There are 400,000 industrial fishing vessels in operation.
David Attenborough
#OverFishing
The historic High Seas Treaty is almost reality. Here’s what it would mean for ocean conservation
After 20 years of intense debate, the world looks set to have a treaty protecting marine life out beyond national waters.
#HighSeasTreaty #International #MarineProtection #InternationalSeabed #Biodiversity #OceanHealth #ClimateCrisis #Urgency #OceanCrisis #Overfishing #PlasticPollution #HumanCaused
#Overfishing has caused #cod to halve in #bodysize since 1990s, study finds
#Scientists have uncovered #genomic evidence that intensive #fishing has driven rapid #evolution changes that have contributed to these fish roughly halving in average body length since the 1990s. The "shrinking" of cod, from median mature body length of 40cm in 1996 to 20cm in 2019, has a genetic basis and human activities have left a profound mark on the population's #DNA, the study concluded.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/25/cod-shrinking-size-overfishing-study
Baltic cod evolved their own downsizing strategy: can't get caught if you're half the size! 40cm to 20cm since '96. Scientists used fish 'ear bones' to prove overfishing literally rewrote their DNA.
I am not a fish eater, but even so this must worry people? Does anyone remember the Passenger Pigeon?
Scientists have uncovered genomic evidence that intensive fishing has driven rapid evolutionary changes that have contributed to these fish roughly halving in average body length since the 1990s.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/25/cod-shrinking-size-overfishing-study
#OverFishing #Oceans #EvolutionInAction #Science #Environment #Extinction
#Jellyfish Keep Attacking #NuclearPowerPlants
By Gabriel Geiger
November 2, 2021
"Jellyfish are continuing to clog the cooling intake pipes of a nuclear power plant in Scotland, which has previously prompted a temporary shutdowns of the plant.
"The #TornessNuclearPowerPlant has reported concerns regarding jellyfish as far back as 2011, when it was forced to shut down for nearly a week—at an estimated cost of $1.5 million a day—because of the free-swimming marine animals.
"In a short comment to Motherboard, #EDFEnergy, which runs the Torness plant, said that 'jellyfish blooms are an occasional issue for our power stations,' but also said that media reports claiming the plant had recently been taken offline because of jellyfish are 'inaccurate.' '[There were] no emergency procedures this or last week related to jellyfish or otherwise,' a spokesperson said. [Um, did they previously work for #TEPCOLies?]
" 'Like many other seaside power plants, the Torness plant uses seawater to prevent overheating. While there are measures in place to prevent aquatic life from entering the intake pipes, according to the #BulletinOfTheAtomicScientists, they are no match for the sheer number of jellyfish that come during so-called 'jellyfish blooms.'
" 'Usually, screens prevent aquatic life and similar debris from being drawn into the power plants’ cooling system,' the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wrote in a 2015 blog post. 'But when sufficiently large volumes of jellyfish or other aquatic life are pulled in, they block the screens, reducing the volume of water coming in and forcing the reactor to shut down.'
"While the case in Scotland has once again spotlighted concerns regarding the jellyfish and potential power plant shutdowns, these concerns are far from new. In 2008, a swarm of jellyfish shut down a nuclear power plant [#DiabloCanyon -- which had another incident in 2024] in #California, and three years later the same occurred at a plant in Japan [#Shimane]. In 2017, jellyfish clogged a power plant in Israel [#Hadera]."
Source:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jellyfish-keep-attacking-nuclear-power-plants/
#GlobalWarming #WarmingOceans
#ChangingOceans #OceansAreLife #OceanTemperatures #ClimateCrisis #Overfishing #NoDeepSeaMining #NoNewNukes #NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #Oskarshamn #Torness #RethinkNotRestart
#Jellyfish are taking over the world – and #ClimateChange could be to blame
Jan 8, 2019
by Sean Fleming
Senior Writer, Forum Stories
"For 500 million years, jellyfish have been part of the maritime #ecosystem, but now they’re poised to take over the earth.
"They have no brain, no eyes, no spine, not even blood, but they have a remarkable capacity to reproduce and can pack an impressive sting, both literally and figuratively.
"Most recently, vast numbers of bluebottle jellyfish were pushed ashore by unusually strong winds and spells of hot weather in #QueenslandAustralia, stinging thousands of people and forcing the closure of popular swimming spots. About 13,000 stings were recorded in the past week.
"In June last year, over the course of just one week, over 1,000 people were stung in Volusia County, #Florida, following a period of exceptionally prolific jellyfish blooms. The explosion in their numbers has been attributed to warming seas and even increased pollution; unlike many other marine creatures, jellyfish can cope with reduced oxygen levels.
Small but deadly – at least some of the time
"Typically, jellyfish range in size from 1cm to 40cm. But they can be significantly larger – the #LionsManeJellyfish, for example, can reach 1.8 metres wide, with tentacles over 15 metres long.
"For the most part, the sting of a jellyfish is more unpleasant than it is harmful. The pain comes from venom delivered via millions of microscopic barbs in the creatures’ tentacles. Most jellyfish stings will only have a localized effect on the victim – redness, swelling, and discomfort where the barbs make contact with the skin.
"Some, however, will prompt a systemic, whole body, reaction. These may take several hours to emerge and can include symptoms such as headaches, nausea and drowsiness.
"In rare cases, the sting can be fatal. This is true of the #BoxJellyfish, which is spreading into waters that had previously been too cool to support it; its venom causes a severe reaction that can cause death within minutes.
A force of destruction
"But these booming jellyfish populations are doing far more harm than ruining people’s trips to the beach. In fact, the scope of their disruption has extended far beyond the water’s edge.
"In 2011, both reactors at the #TornessNuclearPowerPlant in #Scotland were shut down after an invasion of jellyfish started blocking the cooling filters. Two years later, the jellyfish struck again – this time in #Sweden. They forced the closure of the #OskarshamnNuclearPowerPlant, which contains the world’s largest boiling-water reactor.
"The island of Luzon, home of the Phillippines’ capital Manilla, suffered a blackout in 1999 due to jellyfish, and in 2006 the #USSRonaldReagan, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was brought to a standstill by thousands of the little creatures. And while these events may stand out as exceptions, they are increasing in both scale and frequency.
"From sea-bed diamond mining in Namibia to salmon farming in Ireland, even jeopardising the sustainability of beluga caviar farming in the Caspian Sea, jellyfish are as destructive as they are abundant. And that abundance is being caused by a variety of factors, many of which are related to human activity.
Some like it hot
"Over the last hundred or so years, the average surface temperature of the world’s seas has risen by about 0.9°C. As the oceans get warmer, marine animals are able to spread into areas that had historically been too cold. Oxygen levels in the sea have fallen by around 2% over the last 50 years, due to rising temperatures and #pollution [including #NuclearOceanDumping, which reduces oxygen levels]
"Jellyfish can thrive in areas with lower oxygen levels, where other animals suffer. But there are other factors at work, too. Fishing has depleted the global stocks of some of the jellyfish’s natural predators – such as #tuna and #swordfish – and some they compete with for food – such as anchovies. With more food and fewer predators, some jellyfish populations can grow unchecked.
"In the #BlackSea, unchecked population growth is precisely what’s happened. #AnchovyFishing in the region had caused harm to the Black Sea’s ecosystem by the time stowaway jellyfish made the journey there from the eastern seaboard of the USA. Most likely transported in the ballast water of ships that made the crossing, 1982 saw the arrival of the warty comb jelly. By 1990, there were 900 million tons of them in the Black Sea.
"There are believed to be around 200 different species of jellyfish, not all of which can sting, and some are considered edible. This could offer one potential, and creative, approach toward dealing with an over-abundance of jellyfish – co-opting them onto our dinner plates." [That's one way to deal with invasive species -- eat them into extinction!]
Source:
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2019/01/how-an-explosion-of-jellyfish-is-wreaking-havoc/
#GlobalWarming #WarmingOceans
#ChangingOceans #OceansAreLife #OceanTemperatures #ClimateCrisis #Overfishing #NoDeepSeaMining #NoNewNukes #NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #Oskarshamn #Torness
Removing older #herring left young ones leaderless about where to #spawn https://www.hi.no/en/hi/nyheter/2025/may/herring-forgot-about-their-spawning-ground
#Norway #ocean #fishing #overfishing
“A whale-watching company has abandoned tours off Ireland’s southern Atlantic coast and declared the waters an empty, lifeless sea.
Colin Barnes, who ran Cork Whale Watch, announced he was closing the company because overfishing of sprat has disrupted the marine food chain and diverted humpback, minke and fin whales as well as dolphins.” 😢😔
#Environment #Overfishing #OverfishingImpact #EnvironmentImpactsEconomy #WhaleWatching #WhaleWatchingTours #EnvironmentalEcon
Mass mortality events - A hot and polluted ocean
"It's too much. The ocean can't take it … the ecosystem is teetering on collapse."
"It is the biggest "bloom" in almost a decade...The bloom had been caused by an oversupply of nutrients in the water, from runoff, overfishing, and a natural upwelling in the ocean."
"We need to reduce pollution and other pressures on our rivers and coastal waters to make them as resilient as possible. This would include the reduction in nutrient loads from fish farming, agriculture and sewage."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-02/health-of-tasmania-s-waterways-amid-major-marine-events/105354680
#Ocean #rivers #pollution #HABs #Biodiversity #marine #FossilFuels #climate #salmon #agriculture #runoff #coast #sewage #toxic #algalblooms #overfishing
‘Nothing left’: Irish whale-watching company closes amid ‘overfishing’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/30/irish-whale-watching-company-ends-tours-on-south-atlantic-coast-and-blames-overfishing 🐋 #Cetaceans #MarineMammals #MarineLife #MarineBiology #Whales #Science #Dolphins #Overfishing #Biodiversity
‘Nothing left’: Irish whale-watching company closes amid ‘overfishing’ | Ireland | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/30/irish-whale-watching-company-ends-tours-on-south-atlantic-coast-and-blames-overfishing
'“Sadly, our world-class whale watching is now a thing of the past,” Barnes said in a post this week. “A small number of greedy fishermen with huge trawlers have overfished the sprats to the point of near extinction. There is nothing left for the whales to prey upon so they have moved on in search of prey elsewhere.”'
(18 Apr) How the Atlantic Mackerel Bounced Back From Overfishing
Tight regulations are tough on fishermen in the short term. But over time, they can help fish find their way back from the brink.
https://s.faithcollapsing.com/fx64n
Archive: ais: https://archive.md/wip/Kt5Ll ia: https://s.faithcollapsing.com/1xzp7
Tom Hart: beyond the bases: what happens if we monitor everything?
Plenary talk
Including "worst colony in the world"
4 emperor penguins in antartica
#biodiversity #ecology #biology #antarctica #emperorPenguins #overfishing #climatechange #penguin
An investigation exposes the ‘sprawling empire’ of 5 Dutch fishing giants.
Five Dutch companies form “an extremely powerful oligopoly” that dominates European fishing, according to a new investigation into their use of marine resources and public funds.
Nicknamed the “Big Five” they generated €2.4 billion in revenue in 2023, according to the report from France-based NGO BLOOM.
Senegal’s fishing crisis: Overfishing, migration, survival http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TKlg9D #Senegal #FishingCrisis #Overfishing #Migration #EnvironmentalJustice
Lake #sturgeon have been culturally important and a food source for #FirstNations since forever. Then came colonization, which brought in a host of issues that put the oldest #fish in Ontario at risk. – @thenarwhal.ca
#rivers #dams #overfishing
thenarwhal.ca/lake-sturgeo...
Lake sturgeon are disappearing...
Attenborough at 99: naturalist ‘goes further than before’ to speak out against industrial fishing in new film - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/01/ocean-david-attenborough-trawling-fishing-industry-film-documentary "The celebrated presenter warns of ‘modern day colonialism at sea’ as he highlights the destruction caused by #overfishing and bottom #trawling" a true hero; UK gov should listen
(18 Apr) How the Atlantic Mackerel Bounced Back From Overfishing
Tight regulations are tough on fishermen in the short term. But over time, they can help fish find their way back from the brink.
https://s.faithcollapsing.com/fx64n
Archive: ais: https://archive.md/wip/W1YvA ia: https://s.faithcollapsing.com/b98z1
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