• Food

At Subway, Eat Fresh What?

• fishing
• health
• ocean
• overfishing
• subway
• sustainable
• tuna

The New York Times’ Julia Carmel did a deep dive into tuna sandwiches from Subway — one of the world’s largest restaurant chains — over a class-action lawsuit claiming that its tuna sandwiches “are completely bereft of tuna as an ingredient.”

Why This Matters:  In the 1980s canned tuna was a staple food found in nearly every pantry in America.  But these days tuna are harder and harder to catch, as the wildly popular Netflix documentary Seaspiracy explained to many who were simply unaware of how their tuna roll or melt was impacting the ocean.

• Ocean

“Sea Snot” Outbreak Covers Coast of Turkey’s Sea of Marmara

• bacteria
• fishing
• overfishing
• oxygen
• phytoplankton
• pollution
• sea snot

An invasion of “sea snot” has literally slimed the coast of the Sea of Marmara in Turkey. Like the name suggests, “sea snot,” or marine mucilage, is a snot-like film that floats on the surface of seawater, and stinks. This influx of “sea snot,” is the largest in history, and could threaten marine life and fishing.  

Why this Matters:  Marine mucilage forms when nutrient-rich waters remain stagnant during long stints of hot weather, which then allows phytoplankton to propagate and spread uncontrollably, oozing a mucus that contains protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

• Water

Georgia Unanimously Wins Water Feud with Florida In Supreme Court

• ecosystem
• Florida
• Georgia
• overfishing
• oyster
• Supreme Court
• wildlife

The Supreme Court handed the state of Georgia an overwhelming victory yesterday in a long-brewing water feud with the state of Florida.   In the end, it boiled (bad pun) down to Florida’s inability to show its “injury” could be remedied if it received more water. 

Why This Matters:  Florida was its own worst enemy in the case.

• Ocean
• Politics

Portraits of Change: Women In Fishing Working For Sustainability

• climate change
• COVID-19
• Mexico. Women's History Month
• overfishing

It’s not just men in the fishing sector who are impacted by climate change, overfishing, and COVID-19 — women are too.  Women like Alexia Jaurez of Sonora, Mexico, who is featured in this Environmental Defense Fund video, do the important work of monitoring the catch and the price, and most importantly determining how many more […]

• People

One Brave Thing: Rowing Solo Across the Atlantic

• Atlantic
• natural disasters
• ocean
• overfishing
• rowboat

A 21-year old woman from the U.K., Jasmine Harrison, became the youngest female to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean — she did it in just over 70 days — surviving capsizing twice and a near collision with a giant tanker ship.  Why did she do it, you ask? She said on her website, “I […]

• Food

US Fishing Industry Hopes You Will #EatSeafoodAmerica

• conservation
• domestic
• fisheries
• fishers
• ocean
• overfishing
• science
• seafood
• sustainable
• traceable

With supermarkets running low on meat, seafood is a healthy option, and sales of frozen seafood like shrimp and canned seafood (much of which is imported) are up over last year, according to some retailers.  Most of the domestic seafood landed and sold in the U.S. comes from small fishing businesses and goes to restaurants and those sales are down as much as 95% across the country.

Why This Matters:  Congress provided $300m for fishers in stimulus funding, but it is only a “drop in the bucket” of what is needed to keep fishers afloat said Alaskan commercial fisher Julie Decker on Tuesday at a forum convened by the Ocean Caucus Foundation.