Scientists have called for subsidies paid out to a handful of national deep-sea fishing fleets to be stopped immediately in yet another plea to prevent permanent ecological damage and the extinction of some of the longest living creatures on the planet. Without the $150 million of subsidies paid annually, deep-sea fisheries would operate at a loss of $50 million, researchers believe. But the te...

ion The technique of abstraction is based on making useful generalisations. The purpose of the generalisations is to understand and articulate the rules that apply to a specific domain of knowledge and even to discover rules that are shared between domains. Many people find it very difficult to think in terms of abstractions and are much more comfortable thinking in terms of specific instances....

Catch and e¡ort data for the period 1973^1990 demonstrate a dramatic decline of lung¢sh in the Tanzanian waters of Lake Victoria. Bottom trawl catches in the Mwanza Gulf showed a decline in catch rates from 67.5 kg h in1973 to 5.5 kg h in1986.Trawling of commercial vessels in the Speke Gulf revealed a decline in lung¢sh catches from1.3 kg h 1 in1986 to 0.07 kg h 1 in 1990. The development of an...

1. The effects of towed bottom-fishing gear on benthic communities is the subject of heated debate, but the generality of trawl effects with respect to gear and habitat types is poorly understood. To address this deficiency we undertook a meta-analysis of 39 published fishing impact studies. 2. Our analysis shows that inter-tidal dredging and scallop dredging have the greatest initial effects o...

Five species of dictyoceratid sponges were collected from trawling on the continental shelf of Sergipe State, Northeastern Brazil, of which three are new to science: Ircinia sergipana sp. nov., Ircinia repens sp. nov., Ircinia strobilina, Hyattella cavernosa and Smenospongia ramosa sp. nov., the latter the first record of the genus Smenospongia from Brazil. 

The widespread tropical gobionelline fish genus Oxyurichthys is monophyletic due to its species sharing two characters considered derived within the Stenogobius Group of the Gobionellinae (Gobioidei: Gobiidae), a transversely broadened (spatulate) third neural spine that is usually bifid, and no preopercular cephalic lateralis canal. It is most closely related to Oligolepis, also of the Indo-we...

Continental margins are dynamic, heterogeneous settings that can include canyons, seamounts, and banks. Two of the largest canyons in the world, Zhemchug and Pribilof, cut into the edge of the continental shelf in the southeastern Bering Sea. Here currents and upwelling interact to produce a highly productive area, termed the Green Belt, that supports an abundance of fishes and squids as well a...

Data and computer simulations are reviewed to help better define the timing and magnitude of human influence on sediment flux--the Anthropocene epoch. Impacts on the Earth surface processes are not spatially or temporally homogeneous. Human influences on this sediment flux have a secondary effect on floodplain and delta-plain functions and sediment dispersal into the coastal ocean. Human impact...