For more than a year, Senators Murkowski (R-AK) and Cantwell (D-WA), along with the entire Alaska and Washington delegations, have been pressuring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to change the acceptable market name of ‘Alaskan pollock’ to simply ‘pollock’. As regulations stand right now, ‘Alaskan pollock’ refers to the popular whitefish species, walleye pollock … Read more
I arrived at Gaviota Beach today with about 70 other volunteers for an afternoon beach clean-up in the wake of the Refugio oil spill. After receiving safety instructions from a California Fish and Game warden, we suited up in personal protective equipment, called PPE. The PPEs protect skin and clothing from any possible oil exposure. … Read more
Safety First It is day nine of the Santa Barbara oil spill and I began my morning with a four-hour hazardous communication training. Oil is really a nasty substance, made of many hazardous natural and added compounds. After seeing the devastating effects of oil spills on ecosystems, it is clear that oil and water don’t … Read more
Memorial Day typically marks the start of summer for many tourism towns, but much of the coastal business in Santa Barbara came to a halt last week as approximately 105,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from a broken underground pipeline onshore — about 21,000 gallons making its way into the Pacific Ocean. While it is still unknown … Read more
My drive to Santa Barbara was quite nostalgic, having studied aquatic biology there years ago. I had recently wanted to visit my old stomping grounds, but coming to see the impact of a recent oil spill and assist with the clean-up efforts was not the circumstance I envisioned. My first view of the ocean from … Read more
Over the past six years, the California drift gillnet fishery has captured, killed and injured an estimated 600 economically and ecologically important marine mammals, like gray whales, sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins and northern elephant seals. Swordfish fishermen use drift gillnets —which are a mile-long and one hundred-feet-deep — to catch swordfish and thresher sharks, but … Read more
The nutrient-rich waters off California teem with some of the world’s most iconic, brilliant marine life: humpback whales, leatherback sea turtles, dolphins, sea lions, ocean sunfish, large sharks, marlin and many more. But these economically and ecologically important creatures continue to be threatened by the California-based drift gillnet fishery, which kills about 100 marine mammals … Read more
Thanks to the successful legislation Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) helped to pass in 2006, drilling rigs are banned from Florida’s Gulf coast through 2022. The Atlantic side of the state may also now be safer from the damaging effects of seismic blasting, with Nelson’s announcement on Friday of his new bill to prohibit the dangerous … Read more
Last week the House Natural Resources Committee made a crucial move to keep illegal fish out of the United States market. The committee voted unanimously to advance Congresswoman Bordallo’s bill, H.R. 774, the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Enforcement Act of 2015, which contains vital implementing legislation for the Port State Measures Agreement (PMSA). … Read more
Louisiana is home to the largest shrimp fleet in the United States. Unfortunately, according to government estimates, this fleet kills upwards of tens of thousands of sea turtles every year that become inadvertently trapped in fishing nets and drown. It is commonly accepted that one proven way fishermen can reduce the number of turtles trapped and … Read more
We have already protected over 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.
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