Fisheries News & Science
Emily Yehle, E&E reporter Published: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 Last year was the world’s warmest year ever recorded, beating out 2014 in average temperatures over land and ocean surfaces, according to both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Federal scientists announced the news this morning, marking the second year in a row that... Read More
Gayathri Vaidyanathan, E&E reporter Published: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 The global oceans, like a giant sponge, have sopped up 90 percent of the excess heat trapped in the planet since the Industrial Revolution. Almost half of that heat uptake, equaling “an unfathomable amount of heat” — 330 zeta joules, with 21 zeros — has occurred... Read More
Biologists are using new genetic techniques to reduce inbreeding among salmon, but some scientists question if natural methods would have worked just as well. The new technique involves a team of specialists who use egg trays and a rubber mallet to kill fertile fish and then mix their eggs with male milt, or sperm, and... Read More
Dylan Brown, E&E reporter Published: Thursday, January 21, 2016 A federal judge signed off this week on a settlement agreement between the Obama administration and environmental groups over coal mining’s effect on a pair of at-risk fish species in northeastern Tennessee. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and... Read More
Debra Kahn, E&E reporter Published: Thursday, January 21, 2016 Gov. Jerry Brown (D) used his annual State of the State speech today to address California’s ongoing water woes, as well as its progress on climate change. While preaching an overall message of economic restraint, Brown highlighted the $7.5 billion bond approved by voters in 2014... Read More
Emily Yehle, E&E reporter Published: Tuesday, January 26, 2016 The National Marine Fisheries Service announced today that it is dramatically increasing the critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales, with protections for feeding grounds and calving areas along the East Coast. The final rule expands the whales’ habitat tenfold, to almost 30,000 square nautical miles. That... Read More
Emily Yehle, E&E reporter Published: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 A federal judge has ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to consider protections for river herring and shad, setting an October deadline for the agency to produce an environmental analysis. The decision is the latest to come out of a yearslong debate over whether NMFS adequately... Read More
Emily Yehle, E&E reporter Published: Tuesday, January 19, 2016 Experts have significantly underestimated the amount of fish caught over the last six decades, according to a new study that suggests the world’s fisheries should be more closely monitored.The study — published today in Nature Communications — details the results of a “catch reconstruction,” in which researchers used a variety... Read More
Due to media interest, this article is now available free online. If they successfully invade Lake Erie, Asian carp could eventually account for about a third of the total weight of fish in the lake and could cause declines in most fish species–including prized sport and commercial fish such as walleye, according to a new... Read More
WINNER: 2014 Best Paper, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society Cluster sampling is one of the most common survey designs used in fisheries research to sample fish populations. However, many researchers don’t take clustering into account when they are analyzing their data, largely due to lack of awareness. When the effect of clustering is ignored,... Read More
