• Water

Maine’s Lakes on Thin Ice

• algal bloom
• climate change
• fish
• ice-out
• nitrogen
• phosphorus
• toxic algae

The ice-out date for Maine’s Lake Auburn is now three weeks earlier than it was two centuries ago, the Portland Press Herald reports, and other lakes across New England show similar trends. Climate change is not good for ice, and that includes Maine’s lakes that freeze over every winter. 

Why This Matters: A disrupted winter with lakes that “defrost” earlier has multiple knock-on effects for freshwater: in addition to harming fish in lakes, the resulting large cyanobacteria algae blooms that form can be harmful to human health.

• Animals

Freshwater Fish in Peril, New WWF Report States

• fish
• fisheries
• freshwater

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer A new report entitled The World’s Forgotten Fishes from the World Wildlife Fund has found that there has been a “catastrophic” decline in freshwater fish, with nearly a third of all freshwater fish species coming perilously close to extinction.  The statistics paint a sobering picture: 26% of all critically […]

• Ocean

China’s Illegal Fishing Fleet In GhanaIs Is Rife With Abuses

• China
• fish
• fishing
• Ghana
• Illegal
• IUU fishing
• ocean
• unregulated
• unreported

A new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation exposes the horrific conditions that Ghanain fishermen face on Chinese-owned industrial trawlers. This capture of the country’s fishing industry flies in the face of Ghanian laws that forbid foreign ownership or control of ships flying its flag. It also makes illegal fishing much harder to trace and regulate.  

Why This Matters: It’s impossible to have sustainable fisheries when as much as half of the global catch is illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU).

• Food

Hold the Lox–That Salmon You Bought May Not Be What They Say It Is

• antibiotics
• Atlantic Salmon
• fish
• Food and Drug Administration
• mislabeled
• organic
• Salmon

Fraudulent fish is a more common problem than most people realize.  A lawsuit brought by the Organic Consumers Association alleges fish distributors Mowi Ducktrap and Mowi USA of deceptive marketing of smoked salmon sold under the brand Ducktrap River of Maine.

Why This Matters:  Many people are trying to cut back on meat — particularly during the COVID pandemic, when meatpacking plants closed, or worse, kept operating despite widespread transmission of the disease among workers at those facilities.

• Ocean

Climate Change Impacting Fish Spawning, While Not Enough Habitat Is Protected By Fisheries Managers

• #30x30
• climate change
• fish
• fisheries
• fishing gear
• marine protected areas
• ocean warming

We know that rising ocean temperatures are causing fish stocks to migrate to cooler waters, and now we have new evidence as to why.  A study by German scientists found that juvenile fish and fish that are ready to mate are especially sensitive to changes in water temperature, and as a result, up to 60 percent of all species may be forced to leave their traditional spawning areas as waters warm.

Why This Matters:  Fish populations need functional habitat to survive and procreate.

• Water

Some Dams Survive Through Inertia — Time to Take Them Down?

• #30x30
• dam
• dam removal
• fish
• restoration
• river
• wildlife

The removal of legacy dams, which were first constructed dozens to more than a hundred years ago, is proving to be increasingly popular to restore river flows now that they are no longer serving any purpose for generating power or driving industrial uses. 

Why This Matters:  There is no doubt that a free-flowing river is a healthy river.  As has been much discussed recently, the need to do everything we can to restore and conserve the natural world to stave off the next wave of extinctions and to combat climate change.