Fish & Fisheries

Scientists think they have solved the mystery of what's killing starfish along the U.S. Pacific coast. It's a virus.

"Creepy critters are leaching onto the gills of Wisconsin's brook trout and choking off their oxygen, stoking fears in anglers that the iconic fish may be on the outs in many streams."

"Just hours into the experiment, the prognosis was grim for salmon that had been submerged in rain runoff collected from one of Seattle's busiest highways. One by one, the fish were removed from a tank filled with coffee-colored water and inspected: They were rigid. Their typically red gills were gray."

"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."

"In an effort to halt dramatic declines in the cod population, federal officials overseeing the fishing industry on Monday announced unprecedented measures that effectively ban all commercial fishing of the region’s iconic species in the Gulf of Maine."

"Nearly two dozen species of Pacific groundfish, including snapper, Dover sole, and dogfish, and Atlantic haddock, among others, are all making a comeback. The rebounds can be attributed to the passing of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the US management system."

"Federal regulators shut down the commercial fishing season for northern shrimp in the Gulf of Maine for a second straight year on Wednesday, citing concerns about the declining population and warmer ocean temperatures."

"Consumers around the nation can't be sure what kind of shrimp they're buying if they simply look at the label or menu at supermarkets, grocers and restaurants, an advocacy group says."

"Bay’s improved harvest coincides with disasters in Gulf to reverse long-term trend of local processors bringing in bivalves from the South."