Jellyfish blooms have finding their way into the media recently – clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants – creating a perception that the world’s oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overfishing.

A new study conducted at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and published in the latest issue of BioScience questions this view. The study’s authors note that while there have been jellyfish blooms in certain areas (notably Giant Jellyfish in Japan), other regions have seen jellyfish declines or fluctuations. As noted in the press release,

Increased speculation and discrepancies about current and future jellyfish blooms by the media and in climate and science reports formed the motivation for the study. “There are major consequences for getting the answer correct for tourism, fisheries and management decisions as they relate to climate change and changing ocean environments,” says Duarte. “The important aspect about our synthesis is that we will be able to support the current paradigm with hard scientific data rather than speculation.”

The study has also led to the formation of the improbably named JEDI (Jellyfish…

CONTINUE READING →

Semporna, Malaysia is home to many species of shark, from the extremely rare and elusive Borneo and hammerhead shark to the largest fish in the sea, the graceful whale shark.

A local group of conservationists and divers are petitioning the local state government to set up a Semporna Shark Sanctuary, which would cover some 83 islands, including the world renowned diving haven of Sipadan and its neighbouring Mabul island. Mabul-based divemaster and campaigner Oliver Ostick tells us that:

If we get 10,000 signatures then we can go to the government and have a great chance of succeeding.

Nearly 6,000 people have already signed the petition, so if you’re interested then please show your support! The initiative also has a Facebook page.

CONTINUE READING →

Great news for giant mantas (Manta birostris)! Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) agreed today to list this species under CMS Appendix I & II, obligating member countries to implement strict protections for giant manta rays and their key habitats. The move comes as mantas are increasingly targeted in fisheries for their gill rakers, which are in high demand in East Asia for their use in Chinese medicine.

Save Our Seas Foundation was one of several organisations playing key roles to support this measure, but these individuals in particular must be singled out for their work to make this happen: Sonja Fordham of Shark Advocates International (who championed the project), and Andrea Marshall, Rupert Ormond, Shawn Heinrichs, William White and Sarah Fowler, who laid the groundwork for the decision.

The full press release is below:

Bergen, Norway. November 25, 2011:  Shark Advocates International is heralding today’s overwhelming agreement by Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) to list the giant manta ray (Manta birostris) under CMS Appendix I and II. The listing obligates CMS member countries to provide strict national protections for giant manta rays and their key habitats, and…

CONTINUE READING →

Fishing nations at this year’s International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting have adopted protections for silky sharks, but failed to take action to protect porbeagle sharks and to strengthen the ICCAT ban on shark finning.

In a press release following the meeting held in Istanbul, SOSF-funded Shark Advocates International reports that:

For the second time, an EU proposal to protect porbeagle sharks failed due to opposition from Canada, the only Party with a targeted fishery for the species. Belize, Brazil, and the US were unsuccessful in their third attempt to strengthen the ICCAT finning ban by replacing the current fin to carcass weight ratio limit with a prohibition on removing fins at sea. China, Japan, and South Africa spoke in opposition to the measure.

CONTINUE READING →

The Taiwan Fisheries Agency has announced that it will impose a ban on shark finning – the practice of slicing off the animal’s fins on-board and then throwing away the body at sea – next year, and mandate that sharks are landed with their fins attached. The move comes days after the Pew Environment Group published a series of photos exposing the sheer scale of the shark fin trade in Taiwan, which show fins and body parts of vulnerable shark species – including the scalloped hammerhead and oceanic whitetip – being prepared for the markets.

The new regulations are a step in the right direction, but, as Pew’s Matt Rand pointed out, they only mandate that the sharks are returned to port with fins attached – they do not address the larger problem of large-scale shark overfishing that is threatening many species of these slow-maturing animals:

“Unfortunately, since there are no limits on the number of these animals that can be killed in the open ocean, this activity can continue unabated,” Pew’s Matt Rand said in a statement. “This strip-mining of the world’s sharks is clearly unsustainable.”

National Geographic has a story on this, and more information can…

CONTINUE READING →

Andrea Marshall, who heads up the Ray of Hope project, was in Ecuador recently to satellite tag mantas and try to shed some light on an intriguing mystery: could mantas from aggregation sites on the mainland be traveling all the way to the Galapagos, almost 1000 km from shore? Along with a fascinating writeup of her trip, Andrea sent us this video blog chronicling her adventures, including some great underwater footage of mantas being tagged:

CONTINUE READING →

SOSF-sponsored marine podcast Naked Oceans is back for a second series, with this month’s episode focusing on life and death in the ancient seas. Listen in to learn about how life emerged from the oceans – and how it almost came to an end, as well as what the past can tell us about the future of life in the seas. As always, you can download the episodes for free at the Naked Oceans website or on iTunes.

CONTINUE READING →