Sam’s Tours in Palau reports that Palau has banned the live reef fish industry, thanks in no small part to the hard work of Sam’s Tours.

In case you’re not aware, the live reef fish you see in tanks in restaurants around Asia come from all over the world, and catching the fish involves highly destructive fishing practices such as the use of cyanide. In short, it’s an unsustainable practice that caters to wealthy urban residents at the expense of reefs and the long-term welfare of local populations.

Kudos to Palau, and to the efforts of Sam’s Tours to address this issue! 

Legislators in Taiwan are considering requiring shark fin restaurants to warn consumers that shark fins often contain levels of mercury considered hazardous to human health, and also having the Department of Health print posters to let consumers know that eating shark fins can reduce intelligence. Read more…

Read this feature from The Star in Malaysia to learn more about why endangered humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), also known as Napoleon wrasse, are rapidly disappearing from our reefs. Read more…

One thing about monitoring news related to marine issues is that reading about the sheer volume of devastation humanity is wreaking on the oceans can be overwhelming. Most of the time, normal people (meaning just about everyone reading this who’s sitting at home or is camped out in an office or at school) never hear about what’s going on in far-flung places.

While we want to post everything we come across to help you keep up with what’s going on, it would be sheer overload…for you and for us. This following story, however, is worth posting, as it’s from a local publication in the Federated States of Micronesia, reporting about thousands of illegally caught sharks (many finned) to feed the seemingly insatiable appetite of Asians. Read more…

Delta Airlines apparently served braised shark fin to celebrate its inaugural non-stop flight from Atlanta to Shanghai. It’s a good thing that officials from the airline and the Governor of Georgia were on hand to underscore their commitment to conservation of the environment. With corporate and political leaders of this caliber, the planet’s in perfectly good hands. Not.

Read more…

Westchester County in the state of New York in the US is considering passing legislation to ban the sale of shark fin soup. As far as we know, this is the first such piece of legislation to be considered anywhere.

While the bulk of shark fin consumption is obviously in Asia, this is a symbolically significant step, and could lead to other jurisdictions considering similar protection for sharks.

Please consider providing constructive feedback in support of the legislation by:

1. Writing to
Legislator William E. Burton
Chair Legislation Committee

and cc:ing
Legislator Thomas Abinanti
Chair Environment & Energy Committee

and sending your correspondence via email to: Louise Gantress, or

2. Signing an online letter posted at Shark Savers.

Overfishing is a rapidly escalating problem, decimating fish populations in all the world’s oceans from cold water to tropical seas, from shallow areas to the deep, dark abyss.

Recent reports suggests that up to 20 percent of all fish catches may be illegally caught. Read more…

Here’s a stupid and cruel gift for the holidays that’s allegedly selling well in Australia.

Dubbed the iPond and sold by Pets Paradise and Pets Good Direct down under, the little tank holds about 650 millilitres of water, barely enough to qualify as a puddle.

You stick a fish in it and blast it with music. Pets Paradise apparently throws in a Siamese fighting fish so you don’t have to find your own victim fish.

Not to worry though. As a spokeswoman for Pets Paradise and Pet Goods Direct noted: “The chains were satisfied that fish in iPonds did not suffer.”

More here.

International conservation organisation Oceana has just released a report indicating that fishing vessels from the European Union are circumventing EU regulations on shark finning by going abroad…essentially cheating in order to reap profit from the seemingly insatiable appetite for shark fins in Asia.

Greed knows no boundaries.

Read the press release here, and download the full PDF report here.

Well-managed marine conservation can significantly help reduce poverty and enhance the quality of life for local communities, according to a new study.

The study, Nature’s Investment Bank, which was released by The Nature Conservancy in Manado, North Sulawesi, on Thursday, was based on more than 1,100 interviews within poor communities in four countries, including Indonesia, from November 2006 to May this year. Read more…