The UK Government claims that three million square kilometres of ocean is 'protected' in Overseas Territories, while still permitting commercial fishing.
The oceans can generate more abundant fish populations, food for human consumption and profits for fisheries. But nations must act now to adopt fisheries management reforms that take a changing climate into account, argues KRISTIN KLEISNER
The Labour party’s manifesto prioritises climate change, air quality and biodiversity decline, arguing that strong environmental policy is a social justice issue. CATHERINE EARLY reports
The Environmental Justice Foundation has documented gross human rights violations and serious illegal fishing offences aboard the Taiwanese Fuh Sheng 11. MARIANNE BROOKER reports
Global fish consumption has nearly doubled in the last 50 years. But the industrialisation of the fishing industry is taking a heavy toll on small-scale fishing communities. ELYSE MILLS writes about the rise of a global ‘fisheries justice’ movement
Fishmeal factories supply fish farms in Asia and Europe but compete with locals for affordable fish. Protestors are calling them out for pollution and overfishing pressure. NOSMOT GBADAMOSI reports
Whale sharks roam less than previously thought and require greater protection from local and regional threats, a new study published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series finds. MARIANNE BROOKER reports
The future of UK fisheries depends on a government white paper which is due this Spring. This will decide whether Britain will regulate fishing properly and sustainably after Brexit. ClientEarth, the environmental lawyers, argues this is essential for the future of marine life, writes BRENDAN MONTAGUE
Australia recently opened one of its largest marine reserves in the hopes that increased fishing will stimulate the economy. However, human contact with this previously untouched reserve could greatly affect the health of the ecosystem and species in it, argues EMILY FOLK
With the UN Ocean Conference beginning in New York next week, Elizabeth A Kirk asks: can we devise a legal system that promotes the ecological resilience of the oceans? To do so will mean placing ecosystems at the heart of decision making, over and above countries' selfish 'national interests'. It will be tough, but if we fail it's hard to see how the gamut of problems - from ocean acidification to plastic pollution and overfishing - can ever be solved.
A 'Friend of the Sea' Dutch-owned trawler certified to supply 'sustainably caught' shrimp to the US and EU was arrested in Liberia after operating in an an area reserved for artisanal fishers, writes Peter Hammarstedt. The vessel, which had no licence and lacked the turtle excluders required by law, was discovered by the crew of Sea Shepherd's 'Bob Barker' in a joint mission with the Liberian Coast Guard to clamp down on rampant illegal fishing.
Scientists are praising the discovery of new species and rare dolphins in the Mekong region, but overfishing and dams loom to disrupt habitats writes NOSMOT GBADAMOSI in this special Ecologist report
