Vietnam suspends CITES-listed species trade with Laos

Vietnam Net Bridge Vietnam has suspended commercial trade in specimens of species listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) with Laos The Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST) on February 18 dispatched a document to involved organisations and individuals on the suspension of granting CITES certificates and Read More…

E.U. urged to act on Thai fishing slavery

The Maritime Executive A group of international labor, environmental and human rights organizations, including Human Rights at Sea, has sent a letter to Karmenu Vella, the E.U. Commissioner for fisheries, maritime affairs and environment urging the Commission to to maintain pressure on Thailand on human rights abuses in the nation’s fishing industry. The aim is to convince Thailand to Read More…

Indonesia sinks 27 foreign boats to stop illegal fishing

Inquirer.net JAKARTA — Indonesia sank 27 impounded foreign boats on Monday, a minister said, as the world’s largest archipelago nation stepped up a campaign against illegal fishing in its waters. The empty vessels from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Myanmar were blown up or scuttled at five separate locations across the country, said Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. The boats Read More…

Drought-hit Thailand taps Mekong water

The Straits Times Facing a severe drought this year, Thailand is pumping water from the Mekong river to irrigate farms inland. It also wants to divert larger volumes, despite warnings from environmentalists about the downstream impact. Pumping is now taking place in north-eastern Thailand, a parched region separated from Laos by the Mekong. In Nong Khai province, where a sluice gate between Read More…

Official figures gravely underplay fish catch

Sci Dev Net Up to 30 per cent of all fish caught globally could be missing from official figures because of unreliable data on illegal fishing and small, local fisheries, researchers believe. They estimate that around 109 million tonnes of fish are caught each year, compared with an official total of 77 million tonnes reported in 2010 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (see Read More…

New alert as dead fish hit Sha Tin river

The Standard About 100 bags of dead fish were collected from the Shing Mun River at Sha Tin yesterday. Experts says they might have died in the cold weather last week and have just surfaced. But a report on a river's water sample last year showed the pH level was 2.9 times higher than normal. The dead fish piled up along 800 meters of the river bank from residential site Man Lai Court Read More…

Government aims to preserve Cambodia’s coast

The Phnom Penh Post  Officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Environment are working closely to devise a campaign to cut down on environmental pollution caused by unmitigated development in Cambodia’s four coastal provinces – Sihanoukville, Kep, Kampot and Koh Kong. Senior Minister Im Chhun Lim of the Read More…

Vietnam tuna auctioned in Japan at high prices

VietNam Net Bridge Eight ocean tuna caught by fishermen from the central province of Binh Dinh, Vietnam, were recently auctioned in Japan. A 39kg tuna sold for the highest price of 1,600 yen/kg, earning nearly $600. Mr. Tran Van Phuc, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Dinh, said the average price for 1kg of tuna in Japan was 1,240 yen (over Read More…

There may soon be more plastic in the ocean than fish

Mother Jones Discarded plastic will outweigh fish in the world's oceans by 2050, according to a report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That is, unless overfishing moves the date up sooner. The study, a collaboration with the World Economic Forum, found that 32 percent of plastic packaging escapes waste collection systems, gets into waterways, and is eventually deposited in the oceans. Read More…

Saline intrusion a threat to crops in Mekong Delta

Viet Nam News Farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are facing a loss of crops as severe saline intrusion has occurred earlier than normal this year. During the last flooding season between August and November, the delta had a poor harvest of fish and other aquatic species, which usually appear in larger numbers during the flooding. Nguyen Van Lac, a fisherman at Tra Su fishing port in Read More…