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How the Donggang Fish Market Reflects the Current State of the World’s Big Fish

By Sharon Kwok, Mission Blue Board Member

It was 3:00 am and business was in full swing in Hua Qiao seafood wholesale market, located in Donggang Township, nestled along the western coastline of the Taiwan Strait. Although the South of Taiwan is a common Hong Kong tourists’ destination, most don’t venture to Hua Qiao and when they do, it’s usually not during wholesale trading hours. They also generally stay where the restaurants are. I instead, drove through the gate to the wholesale area and was assaulted by the sounds of organised chaos filling the brine and blood scented air. Built on a strip of land resembling a finger pointing southwest, the trade area allows Tuna Long-liner fishing boats to easily unload and boasts a substantial parking area sandwiched by massive buildings dealing in every form of seafood you can imagine.…

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The Best Science on Alaska’s Bering Sea Canyons Just Got Better

by Jackie Dragon

Scientists have recently made critical new discoveries about some of the most ecologically significant waters in the United States: the Bering Sea canyons. With new information in hand, the case for Bering Sea conservation has never been stronger. 
In more good news for ocean conservation, scientists have recently made critical new discoveries about some of the most ecologically significant waters in the United States: the Bering Sea canyons. Two new studies have mapped the area and its teeming “Green Belt” like never before, pinpointing the locations of fragile coral and sponge habitat in need of protection.
With this new information in hand, the case for protecting these key regions in the Bering Sea has never been stronger.
Two Studies Confirm Importance of the Green Belt
The first new study, by the Marine Science Institute at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Greenpeace, found that the Pribilof canyon is the most significant location for deep-sea corals and sponges along the entire eastern Bering Sea shelf.…

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Protect the Grand Canyons of the Ocean

By Courtney Mattison

Hidden below the surface of Alaska’s icy waters lie the world’s largest underwater canyons, both more massive than America’s Grand Canyon. Home to orcas, walrus and fur seals, albatross and kittiwakes, king crab, squid, salmon and coldwater corals, brittle stars and sponges, the continental slope and canyons of the Bering Sea (known as the Bering Sea “Green Belt”) are home to an immense diversity of wildlife. Spanning more than 770,000 square miles between Western Alaska and Russia’s Siberian coast, the Bering Sea is an area of immense ecological value is also the source of more than half of the seafood caught in the United States and is subject to devastating commercial fishing tactics. This week, Mission Blue is launching a petition to urge Alaska’s North Pacific Fishery Management Council to protect the Bering Sea canyons and Green Belt.…

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Atlantic coast catch limit leaves 300 million fish in the sea

By Courtney Mattison
The world’s first coast-wide catch limit to protect the Atlantic menhaden fishery – the largest fishery on the U.S. East Coast – is already well into its second year and the numbers are looking good. A recent assessment of fish landing data for the year 2013 suggests that roughly 300 million more menhaden were spared from overfishing (catching fish faster than they can reproduce[i]) thanks to a unique alliance between all 15 Atlantic coastal states from Maine to Florida established by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in December 2012. The agreement limited the total menhaden catch to 377 million pounds – three quarters the amount caught in previous years. According to the ASMFC, last year’s total fish landings came in well under the allowed maximum.…

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Sylvia Earle – From the Red Carpet to the UN

Today, Dr. Sylvia Earle delivered a keynote at the United Nations Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, along with fellow Benchley Award winner Dr. Jane Lubchenco.
With a first premise that the ocean is essential for planetary survival, the bottom line is that all of the world’s population must start to really care about the ocean. The goal is to become ocean stewards, protecting its vital role in sustaining life on Earth, while at the same time promoting ‘blue growth’ to achieve prosperous and resilient communities.
The webcast is available in it’s entirety at the United Nations Web TV site.  Dr. Earle speaks during the second hour. 

 
All photos courtesy of Dr. Sylvia A. Earle…

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