Latest news with #CriticallyEndangered
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ropeless Gear Can Save Whales and Keep Fisheries Open — Canada must Release Whalesafe Fishing Gear Strategy Now
Strategy must designate ropeless-only zones in high-risk areas and set clear, transparent timelines for implementation OTTAWA, Ontario, traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People, Aug. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are dying at an alarming rate from entanglements in fishing gear. One of the most effective protections is closing high-risk fishing areas — but these closures often include the most productive waters for fishers, creating conflict between protecting whales, sustaining livelihoods, and Canada's global seafood reputation. A solution exists: ropeless, or 'on-demand,' fishing gear. This innovative technology allows fishing to continue without leaving dangerous vertical ropes in the water — protecting whales while keeping fisheries open. Oceana Canada is calling on Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to release its long-promised Whalesafe Fishing Gear Strategy without further delay. The strategy must identify high-risk areas for permanent ropeless only fishing by 2026 and set a clear path for widespread adoption. 'We have a chance to redefine what sustainable fishing looks like,' said Kim Elmslie, Senior Campaign Director at Oceana Canada. 'Ropeless gear is more than a tool to prevent whale deaths — it's an innovation that can future-proof our fisheries, keep markets open, and show the world that protecting whales and supporting fishers are not competing goals, but the foundation of our shared future.' Ropeless gear keeps ropes and buoys out of the water until catch retrieval. Traps are placed on the ocean floor and equipped with a buoyant device whose location is logged in real time to a shared digital map, so fishers and enforcement officers can track the gear. When it's time to haul traps, fishers send an acoustic signal from their vessel, triggering the device to release the trap to the surface. For six years, ropeless gear has been tested on commercial vessels across Atlantic Canada, with fisher feedback driving improvements in performance and reliability. A gear lending library now allows fishers to borrow proven gear at no cost when fishing grounds are closed due to whale detections. To date, approximately 422,000 kilograms of snow crab have been landed in Canada using ropeless technology. More than 86% of North Atlantic right whales bear scars from entanglement in fishing gear, with some enduring the trauma up to eight times. These injuries often lead to slow, painful deaths, impacting their ability to eat, move, reproduce, and survive. Since 2017, DFO has closed prime fishing areas for at least 15 days when right whales are detected, to protect them from entanglements. If whales are detected again between days nine and 15 of a closure, the area remains closed for the rest of the season. These closures impact Canada's most valuable trap-based fisheries — snow crab and lobster — and cause ripple effects across coastal communities, the seafood industry, and international trade. 10 right whales became entangled in 2024, six of them in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The source of the gear could not be confirmed, but each of these incidents was preventable. Oceana Canada is calling on DFO to ensure the Whalesafe Fishing Gear Strategy: Designates ropeless-only fishing zones in high-risk areas by 2026. Expands gear trials and makes ropeless technology accessible to more harvesters. Maintains and strengthens existing closure protocols and gear-marking rules that will help to identify the origin of fishing gear involved in whale entanglements. Recognizes and rewards early adopters who are leading the transition. 'Fishers have shown they are ready to innovate — now the government must match that commitment,' Elmslie said. 'With a clear strategy, we can protect right whales, keep fisheries thriving, and prove Canadian seafood is both responsible and world-class.' This is about whales and the future of our fisheries, our coastal communities, and Canada's role as a global leader in sustainable seafood. Learn more at Oceana Canada was established as an independent charity in 2015 and is part of the largest international advocacy group dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana Canada has successfully campaigned to ban single-use plastics, end the shark fin trade, make rebuilding depleted fish populations the law, improve the way fisheries are managed and protect marine habitat. We work with civil society, academics, fishers, Indigenous Peoples and governments to return Canada's formerly vibrant oceans to health and abundance. By restoring Canada's oceans, we can strengthen our communities, reap greater economic and nutritional benefits, and protect our future. Find out more at Media contacts: Vaishali Dassani, Oceana Canada, vdassani@ 647-294-3335; Rose-Marie Ménard, Pilot PMR, +1-579-622-9925Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CBS News
23-07-2025
- Science
- CBS News
World's smallest-known snake found under rocks in Barbados after nearly 20 years
For nearly two decades, no one had spotted the world's smallest-known snake. Some scientists worried that maybe the Barbados threadsnake had become extinct, but one sunny morning, Connor Blades lifted a rock in a tiny forest in the eastern Caribbean island and held his breath. "After a year of searching, you begin to get a little pessimistic," said Blades, project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados. The snake can fit comfortably on a coin, so it was able to elude scientists for almost 20 years. Scientifically named Tetracheilostoma carlae, the petite creature is listed as Critically Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species when it was last assessed in 2015. Too tiny to identify with the naked eye, Blades placed it in a small glass jar and added soil, substrate and leaf litter. Several hours later, in front of a microscope at the University of the West Indies, Blades looked at the specimen. It wriggled in the petri dish, making it nearly impossible to identify. "It was a struggle," Blades recalled, adding that he shot a video of the snake and finally identified it thanks to a still image. It had pale yellow dorsal lines running through its body, and its eyes were located on the side of its head. "I tried to keep a level head," Blades recalled, knowing that the Barbados threadsnake looks very much like a Brahminy blind snake, best known as the flower pot snake, which is a bit longer and has no dorsal lines. On Wednesday, the Re:wild conservation group, which is collaborating with the local environment ministry, announced the rediscovery of the Barbados threadsnake. "Rediscovering one of our endemics on many levels is significant," said Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for Re:wild who helped rediscover the snake along with Blades. "It reminds us that we still have something important left that plays an important role in our ecosystem." The Barbados threadsnake has only been seen a handful of times since 1889. It was on a list of 4,800 plant, animal and fungi species that Re:wild described as "lost to science." There's no information on its population and the most recent record of the snake was a 2005 photograph from near Hillaby town in St. Thomas Parish, according to the IUCN. One of the oldest known records of the species dates back to 1918, and it has only been rarely spotted since then, with a few documentations from 1966, 1997 and 2008, the Switzerland-based conservation organization said. "Given the dense human population on Barbados, if the species was simply underrecorded it seems likely that local people would be aware of additional records," the IUCN said on its website. "The lack of records suggests that this species is genuinely rare and restricted." The snake is blind, burrows in the ground, eats termites and ants and lays one single, slender egg. Fully grown, it measures up to four inches. "They're very cryptic," Blades said. "You can do a survey for a number of hours, and even if they are there, you may actually not see them." But on March 20 at around 10:30 a.m., Blades and Springer surrounded a jack-in-the-box tree in central Barbados and started looking under rocks while the rest of the team began measuring the tree, whose distribution is very limited in Barbados. "That's why the story is so exciting," Springer said. "It all happened around the same time." S. Blair Hedges, a professor at Temple University and director of its center for biology, was the first to identify the Barbados threadsnake. Previously, it was mistakenly lumped in with another species. In 2008, Hedges' discovery was published in a scientific journal, with the snake baptized Tetracheilostoma carlae, in honor of his wife. "I spent days searching for them," Hedges recalled. "Based on my observations and the hundreds of rocks, objects that I turned over looking for this thing without success, I do think it is a rare species." That was June 2006, and there were only three other such specimens known at the time: two at a London museum and a third at a museum collection in California that was wrongly identified as being from Antigua instead of Barbados, Hedges said. Hedges said that he didn't realize he had collected a new species until he did a genetic analysis. "The aha moment was in the laboratory," he said, noting that the discovery established the Barbados threadsnake as the world's smallest-known snake. Hedges then became inundated for years with letters, photographs and emails from people thinking they had found more Barbados threadsnakes. Some of the pictures were of earthworms, he recalled. "It was literally years of distraction," he said. Scientists hope the rediscovery means that the Barbados threadsnake could become a champion for the protection of wildlife habitat. A lot of endemic species on the tiny island have gone extinct, including the Barbados racer, the Barbados skink and a particular species of cave shrimp. "I hope they can get some interest in protecting it," Hedges said. "Barbados is kind of unique in the Caribbean for a bad reason: it has the least amount of original forest, outside of Haiti."
Forbes
10-06-2025
- Science
- Forbes
These Sharks Aren't Gone, Just Harder To Find
Angelshark in Cardigan Bay. For years, the future for Wales' angelshark population has looked… well, pretty bleak, to be honest. Once common in the coastal waters of the British Isles, the angelshark has become a rare and mysterious figure. Official assessments suggest their numbers have plummeted by as much as 70% since 1970, and they've been listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2006. But a new study led by the Zoological Society of London offers a surprising twist to this animal's tale: that dramatic decline may not be as steep as we thought. Angelsharks are hard to spot even under the best conditions. Their flat, ray-like bodies and sandy, speckled coloration make them almost invisible when they're lying motionless on the seafloor. They often bury themselves just beneath the sand, with only their eyes and a portion of their head exposed; from here, they ambush unsuspecting prey (typically smaller fish or crustaceans) with a lightning-fast upward strike. Angelsharks can grow up to 8 feet long (about 2.4 meters) and are the only angelshark species found in Atlantic waters of northeast Europe. Historically, they were widespread across the continental shelf around the British Isles, but today their range has shrunk considerably, with Wales now considered one of their last strongholds in this region. Their preference for shallow, sandy coastal areas puts them in direct conflict with human activities, like bottom-trawling, dredging, and other destructive fishing methods that disturb the seabed where angelsharks rest and hunt. These methods not only destroy this predator's habitat, but can also unintentionally catch, injure, or kill them. Coastal development, pollution and increasing human pressure on inshore ecosystems only add to the threats these sharks face.' But the study suggests that fewer sightings of angelsharks might be a result of changes in fishing practices over the last 50 years. To better understand how changes in fishing have affected angelshark encounters, researchers from ZSL and Natural Resources Wales partnered with the Welsh Fishermen's Association and Angling Cymru. They interviewed 27 fishers who have operated in Welsh waters between 1968 and 2019, asking about the ecological, economic and regulatory changes they've witnessed. What they found was a landscape transformed. There's now new fishing regulations, shifts in target species, the rise of more species-specific gear and even changing social attitudes which have all contributed to fishers spending less time in angelshark habitats. The result? Far fewer accidental catches or sightings, and not necessarily because the sharks are gone, but because people just aren't fishing where the sharks are. Francesca Mason, lead author of the study and a researcher at ZSL's Ocean Predator Lab, says studying this shift is critical to understanding the species' true status. 'Identifying how changes to fishing practices over the last 51 years have impacted our ability to monitor them indicates that there may be more angelsharks swimming off the Welsh coast than we previously thought – we're just having a harder time spotting them,' she explained. 'While this is a good sign if less angelsharks are being caught accidentally, it also means we now need new ways to monitor them to build a more accurate picture of how these sharks are doing. Fisher with angelshark caught near Aberdyfi in the 1980s. That's why the team has pointed to a powerful new tool available in their arsenal: environmental DNA, or eDNA. Instead of relying on catching or spotting angelsharks (which is getting increasingly difficult) they can now look for traces of their genetic material in the water. As sharks shed skin cells or bleed from minor wounds, that DNA essentially 'floats' into the environment, where researchers can collect and analyze it. This technique has already confirmed the presence of angelsharks in areas like Cardigan and Carmarthen Bays, two places where traditional monitoring methods are no good due to low visibility and rough conditions. 'With their excellent camouflage, one of the hardest challenges we face studying angelsharks is simply finding them,' Jake Davies, Technical Specialist for Project SIARC at ZSL and NRW, said in a press release. 'eDNA allows us to study species without having to spot them.' '[This] work highlights why conservation works best when we bring people together and combine the knowledge of those living alongside these creatures with cutting-edge research and science,' Mason continued. Charlie Bartlett, a co-author of the study and a charter fisher from Gwynedd, has seen the benefits of this collaboration firsthand. Having worked along the Welsh coast for more than 50 years, he's encountered angelsharks in the past and contributed his knowledge, photos and logbooks to the research. For him, the project isn't just about sharks — it's also about preserving the marine heritage of Wales. 'It's been great to share personal experiences that help better understand angelsharks,' he says. 'That information is not just important for the species but also for inspiring future generations.' Angelsharks remain one of the world's most threatened sharks, ranked as the fifth most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species. Their loss would represent not just a local extinction, but the disappearance of a unique lineage of life. Projects like 'Angel Shark Project: Wales' and the wider Project SIARC are thankfully creating a more accurate picture of what's happening beneath the waves — and what needs to happen next to keep this species from disappearing for good. While the new study doesn't mean angelsharks are thriving, it does offer a glimmer of hope for their future. It also, the team argues, should make scientists and conservationists rethink how we assess their populations.
