Archive for December 31st, 2010

Past decade ‘best for UK rivers’

BBC: Cleaner rivers in England and Wales have helped many species of wildlife, the Environment Agency says. The last decade has been the best for rivers since the industrial revolution, it said. Record numbers of salmon and sea trout were found in the Mersey, Tyne and Thames, while otters returned to every region in England and Wales. The decade also saw the return of the water vole after a dramatic decline in the 1990s. Incidents of serious water pollution have more than halved since 2001....

Britain’s rivers come back to life

Independent: Britain's rivers, some of which were little better than sewers a generation ago, are now at their cleanest for more than a century. In the past decade, our waterways have returned to conditions not seen since before the industrial revolution, the Environment Agency says. Meanwhile, the river Thames, which half a century ago was declared "biologically dead" at Tower Bridge in London, won a coveted international prize this year for its environmental value. "The last decade shows how far we've come...

Fisheries commissions’ ability to manage diminishing tuna stocks called into question

Mongabay: Fisheries commissions' ability to manage diminishing tuna stocks called into question During a meeting earlier this month, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) disregarded appeals from the EU and Japan, as well as from Commission scientists, calling for a substantial and immediate reduction in catch rates of bigeye and yellowfin tuna in response to diminished stocks. An earlier meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) resulted...

Freshwater wildlife thrives in cleanest rivers since Industrial Revolution

Guardian: Otters, water voles and species of freshwater fish which had all but vanished from waterways have made a dramatic recovery following the healthiest decade for rivers since the industrial revolution. The toxic effects of pesticides nearly wiped out the wild otter in the 1970s, but steady improvements in water quality mean their numbers are expected to make a full recovery. Otters may already have reached their maximum capacity in parts of the south-west of England, Cumbria and Northumbria. In...