Conservation & Environment

See the trailer, join the mailing list, and learn about the campaign to save the world’s seafood. The End of the Line.

There is much noise these days about seafood, in part thanks to the U.K. release of the film, “End of the Line,” about just how seriously threatened sea creatures are. There’s also the clamor, on both sides of the Atlantic, about Nobu refusing (thus far; stay tuned) to take bluefin tuna off its menus.

Now a U.K. survey shows that 90 percent of diners want restaurants to put sustainable fish on their menus (and are willing to pay more for it) even though the vast majority of those people don’t currently bother to choose fish from sustainable sources. In other words, make the merchants responsible.

I’m not certain this is how it’s going to play out. I’m all for seafood restaurants and fishmongers carrying only sustainable fish (and I recently had dinner with the CEO of Red Lobster to discuss this, and will report on that soon), but I think it’s also up to consumers to know enough to refuse to buy certain fish because they’re threatened (or, for that matter, because they’re farmed in unsustainable ways).

Read the complete story at The New York Times.

Today, Monday, June 8, we recognize the first U.N.-sanctioned World Oceans Day. The event comes after years of pressure from conservation groups and thousands of activists who clamored for everyone to know and understand what’s happening in our oceans.

I became an ocean activist in 1987. It was the fifth year of "Cheers" and my family moved into a neighborhood that was on the water, in Santa Monica, California. One day I took my daughters to the beach to go swimming, but it was "closed" and I couldn’t answer my daughter’s question why.

That’s really how it started. That and "Cheers" was paying me a lot of money and I felt I had better be responsible with it. So, I started to get involved.

Read the complete story at CNN.

You know the script by now: it’s a documentary, with a campaign attached, about an environmental problem, ideally with a Hollywood voiceover and the simple (or simplistic) message that humans are screwing up the planet. If we don’t Do Something very soon, it will be too late and we’ll simply have to repent at our leisure while disaster befalls us.

We’ve had An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s tendentious Powerpoint presentation about global warming (ex-vice president Gore is as good as Hollywood for these purposes); we’ve had The Eleventh Hour, co-written and fronted by Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio; then there was A Crude Awakening, which lacked the Hollywood razzmatazz, but spiced things up by adding the threat of resource war to the prospect of civilisation slamming into a brick wall called ‘Peak Oil’ (see A fit of peak, by Rob Lyons).

Now, we have The End of the Line, a film version of Daily Telegraph journalist Charles Clover’s book about the threat to the world’s oceans and future food supplies from overfishing. It opens with shots of a colourful ocean scene, while Ted Danson delivers a portentous voiceover about how these fish are lucky to be ‘protected from the most efficient predator the oceans have every known’. No prizes for guessing that he ain’t talking about Jaws; he’s talking about us.

Read the complete story at Sp!ked.

Americans are eating more and more seafood. It’s not surprising: Seafood tastes great and is generally heart-healthy. But after decades of mismanagement of our wild-capture fisheries, much of what we eat is no longer caught in U.S. waters. The bulk is imported from overseas, and much of that is farmed – a process called aquaculture. Open-ocean aquaculture is fish farming in large cages well offshore. While some forms of aquaculture, such as farming shellfish, are environmentally low risk, others, such as salmon farming, have a proven track record of environmental problems. It’s shocking to know that despite the growing demand for farmed fish, there are no national standards to address the numerous risks.

Because the federal government has yet to act, regions are putting forward their own plans, setting a dangerous precedent. In spite of vast public opposition across the US, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council became the first fishery council to approve open-ocean aquaculture in federal waters in January 2009. If the plan is approved, it will pave the way for industrial aquaculture operations in the federal ocean without national environmental, socio-economic, and liability standards to ensure a sustainable future for US fish farming. Should the Secretary of Commerce approve this plan, what is to stop a second fishery Council from instituting even weaker standards in their own area? This issue is not unique to the Gulf of Mexico. Just last month, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute announced its plans to build a massive fish farm off San Diego in southern California.

All Americans should be concerned with this type of piecemeal expansion of aquaculture. Vast amounts of small, wild fish must be caught to feed the farmed fish, adding to the stress on our already-taxed oceans. And the use of open-net pens allows concentrated fish waste and chemicals to flow directly into the ocean. Net pens are also prone to escapes, allowing farmed fish to interbreed with wild populations and spread disease to wild fish. To ensure these concerns don’t occur here in the U.S., a precautionary plan needs be developed now, before there is a substantial aquaculture industry that becomes difficult to redirect. Indeed, the Pew Oceans Commission, chaired by Leon Panetta and President Obama’s choice to head NOAA, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, have called for such a coordinated federal framework with strict standards before open-ocean aquaculture proceeds.

Read the complete story at The Hill.

New England groundfish have gone from an abundant community when Europeans first arrive to today’s record low populations. In response to the challenge of how to help the species recover while still allowing fishing the New England Fisheries Council is considering adopting Amendment 16 Regulations.

The New England groundfish fishery would be more economically and environmentally sound if the system used to manage the activities of commercial fishermen was changed from regulations based on “days-at-sea” to annual catch limits and allows for "sector management" of fishing activities by fishermen themselves. In addition, the new system would give declining populations of the region’s iconic species like cod and flounder a chance to rebuild, providing a sustainable future for the industry.

Contact the National Marine Fisheries Service and tell them you support the proposed Amendment 16

Read the complete story at The Sierra Club.

Storm clouds over California’s fishing industry are lifting after conservationists struck a unique deal with trawlermen, offering to preserve their dwindling livelihoods on the condition that they swap their destructive dragnets for lines and hooks.

Roger Cullen is tired but happy. He has just unloaded 1,500lb of black cod on the dock at Morro Bay after a long night in an open boat. When he left port and steamed north up towards Big Sur, the sea along the rocky central California coast was glassy calm, the sun was beating down and weekenders were out driving convertibles, camper vans and riding customised Harleys along the spectacular coast road, Highway 1, stopping occasionally to point their cameras at formations of low-flying pelicans and elephant seals moulting on the beach at San Simeon.

But when California’s Central Valley heats up, cold air from the ocean is sucked towards the land. The fog comes off the Pacific and stretches its fingers into the parched valleys of the central California coast. A brisk westerly got up as well as the fog, and Cullen and his crew of baiter and boy found themselves in horrible weather. After 24 hours of rolling about in a confused sea on the deck of their 30ft boat, Dorado, they are delighted to be back in home port – though its distinctive rock and three-stack gas-fired power station are still almost invisible in the enveloping mist. Keen to get home and sleep, they unload in 15 minutes.

Read the complete story at Telegraph.co.uk.

In honor of La Mer’s sea heritage and continued support of Oceana, the world’s leading international ocean advocacy organization, La Mer is proud to announce that as part of this partnership La Mer has designed a limited-edition 8 oz/250 ml "World Oceans Day" Crème, with 100% of net proceeds going to Oceana.

With 2009 marking the first U.N. officially designated June 8th as World Oceans Day – the World Oceans Day limited edition Crème de la Mer will be sold in May and June at Saks Fifth Avenue and www.lamer.com for $745 (yes expensive but a 1 oz jar is $130 so you’re actually saving money by buying in a bulk size).

If you’re running low on your La Mer –why not pick up a jar of this limited edition cream– at least you know all the net proceeds will go towards saving our precious oceans! And did you know pollution is not what’s destroying our eco system in the ocean? It’s overfishing, specifically a practice of bottom trawling; a fishing technique that uses weighted nets to clear-cut the ocean floor.

Read the complete story at Beauty Snob.

Seemingly shoring up the environmental platform of his 2009 Gubernatorial re-election campaign, today NJ Governor Jon Corzine spoke at a well attended NY City press conference with New York Governor David A. Paterson to announce an "historic" "Mid Atlantic Governor’s Agreement on Ocean Conservation" among the 5 mid-Atlantic states: NY, NJ, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

The event was backed by the Obama Administration, who sent the President’s Council on Environmental Quality Chair, Nancy Sutley, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco.

The Obama support proved merely rhetorical in the Mid Atlantic region, which contrasts with NOAA Administrator Lubchenco’s $18.6 million and regulatory reform commitments last month to the New England region to improve fisheries management. New England Governors and Congressional delegation were able to secure real commitments from the Obama administration – with the Atlantic ocean in crisis, why were NY/NJ unable to get similar treatment?

Read the complete story at New Jersey Online.

As Lake Michigan ports go, Grand Haven is an angler’s paradise. If People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals gets its way, it also will be home to a lighthouse café — serving faux fish sticks — where patrons learn about the evils of fishing.

PETA said in a letter to the National Park Service this week that it wants to take over Grand Haven’s historic twin red lighthouses once they go on a list of surplus properties this year or next. Because PETA is a nonprofit, its bid to maintain the lighthouses could be considered.

The way the animal rights group sees it, Grand Haven would be a perfect place to drum up compassion for fish. To do so, it would point to research it says suggests that fish have feelings, too, rubbing against each other to show affection, developing individual personalities, even learning to grieve.

Read the complete story at Freep.