Earth Protect Blog

Peter Neill, ContributorDirector, World Ocean Observatory China’s annual catch is estimated at some 15 million tons. China is the largest consumer, producer, and exporter of every species caught by some 3,400 industrial fishing vessels harvesting the waters of over 90 coastal nations and the deep ...

JOAL, Senegal — Once upon a time, the seas teemed with mackerel, squid and sardines, and life was good. But now, on opposite sides of the globe, sun-creased fishermen lament as they reel in their nearly empty nets. “Your net would be so full of fish, you could barely heave it onto the boat,” said M...

Britain’s fishermen will be allowed to increase their catch of cod and other key fish species next year after late-night wrangling between EU ministers in Brussels resulted in a new set of fishing quotas that flout scientific advice. The quota for cod catches for 2015 will increase by 5% on last ye...

Illicit fishing goes on every day at an industrial scale. But large commercial fishers are about to get a new set of overseers: conservationists—and soon the general public—armed with space-based reconnaissance of the global fleet. Crews on big fishing boats deploy an impressive arsenal of technolo...

What’s good for fish is good for fishing communities — and for impact investors. That’s the thesis of three new vehicles for investing in sustainable fisheries that will be tested in the Philippines, Chile and Brazil over the next two years and then offered to investors more broadly. Former New Yo...

Back in 2002, Thomas Kraft, managing director of Norpac Fisheries Export, came up with the idea to electronically track each fish the company captures and sells. Soon after Norpac's electronic monitoring system was up and running two years later, Kraft realized that the technology was not only an ef...

Last week, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his plan to spend $53 million on restoring the number of fish in the sea. It’s one of the largest single contributions ever made for such work. More than three quarters of the world's fisheries are in a "state of collapse," ...

Fishing down the foodweb. The environmental impact of fishing can be divided into issues that involve the availability of fish to be caught, such as overfishing, sustainable fisheries, and fisheries management; and issues that involve the impact of fishing on other elements of the environment, such...

Restoring ocean fisheries in 24 countries could provide a meal for close to a billion people a day. New Englanders can also help ocean ecosystems recover by eating wild fish, choosing small fish, buying fish from the United States and eating mollusks, according to Andrew Sharpless, CEO ofOceana.He a...

From the Chesapeake Bay to Florida’s Gulf Coast, recreational fishing is big business for many communities along the Eastern Seaboard. In fact, more than one-third of America’s 11.8 million saltwater anglers live in the region.  This national pastime is much more than throwing a line...

A vote on Tuesday on whether to declare a marine protection area over an Antarctic body of water seven times the size of Germany is hanging in the balance due to Russian and Ukrainian fishing interests, the head of a European delegation to the talks has told EurActiv. Representatives of 25 countrie...

Chilean sea bass is not from Chile, nor is it a bass. Since 1996, fishing vessels from a dozen nations have traversed the world’s most remote sea to catch the Antarctic toothfish. The fishery lands 3,000 tons annually, selling much of it as "Chilean sea bass," deceiving customers of high-end restau...

  In the sea, almost everything that swims, burrows or crawls can be presented on a plate and eaten. Yet many marine species aren't well known among chefs and diners. The lack of variety on the menu represents not only a loss of culinary opportunity, but also a potential source of ecological i...

Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, of Plymouth University, says that the combination of ocean acidification and rising water temperatures kills off corals, shellfish and other valuable marine life – posing a risk to industries such as fishing and tourism.   Dr Hall-Spencer addressed the Annual Meeti...

  Oceana turned its press conference yesterday at the National Press Club into a pop quiz: Organizers laid out skinless fillets of halibut next to skinless fillets of fluke, both without labels, and then asked the gathered audience to identify each fish by sight. Oceana then repeated the test ...

Many people eat food without thinking much about it, aside from its taste and its nutritional/caloric value. But there are also people who care about more than that, such as where their food came from and how the animal/creature was captured and killed. Unfortunately, that information isn’t generall...

  Atlantic bluefin tuna are remarkable creatures, growing up to 10 feet in length and more than 1,500 pounds, and capable of swimming across the Atlantic Ocean in just over a month. Harried by overfishing along the way, they enter the Gulf of Mexico to spawn, only to encounter longline fishe...