Blogs & Ecology

Luckily, Christmas dinner is already over in Scandinavia (celebrated most often on the 24th) so those of us required to take a portion of stinky, slimy lutefisk, a dried and soaked cod, are safely past our obligations at the buffet-like Christmas table.

The lutefisk ritual is just one of many cod-based traditions. In Sweden torsk, as cod is called, is one of the most popular white fishes, and it shows up in a multitude of traditional dishes, stews and soups (and the ever popular fish stick). It is also nearly ...

Over on CNN their award-winning series Planet in Peril, hosted by Anderson Cooper, Lisa Ling and Dr Sanjay Gupta, is returning for another season (the premier episode is Thursday, December 11 at 9 PM EST) focusing on the some of the conflicts that are occurring when growing populations put stresses on the environment and on natural resources.

TreeHugger had a chance to ask Lisa Ling some questions about some of the episodes she worked on:
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In the second edition of Greenpeace’s seafood sustainability scorecard released today, the supermarket chains Whole Foods, Ahold USA, Target and Harris Teeter received “passing” scores indicating a small, but significant shift in purchasing practices and policies. Other retailers don't fair as well.
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photo by Misserion

The Humane Society and thousands of grocery stores and restaurants have banded together to put an end to Canada's seal hunt, the largest commercial killing of marine sea mammals in the world. These supermarkets and eateries hope to turn up the economic pressure on the Canadian government and fishing industry by boycotting Canadian seafood.

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Photo credit: Foodhoe

Three renowned Hong Kong chefs have been named WWF Ocean Friendly Chefs and will design menus featuring sustainable seafood species recommended by WWF's Seafood Guide. The chefs are Lau Chun from Yellow Door Kitchen, Margaret Xu from Yin Yang Fresh HK Cuisine and Jacky Yu from Xiyan.

Eating at the winner of the "Best Take-away" prize in the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards could be a challenge. Adam's Fish and Chips is located on an island in the Isles of Scilly and is only open two days a week. But it sounds yummy: the potatoes for the chips are fertilised by local seaweed and all the fish is caught by the eponymous Adam in local waters, on the same day, by fishing with a single line. He catches pollack because "it's plentiful and renewable". You have to line up early too, because half the town of 160 people, is taking it out each night.

photo: NOAA

You may have read how a bit over a week ago a number of environmental groups were calling on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat) to cut quota levels for bluefin tuna to protect that species from overfishing and collapse.

Groups’ Recommendations Ignored

photo: lizardwisdom

The plight of world tuna fisheries continues. According to statements made by WWF, as the Mediterranean bluefin tuna gets places off limits so as to avoid total collapse of the fishery, more ships will be heading in the so-called Coral Triangle (the seas bounded by the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Malaysia). As this area is spawning and nursing grounds for 89% of the world’s tuna, unless collective action is taken in this area as well, tuna stocks there face collapse.

WWF researcher Lida Pet Soede:
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photo: Corey Arnold

This week the European Commission announced that the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy was going to be reviewed, with the expectation being that both the number of vessels and the time they would be allowed to be at sea would be reduced so that declining fish stocks could be better protected. Well, a new article in Science magazine, proposes a better method to ensure that fish stocks don’t become depleted: A Catch-Share System. Here’s how it would work:...

photo: Pierre-Olivier Mazoyer

Two quick bits about overfishing. On the eco-scandalous side, undercover investigators have discovered that at three Nobu restaurants in London endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna has been served and passed off as non-endangered tuna. On the political side, the European Commission has announced that it will be doing a full review of the EU’s Common Fisheries policy on the grounds that it fails to protect declining fish stocks. The scandalous first:...

"Lake Sebu tilapia farms" by fragment of angry candy via flickr

We've reported on farmed Atlantic salmon escaping into wild Pacific salmon habitat, and how farmed fish threaten marine life and human health . At the other end of the sustainability spectrum we've also highlighted the benefits of backyard aquaponics.

Palin with Salmon via Alaska Seafood

We've been covering the struggle in Alaska's Bristol Bay between salmon fishers and mining interests for a while. The story took an interesting turn when Alaska Governor, and Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin offered her personal thoughts on the proposed Clean Water Initiative (Ballot Measure 4) that would restrict pollutants that new mines would be able to release into the state's waterways.

Image courtesy of BBC Green

Sustainable Fish Served on Dutch KLM Airline

Red Sea Sturgeonfish, photo J.E. Randall, Fishbase

Here is another of those stories about how technology is changing so fast, and how it can empower us. John Schwartz writes in the New York Times about how high school student Kate Stoeckle was talking over a sushi dinner with her dad, a scientist working in DNA bar coding, a much simpler and cheaper way of identifying species. She asked “Could you bar code sushi?” Dad answered “Yeah, I think you could — and if you did that, I think you’d be the first ones.”

photo by Takeshi Igarashi

Over-consumption of natural resources is at the heart of nearly every global environmental problem we face. Too many people collectively consuming too many resources, the cruel irony of which is that nevertheless there are countless numbers of people without basic survival necessities, let alone a new iPod. On that tack, here are two examples of fish stock depletion:

Indian Ocean Tuna Catch Declines