Accidental chinook catch among pollock is an issue

February, 2008

Banning Mediterranean Driftnetting

The European Court of Justice rejected any further requests by the French government for exemptions from the EU ban on driftnetting in the Mediterranean Sea. This ruling will spare 25,000 juvenile bluefin tuna annually, along with 10,000 non-targeted marine species caught annually in the driftnets.

January, 2008

Oceana Observes 2008 as the “International Year of the Reef”

January, 2008

Unilever to End Use of Shark Products in Cosmetics

January, 2008

A Sight to Sea

January, 2008

WTO Disciplines on Fisheries Subsidies: Elements of the Chair’s Draft

December, 2007

Measures to Reduce Fishing Waste Stand Up in Court

A federal appeals court let stand conservation measures approved by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries, and supported by Oceana, to limit the amount of discards from large bottom trawling vessels. The regulations require large “head and gut” bottom trawl vessels in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands to retain and utilize a larger portion of the fish they catch, as opposed to keeping only the most economically valuable species and throwing the rest overboard. 

According to NOAA estimates, these regulations will prevent 110 million pounds of groundfish from being wasted as unwanted bycatch each year, and serve as an incentive for vessels to fish more carefully, limiting bycatch of corals and other marine animals.