In British Columbia and Washington, legislators are simultaneously weighing whether to allow this controversial farming practice to persist. This year could see the end of open-net-pen salmon aquaculture on the US and Canadian west coasts. This approach to salmon farming is already banned in California, Oregon, and Alaska, leaving British Columbia and Washington State as […]
Hakai
Scientists Found a Nitrogen-Fixing Seagrass
Adopting a strategy that is all but unheard of in the sea, this seagrass produces an essential nutrient the same way peas do. The meadows of luscious green seagrass that dot coastal regions around the world are gaining recognition as important marine habitats and carbon sinks, but there is still a lot we don’t know […]
China’s Surprisingly Robust System of Marine Protection
China is not slouching on its marine protection efforts—domestically, at least. China, as the world’s largest producer and consumer of seafood, is well known for its voracious international fishing fleet. But a comprehensive understanding of the country’s efforts on marine protection, at least in its domestic waters, has remained elusive—even to many experts within China. […]
Scientists Are Running Out of Salmon to Study
With west coast salmon populations withering, these researchers are heading for the Great Lakes. For years, Steven Cooke, a biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, has been traveling to British Columbia to research Pacific salmon migrations. But on the west coast, salmon populations are in dire straits. Several of the populations Cooke studies, including those […]
Want to Save a Failing Fishery? Take the Long View
Half a millennium of fishing records shows Canada could have saved the Atlantic cod. Almost 30 years ago, the cod fishery that had sustained commercial fishers in Newfoundland and Labrador for centuries came to an abrupt end, with a government-imposed moratorium aimed at saving the collapsing cod population. The moratorium put 30,000 people out of […]
How Might Fish Farms Be Affecting Lobsters?
Open-net pen Atlantic salmon aquaculture is big business on Canada’s east coast. Given the industry’s size, much has been studied and written about its effects on wild salmon. But how might fish farms be affecting other species in their vicinity—such as lobster? Lobster is one of the most economically valuable wild species, and the bulk […]
How Aquaculture Is Spreading a Salmon Virus
A genetic analysis of Piscine orthoreovirus shows how it was repeatedly transported from Norwegian salmon farms to aquaculture operations around the world—and on to wild Pacific salmon. Farmed salmon, like any farmed animals that live in close quarters, are highly vulnerable to infectious diseases. On Atlantic salmon farms in the Pacific Ocean, one virus—Piscine orthoreovirus […]
Are COVID-19 Lockdowns Really Causing Nature to Heal?
It’s complicated. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last spring and people around the world went into lockdown, a certain type of news story started to spring up—the idea that, in the absence of people, nature was returning to a healthier, more pristine state. There were viral reports of dolphins in the canals of Venice, […]
US Fisheries Hit Hard by COVID-19
Demand for fresh seafood has plummeted as people avoid dine-in restaurants. The COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world for much of the past year has disrupted many industries, and fisheries are no exception. An early analysis estimates that in the United States, the pandemic has caused fresh seafood catches to decline by 40 percent […]
Canada Gives BP Okay to Explore in Marine Conservation Area
How protected is a marine refuge, really, if oil drilling is allowed? Earlier this month, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board accepted a bid from oil company BP to explore for oil and gas in an area that includes part of Atlantic Canada’s largest marine conservation area. Read more in Hakai.