Bluefin Tuna Tricked Into Spawning

(NEWSER) - You might suspect a sushi restaurant that doesn’t specify what sort of tuna you’re eating of trying to pawn off an inferior species. Not so. Researchers using novel DNA barcoding technology found that though nearly a third of tuna sold in 31 US restaurants was the prized—and endangered—bluefin. But just 8 of the 22 bluefin samples were accurately labeled. More»

New quotas well above sustainable limit

(NEWSER) - The European Commission completed a deal this week cutting back on the fishing of bluefin tuna, the Economist reports, but not sharply enough to save the species, scientists argue. The deal gradually reduces the legal catch from 28,500 tons this year to 19,950 tons in 2010—but conservationists believe a limit of 15,000 tons next year is necessary. More»

Politicking produces bad management of big tuna

(NEWSER) - Bluefin tuna are disappearing from the Atlantic and Mediterranean because of overfishing and an ineffectual world agency that's failed in its sole mission of protecting the fish, the Economist reports. Up to 60,000 tons are hauled in each year, legally or otherwise, when the limit should long have been 15,000 tons. Even if fishing was halted now—and the current plan calls for only a gradual reduction—the population will collapse, a new report says. More»

Group goes after 'plunderers' wiping out Pacific stocks at unsustainable rates

(NEWSER) - The world's tuna stocks are in danger, and Greenpeace is taking matters into its own hands, reports the Times of London. Faced with little action from regulators and boosted by success in tackling Japanese whalers, activists have vowed to continue to "interfere" with boats they say are plundering Pacific tuna at an unsustainable rate. More»

Mekong region's amazing biodiversity under threat, WWF warns

(NEWSER) - It's a region that produces a new species every other day: Carnivorous plants that can eat mice, birds, and lizards. An all-female species of lizard that reproduces by self-cloning. Brightly colored geckos bathed in orange, yellow, blue, and green markings. A noseless monkey that looks like it's wearing an Elvis wig. These are just a few of the 208 new species discovered in the Greater Mekong region last year, reports the World Wildlife Fund . More»