live for a century or two and – as a result — are particularly vulnerable to overfishing. Experts also warn that risks to Greenland sharks may be increasing as melting sea ice changes Arctic ecosystems and makes fishing in the region more feasible. Study authors are among those urging a precautionary approach to the species’ conservation. In other words, an incomplete picture of status and threats should not be used as an excuse for inaction. So what might be threatening Greenland sharks today, and which upcoming policy opportunities might warrant consideration, given worldwide interest in these jaw-dropping findings? To come up with some ideas, I first took a look back.