Great Decisions 2012 Winter Update: State of the Oceans


Great Decisions Updates are issued seasonally and provide groups with the latest news and analysis on topics. The Winter 2012 Update is current as of January 13, 2012. Download the Winter 2012 Update as a PDF here.

by Leslie Huang, assistant editor

 

In December, a Canadian court held hearings about the government’s response to infectious salmon anemia, a lethal virus that has decimated farmed salmon in Chile. In recent months, it has been discovered that the virus may have been detected in wild Pacific salmon as early as 2002, but that the evidence was not revealed to conservationists and opponents of aquaculture.

In an article in the influential science journal Nature, two U.S. professors have suggested that a sustainable quota market could save whales. Despite a moratorium on whaling, Norway, Iceland and Japan continue to hunt whales. These countries—as well as anti-whaling conservationists—could buy and sell whale quotas.

In November, Britain and the EU came to an agreement that places some new restrictions on British fishing fleets. The agreement increases the permitted fishing quotas by as much as 200 percent for certain fish species, but includes a cut to the number of days that ships can spend at sea. The fishing industry has deplored the decreased number of days at sea, stating that the restrictions would impose a significant economic hardship on fishermen.