For a year, Oceana campaigned for a bottom trawling ban in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state and home to some of the country’s most important and productive fishing grounds. And after months of organizing, researching, lobbying, and protesting, success hinged on a single page of numbers – the personal contact information of 45 … Read more
Billions of people around the world, including 90% of the U.S. population, as of April 2, have been instructed to stay at home in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. That’s a lot of people who have suddenly found themselves stuck indoors. If cabin fever starts to set in, the ocean can be … Read more
If someone mentions butterfish you may smack your lips, absolutely want to avoid it, or just scratch your head. That’s because the prolific and sustainable Atlantic butterfish, an oily little species ranging from Florida to Newfoundland, has some big mistaken identity issues. Consider these top hits from web searches: “Butterfish is my new favorite” reads one Trip Advisor … Read more
Picture someone fishing, and a woman probably doesn’t come to mind. Men are the face of fisheries work, even though women are its backbone in much of the world. Half of seafood workers are female. Women net fish, spear octopus, dig clams, dive for abalone and pack and process seafood, yet are consistently denied a voice in … Read more
There are two ways to leave La Tortuga, a fishing town of 7,000 on the northern coast of Peru. One, a pitted gravel road, winds through a landscape of desert canyons and sun-scalded hills. The other way out of La Tortuga takes longer, but it’s more reliable. That’s the town’s secondary schools — the once-missing … Read more
If you wanted to search for the next drug-resistant superbug, you could cart your microscope to a pig farm, or look under the glare of a hospital’s lights. But you might be better off searching somewhere more picturesque — like the chilly bays of southern Chile. There, salmon farmers are using up to 950 grams … Read more
Today, the Trump administration announced its plans to open nearly all U.S. federal waters to offshore drilling activities. In a new draft five-year program (2019-2024) for oil and gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the Department of the Interior (DOI) outlined its plans to expand future oil and gas leasing to the Atlantic, … Read more
Summer in southeast Alaska is kelp season for the cofounders of Barnacle Foods, Lia Heifetz and Matt Kern. Each week, the pair watches the tides and weather, waiting for the right moment to cruise out to the abundant kelp beds offshore. They lean over the side of the boat and pull up the fronds and … Read more
With so many options behind the grocery seafood case, it’s hard to know what fish to pick. Tuna steaks look appealing, and salmon is a perennial hit. But if you want to max out on health and sustainably, think smaller… and oilier. Little species like anchovies and sardines are some of the best choices to … Read more
The sea, some say, is the world’s biggest toilet — and that’s a good thing. Because when it comes to keeping ocean ecosystems in tip-top shape, pee is liquid gold. Without urine from fish, whales and other critters, coral reefs and seagrass meadows would struggle. Kelp forests might wither. And there would be fewer phytoplankton, … Read more
Sign up today to get weekly updates and action alerts from Oceana.
We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.