Emma Prairie is a freelance journalist based in Waialua, Hawaii, who writes about fisheries and sustainability. She graduated from Yale University in June 2021 with an undergraduate degree in environmental studies and mechanical engineering. She has contributed to the environmental conservation field through internships located in Ecuador, Thailand, and Hawaii.
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After the conclusion of the United Nations Ocean Conference, held from 9 to 13 June, Paris, France-based climate and ocean nonprofit BLOOM announced it was pursuing legal action against the French government, accusing it of making false claims at the conference about expanding protections in the nation’s waters against bottom trawling.
BLOOM said the legal action aims to highlight how the French government used the conference as a
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A new suite of research has found efforts to restore oyster reefs on the U.S. East Coast has knock-on effects benefitting the economies of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Two sets of research, one by the North Carolina Coastal Federation and another by Morgan State University’s Patuxent Environmental and Aquatic Research Laboratory in Maryland, U.S.A, found restoring oyster reefs would have direct economic benefits for the
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In April, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order allowing commercial fishing from 50 to 200 nautical miles off the shore within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.
The national monument was founded as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in 2009 under President George W. Bush and then expanded in 2016 under President Barack Obama.
Obama’s expansion entailed barring
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Southeast Asian fishing vessels facing declining profits are seeking alternative revenue sources, including through the illegal transportation of wildlife products, according to a new study.
The study, titled “Webs of exploitation and opportunism: Tiger trafficking and crime convergence between Malaysia and Vietnam” was jointly produced by wild cat nonprofit Panthera, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based Sunway University, and the
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Maine oyster-farming firms North Haven Oyster Company and Deer Isle Oyster Company are pioneering a plastic-free approach to oyster farming by testing alternative gear, and have successfully made it through their first season without using plastic.
In Maine, oysters are generally farmed from spring through fall, though there are some operations that operate year-round in areas that don’t typically freeze.
Oyster farming is widely
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The European Commission closed 87 deep-sea fishing areas in November 2022, and a new study has found that the decision resulted in an 81-percent reduction in bottom-contact fishing effort in vulnerable ecosystems over the following year.
The study, published in “Science Advances,” used Global Fishing Watch data to determine pre- and post-closure fishing effort in vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) subject to the closures, finding
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Researchers at U.S. university Texas A&M recently released a study concerning whole genome sequencing used in fish stock research, claiming that the scientific technique could be the key to stronger stock management plans and preventing overfishing.
The study, titled “How Fish Population Genomics Can Promote Sustainable Fisheries: A Road Map” and published in the Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, detailed how fish genomics
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