During the “Our Ocean” conference held in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, the Chilean government announced a new national policy to fight Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing, as well as their commitment to the New York agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks—a move that gives the Chilean Navy increased resources … Read more
Bycatch, the capture and waste of non-target fish and ocean wildlife, costs fishermen and the marine environment in more ways than one. In addition to being ecologically wasteful, discarding fish is akin to throwing money into the ocean. Today, Oceana released a new report that spotlights the economic losses from bycatch—an amount that could reach … Read more
The Global Ocean Commission, an independent initiative comprised of 17 government and business leaders from around the world, called for extensive international reform for high seas management in a new report released on Tuesday. The report, “From Decline to Recovery: A Rescue Package for the Global Ocean,” calls on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to … Read more
White sharks off the coast of California are in danger. This population of white sharks, occurring off California and Mexico, is genetically unique and isolated from other groups of white sharks across the world’s oceans. But this population is also at risk of extinction — recent scientific studies estimate that less than 350 adult and … Read more
I wrote to you recently about the U.S. government’s plans to allow seismic airguns in the U.S. Atlantic. This technology, used to search for oil and gas deposits, could injure an estimated 138,200 dolphins and whales and usher in offshore oil drilling. A similar battle is occurring across the Atlantic, where the Spanish government is … Read more
Last week, the New England Fishery Management Council took an important step forward for ocean conservation by agreeing to allocate $800,000 to support fishery research in the struggling groundfish fishery for cod, haddock and flounder. The Council has funds to support several projects and included bycatch reduction and solutions as themes in the call for … Read more
April 20 marked the four-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In the process of filming a short film about the aftermath of the spill, “Drill, Spill, Repeat,” Oceana staff met Al Sunseri, co-owner and president of P&J Oyster Company. His company has been in business for 138 years. … Read more
Last weekend, PBS NewsHour Weekend Edition aired a feature story on Oceana’s campaign to end drift gillnet use off California. This commercial fishery sets out mile-long nets at dusk to catch swordfish and thresher sharks, but these nets also capture an abundance of other marine wildlife—including whales, dolphins, sea lions, sharks, and other ecologically and … Read more
It’s not every day that celebrities help with scientific research, but earlier this month, Austin Nichols (“One Tree Hill,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “Wimbledon,” and “John from Cincinnati”) shared his passion about sharks with researchers at the University of Miami. He spent two days off the coast of Florida tagging sharks with Oceana and the … Read more
Earlier this week, Oceana in Europe found that Morocco is once again using illegal driftnets in the swordfish fishery, despite an official phase-out in 2010. Photographs gathered by Oceana over the past few days show small and large vessels coordinating to capture swordfish in the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the … Read more
Sign up today to get weekly updates and action alerts from Oceana.
We have already protected over 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.