Oceans
A promising step toward a national ocean policy
In June, President Obama created an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, and directed it to make recommendations for a national ocean policy. The Task Force got right to work. Now, after convening two dozen expert roundtables, inviting public comment, and holding the first of six public sessions, the Task Force has issued an Interim Report …
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CONTINUE READINGMisinformed Attacks on the Law of the Sea
Objections to the Law of the Sea Treaty are based on specious arguments about sovereignty.
CONTINUE READINGGood fish news of the week
We know that environmentalists in general, and environmental lawyers in particular, typically seem to have nothing but bad news on their minds. So we’re always happy to convey good news when we hear it. This week, it comes out of northern New York, where the USGS reports that wild-spawned Atlantic salmon have been found in …
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CONTINUE READINGMore proof that economics does not run the world
The Washington Post has a fascinating story today about Maryland abandoning its reverse auction strategy to buy up small crabbing licenses. The scheme was cooked up by a bunch of economists, and apparently neither they nor state officials thought to talk to any of its targets before implementing it. According to the story, there are …
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CONTINUE READINGStill more on climate engineering
There’s a lot of enthusiasm in some circles for “geo-engineering” as a response to anthropogenic climate change, and a lot of skepticism about it in others. The appeal is obvious — controlling greenhouse gas emissions looks difficult, since our economies and many of our daily habits (at least in the developed nations, which are providing …
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CONTINUE READINGA prospective time-out on Arctic fisheries
Just as it did with krill in the Pacific, NMFS has gotten ahead of the curve in regulating potential new commercial fisheries in the U.S. arctic. Global warming, by reducing the extent of sea ice, promises to open new areas to fishing vessels. At the same time, changing ocean temperatures and currents are expected to …
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CONTINUE READINGRight whales may need more room
The North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered. The National Marine Fisheries Service pegs its current population at roughly 313 individuals, unchanged over the last 25 years. (Early this year there were hopeful reports of a potential rebound, or at least a very good calving season.) Right whales migrate from winter calving grounds off Florida …
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CONTINUE READINGMore on reengineering – what about the oceans?
Regarding Dan’s post on reengineering the planet, one more shortcoming of the commonly discussed geoengineering solutions (even assuming they work exactly as designed and have none of the unintended consequences Dan, and others, fear) is that they are far from complete, leaving out entirely any remedy for ocean acidification, the “other” greenhouse gas problem. More info on …
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CONTINUE READINGFisheries optimism
Three years ago, Boris Worm at Dalhousie University was the lead author on a study published in Science magazine that predicted the total collapse of global fisheries by the middle of this century under a business as usual scenario. That study drew a lot of media attention, but also criticism from other fisheries experts. Now …
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CONTINUE READINGI’ll gladly tell you Thursday if your beach is safe today…
Each year, NRDC publishes a report on the sometimes-foul state of our beachwater nationwide. This year’s Testing the Waters analysis shows that people are still regularly swimming in water with unsafe levels of E Coli and other pathogens, and that thousands of people likely get ill every year from a day at the beach. In the northeast …
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