An international system of tracking tuna - a vital tool in the preservation of stocks - has been found to be full of gaps. A conference in Paris starting on 17 November could decide the fate of the endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna. The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) - which has spent months analysing the bluefin tuna trade - calculates that more than one in three bluefins caught in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean between 1998 and 2007 was fished illegally. The illegal catches gave rise to an off-the-books trade in bluefin tuna, conservatively valued at $4 billion, according to ICIJ. A video clip from a BBC program titled Life on the Edge: Looting The Seas illustrates how the bluefin tuna protection system is full of holes.

TAGS: bluefin tuna, endangered, ICCAT, overfishing, illegal fishing, sustainable, fishing, fisheries, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists , ICIJ

"After decades of overfishing, we are finally making progress toward the sustainable management of U.S. fisheries," claims David Newman of the Natural Resources Defence Council. You can read more at his blog here It's an interesting perspective.

TAGS: sustainable, fisheries, fishing, US fisheries, Natural Resources Defence Council

NOAA today released a national policy encouraging the consideration and use of catch shares. “Catch share programs have proven to be powerful tools to transform fisheries, making them prosperous, stable and sustainable parts of our nation’s strategy for healthy and resilient ocean ecosystems,” said Jane Lubchenco,  NOAA administrator. “NOAA’s policy encourages fishery management councils and stakeholders to explore the design possibilities of catch shares to tailor programs to best meet local needs.”  NOAA asserts that catch shares are helping eliminate overfishing and achieve annual catch limits, improve fishermen’s safety and profits, and reduce the negative biological and economic effects of the race for fish that develops with some traditional fishery management. More here

To read the NOAA policy and profiles of catch share programs, go to http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/catchshares

TAGS: USA, NOAA Fisheries, catch shares, Jane Lubchenco, sustainable, fishing, fisheries

The federal government has turned down a proposal by Vancouver-based Taseko Ltd. to turn Teztan Biny (also known as Fish Lake) – a beautiful mountain lake southwest of Williams Lake – into a garbage dump for a copper-gold project called the Prosperity Project. While the provincial government had approved the Taseko project in early 2010, a federal review panel concluded the environmental impacts on the watershed and surrounding lands were too high to allow it to proceed. The federal government announced late yesterday that it upheld the review panel’s conclusions and the project would not be given the green light due to the serious and adverse environmental impacts it would cause. More here

TAGS: Fish Lake, Teztan Biny, Prosperity Mine project, envronmental protection, fish, habitat, protection