Fish & Fisheries

"Six years on, scientists are continuing to tally the ecological harms caused by the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico."

"For centuries, Lummi tribal fishermen have harvested, dug up clams and fished for salmon in the tidelands and waters of northwest Washington state. Now, the tribe says a proposed $700 million project to build the nation’s largest coal-export terminal threatens that way of life. The tribe last year asked federal regulators to deny permits for project, saying it would interfere with the tribe’s treaty-reserved fishing rights."

"Vietnam said on Thursday it was investigating whether pollution is to blame for a spate of mysterious mass fish deaths along the country’s central coast after huge amounts of marine life washed ashore in recent days."

"A still-controversial 1992 law intended to boost California’s striped-bass population can be scaled back, the Obama administration now believes."

"The [Chesapeake] Bay’s blue crab population increased to its highest level in four years, and the number of spawning-age females — a key ingredient for future abundance — nearly doubled from last year, according to survey results released Tuesday."

"Sardines, herring and other small fish species are the foundation of the marine food web — they're essential food for birds, marine mammals and other fish. But globally, demand for these so-called forage species has exploded, with many going to feed the livestock and fish farming industries."

"The water in the Gulf of Maine is warming rapidly, a change that could bring a once-rare lobster disease further north."

"U.S. health regulators are facing a lawsuit from a coalition of environmental organizations seeking to overturn the government's landmark approval of a type of genetically engineered salmon to be farmed for human consumption."

"Blame it on the mass of water known as "the Blob”—four-plus degrees Fahrenheit, warmer-than-normal, nutrient-poor ocean waters hugging the Pacific coast—or on El Niño, habitat destruction or toxic runoff. Whatever the cause of dwindling coho salmon runs, the effect on western Washington tribal fishing nations can be summed up in one word: disastrous."

"Efforts to restore Atlantic salmon to the Connecticut River watershed have been largely unsuccessful. The once abundant fish are now rare. But recently Steve Gephard, supervising fisheries biologist with Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Projection, found evidence of wild salmon spawning in a Connecticut river."