It just goes to show that even when you are at the top of the food chain, you’re never really at the top of the food chain…

The horrifying part is that the shark was almost certainly alive as the eels made their way into its flesh and began to consume its life blood from the inside.  It would have been a long, slow and nasty way to go out.

LINK (via:Deep Sea News)

Are You Financing Seafood Crime?

Photo:John from Tulsa,

Between a fifth and a third of the wild-caught seafood imported into the United States was caught or trafficked illegally, according to the findings of an exhaustive study. Billions of dollars worth of shrimp, salmon, crab, and other marine life is sold in America after being harvested illegally, sold sans paperwork, or traded without required government oversight. It is effectively stolen away from ecosystems and law-abiding fishing fleets, complicating any progress toward industry sustainability.

LINK (via: Pacific Standard)

The beat goes on in Canada

Ottawa’s move to allow overfishing of salmon draws united condemnation from First Nations, fishermen, and conservationists.

First  Nations,  recreational  fishermen,  and  conservation  groups  from  the  Skeena   River  watershed  are  calling  on  Fisheries  Minister  Gail  Shea  to  abandon  a  reckless  fishing  plan   being  proposed  by  the  federal  Department  of  Fisheries  and  Oceans  (DFO).  The  new  plan  would   significantly  increase  harvest  rates  on  sockeye  salmon,  resulting  in  the  overfishing  of   endangered  sockeye  populations,  and  serious  impacts  to  other  salmon  species  caught  as  “by-­catch.”     

LINK (via:Skeena Wild)

Deadline looms to comment on two new B.C. salmon farm applications.

Ongoing government reviews of two salmon farm applications on the B.C. coast fly in the face of recommendations of the Cohen Commission related to expansion of the industry, industry critics charged Wednesday.

"It looks like there is major support from DFO to expand farming on this coast while ignoring the Cohen recommendations and the evidence around the science," said Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch. "They're kissing it (the report) off, ignoring most of the recommendations around aquaculture and science."

LINK (via:The Vancouver Sun)

Groups sue USFWS over bull trout recovery plan

Two Montana environmental groups are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for again failing to follow Endangered Species Act requirements, this time as they relate to bull trout.

LINK (via:The Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

Broken Pumps Lead to 175 Endangered Steelhead Deaths

In the past year, 175 steelhead trout — a federally endangered species — died in Hilton Creek, a tributary of the Santa Ynez River, when pumps operated by the federal Bureau of Reclamation that feed water into the creek as part of a steelhead restoration effort failed to function properly and left the fish stranded in the mud.

LINK (via: The Santa Barbara Independent)

BP Gulf Oil Disaster Causing Widespread Deformities in Fish

Surprise, surprise, surprise.....

Crude oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster causes severe defects in the developing hearts of bluefin and yellowfin tunas, according to a new study by a team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and academic scientists.

LINK (via: Ecowatch)