Background Articles

Thanks to stricter pollution laws, toxin levels have been dropping steadily in the Baltic. Concentrations of environmental toxins have dropped by as much as 80 percent.

In just a few years, 8 million native angasi oyster hatchlings have been placed in the waters off Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia, on the recycled mollusc shells collected from restaurants. They've turned empty, sandy seabeds into thriving ecosystems.

Regulations have lowered mercury emissions globally, but the risks to ocean ecosystems and human health may be getting worse.

Regulations have lowered mercury emissions globally, but the risks to ocean ecosystems and human health may be getting worse.

Conservation groups are calling for the immediate closure of the herring fishery in the Strait of Georgia following the release of new federal government data showing a four-year population biomass decline of almost 60 per cent. “We’ve been systematically overfishing these stocks and the Gulf of Georgia fishery is the last one left,” Pacific Wild...

With an increasing number of fisheries disaster requests coming from across the U.S., members of Congress and the federal government are looking for ways to improve the relief process.

Toxic algal blooms which can be fatal to humans, are increasing across the world as temperatures rise, according to the first global survey of dozens of freshwater lakes based on 30 years of NASA data. 

Four people are confirmed sick in an outbreak of scombroid fish poisonings that are related to tuna now under recall by Mical Seafood Inc. “Elevated

NOAA scientists and partners have released a Climate Vulnerability Assessment for groundfish, crabs, and salmon in the Eastern Bering Sea. They looked at the potential impacts of changing climate, ocean temperatures, and other environmental conditions on 36 groundfish, crab and salmon stocks. Of the

The aquaculture industry has failed to bring epidemic of sea lice under control in B.C.’s Clayoquot Sound.

Scientists have made a new discovery they hope will provide more insight into declining salmon populations in our province.

South winds and warm water are hitting sea ice on Arctic waters with a double whammy.

The top of the world saw record-beating average temperatures flashing through all three summer months.

Dead salmon have shown up in river systems throughout Alaska, and the mortalities are probably connected to warm water or low river water levels, said a Fish and Game official.

With some of this year's salmon runs projected to be the lowest on record, West Coast salmon fishermen are demanding disaster relief from the federal and provincial governments.

A new study that suggests sockeye returns have dropped by three-quarters in the Skeena River over the last century should serve as a "wake-up call" for B.C., the lead researcher says.

One theory is the pinks were traveling somewhere else to spawn, and taking a longer than usual route to avoid warming water.

Halifax-based scuba diver Lloyd Bond says in the last three years he's seen increasing numbers of butterfly fish, seahorses, cornet fish, trigger fish, puffer fish, and many other species not native to Canadian waters.

From the Koyukuk River, to the Kuskokwim, to Norton Sound, to Bristol Bay’s Igushik River, unusually warm temperatures across Alaska this summer led to die-offs of unspawned chum, sockeye and pink salmon. Warm waters also sometimes this summer acted as a “thermal block” — essentially a wall of heat salmon don’t swim past, delaying upriver migration.

An increasing number of marine researchers say the voracious eaters are thriving at the expense of higher-value sockeye salmon, seabirds and other species with whom their diet overlaps.