January 9, 2009
The Oceana Scanner
BY: Emily Fisher
This week in ocean news……two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 for an increasingly rare bluefin tuna at a Tokyo fish auction on Monday, the highest in years….a psammophile and scientist explained what can be gleaned from a single grain of sand. …australia rejected Japan’s request by allowing the anti-whaling activists of the Sea Shepherd Society to re-supply. The society’s aptly named “Steve Irwin” is on its way to Australia. Meanwhile, Andy Revkin dug deeper into the ethical matter of minke whale hunting. …as part of a treaty to protect declining Pacific salmon stocks, the U.S. government will give $30 million to the fishing industry in British Columbia as compensation for dramatic cuts to salmon fishing — a 30 percent reduction in the fishery this year off Vancouver Island and a 15 percent cut for Alaskan fishermen. …the Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed suit against the EPA for failure to comply with the Clean Water Act, leading to the decline of the bay and its crabs, oysters, fish, and local watermen’s livelihoods….a young girl tamed a wild sea monster with — you guessed it — moisturizing lotion. (Thanks, Zooillogix.)…oh yeah, and there were also those Pacific ocean monuments…