American Samoa bans shark fishing to save species

Shark fisheries in Mexico and throughout the world are dealing with proposed rules to curb shark hunting in the interest of preserving these predators.

The US territory of the Marshall Islands has placed a moratorium on the trade and export of shark fins, a report said Friday, the latest in a trend across the Pacific Ocean.

Pacific stocks of the oceanic whitetip shark, a favourite of fin soup enthusiasts, sank by as much as 17 percent a year between 1995 and 2010 despite catch and finning limits, a study said Wednesday.

A group of New York legislators on Tuesday unveiled a draft law banning trade in shark fins, saying the practice, which serves the market for Chinese shark fin soup, was decimating the ocean predators.

A Malaysian state on Borneo island, known for its world-class dive sites, is seeking to ban shark fishing to protect the species, which draws thousands of tourists each year, a minister said Monday.

A U.S. ocean conservation organization estimates as many as 73 million sharks are killed each year worldwide for their valuable fins.

The European Commission said Friday that it will ban for two years beginning in December pesticides blamed for killing the bees that pollinate food and fruit crops.

They are sometimes called "smokers," due to the speed at which a fishing line zips out the reel and "smokes" after they hit on the bait.

The welcome sight of snowdrops and daffodils coming into flower in the late winter herald the promise of spring warmth just around the corner. These plants are adapted to flower early in the year to take ...

(Phys.org) —Studying complex systems like ecosystems can get messy, especially when trying to predict how they interact with other big unknowns like climate change.

Montanans who plan to spray noxious weeds this spring should take preliminary steps when spraying to reduce nontarget injury toward nearby sensitive crops, aquatic areas, trees and/or ornamentals, says Montana State University ...

(Phys.org) —The first-ever estimate of how fast frogs, toads and salamanders in the United States are disappearing from their habitats reveals they are vanishing at an alarming and rapid rate.