It sounds like science fiction, or fodder for a TV comedy sketch, any many may question if it’s real or fake. But this is real. In Kokonogi, Japan, jellyfish weighing up to 450 pounds are invading fisherman’s catches. The Nomuras are the world’s largest of the jellyfish species and can measure up to six feet in diameter. They are also a menace to fisheries in parts of Japan, where they get caught in nets and poison or kill fish stung by their tentacles–not to mention they are heavy. Earlier this month, a trawl boat capsized when a three-man fishing crew tried to haul in a net that contained dozens of the jellyfish.

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As the start of 2011, a Gulf Coast tradition will be altered indefinitely. The U.S. will ban the sale of raw oysters harvested from the region in the warm months, a decision made recently by the FDA. The purpose of the ban is that nearly all deaths associated with raw oysters have been from those infected with bacteria, and the oysters have been harvested from Gulf Coast during its warmest months.

Gulf Coast oystermen and restaurateurs, of course, are taking issue with the FDA decision, saying essentially that it will destroy their livelihoods and ruin a tradition that is hundreds of years old. Read the rest of this entry >>

In drafting plans for flood control, waterway navigation and other water-related projects, Army Corps of Engineer designers must tailor plans to meet the demands of rising sea levels, according to a new policy. In the simplest terms, that means that a levee, for example, may need to be designed higher than it would have been previously.

Among the Army Corps’ water-related projects are dredging for waterway navigation, the design and construction of dams and canals, and the design and construction of levees and other flood protections. Sometimes those flood protections fail. The agency was blasted by some of the country’s leading engineers, scientists and the general public in the days and months following Hurricane Katrina, when the levees collapsed in New Orleans. As Greenwire’s Taryn Luntz reports, Army Corps officials say that the new policy is a response to that failure. Read the rest of this entry >>

The global appetite for tuna has caused populations to dwindle.

Decades of overfishing has left the northern bluefin tuna high and dry, so to speak. The species provides much of the tuna used in sushi restaurants across the globe, and is also a highly prized delicacy in Japan and Taiwan.

A combination of commercial fishing via industrial-sized fleets and illegal fishing has diminished the northern bluefin by more than 90 percent in the western Atlantic and more than 85 percent in the eastern Atlantic. Because this tuna is a predator, environmental groups like the World Wildlife Fund say its depletion could set off drastic changes in populations of other species, which could in turn affect fishing of those species. Read the rest of this entry >>

Cruise ships are often referred to as “floating cities” and for good reason. Large cruise ships can match small cities in terms of how much waste they produce. Last month, I blogged about the Cruise Ship Environmental Report Card, recently released by Friends of the Earth.

Take for example waste water alone: The average cruise ship produces over 1.2 million gallons of waste water every week. When combined with the number of cruise ships operating around the world today–230 of them–that gallons are in the hundreds of millions, and again that’s just per week. Read the rest of this entry >>

Barbados, West Indies, Caribbean

With less than two months to go before COP15, the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, TakePart continues to cover a breadth of relevant and compelling topics. One topic of particular interest to me is how climate change is impacting small island-states. Nations like the Maldives, for instance are extremely vulnerable. Like many islands in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, they are getting a lot of media attention, and for good reason.

Far rarer in news headlines (with the exception of Haiti), however, is how small island-states in the Caribbean Sea basin are being impacted. Climate scientists say the Caribbean region is among those regions most at risk from the effects of global warming. Aside from threats to public health and the natural environment, the globe’s rapidly changing climate will cost many Caribbean countries an estimated $11 billion US dollars by 2080, or 11 percent of the gross domestic product. Read the rest of this entry >>

Fish are smart. That’s what scientists say anyway. And, apparently salmon are really, really smart because, just a few weeks ago, about 40,000 of them escaped from a fish farm on the British Columbia coast. Well actually, they didn’t escape using intelligence; they escaped via two holes in the farm pens. (Nevertheless, it is fun to think of them concocting an elaborate getaway scheme, and somehow communicating it without voices or hands, lest the rascally humans make them tomorrow’s dinner.) Read the rest of this entry >>

With the swine flu as catchy in the news media as it is in humans, Americans are trying their best to keep germs of their hands and bodies. Triclosan is one germ-killing ingredient that has been touted for its ability to do just that. The chemical is present in hundreds of antibacterial toiletries and kitchen products. It has been widely used in soaps, toothpastes and deodorants, and has even been incorporated into odor-killing cloth and plastic items such as cutting boards and baby changing stations in public restrooms.

But the chemical that is killing “99.9%” of germs doesn’t do something you might assume it would: it doesn’t kill viruses. It also has a few side effects…

For example, for the last several years, the main concern over triclosan has been that it would contribute to the rise of superbugs. But now there is a newer concern: studies are proving it to be an endocrine disruptor, including interrupting thyroid function. Read the rest of this entry >>

You may know the Monterey Bay Aquarium for its famous Seafood Watch pocket guides to sustainable seafood. The pocket guide has gained such notoriety that its even got its own iPhone app, which enables you to make humane seafood decisions based on the region in which you live. But the aquarium is also esteemed for its ocean research, and this month it released a report called Turning the Tide: the State of Seafood.

Here is some news that may shock you: the human appetite is the primary cause of damage to the world’s oceans. Not even the various man-made pollutants or climate change can outweigh how our voracious cravings for seafood have put oceans in peril.

The human appetite for seafood has grown over the last few decades as more people switch to fish as their source of protein. And, according to the report, demand for seafood is expected to grow by as much as 10 percent annually for the foreseeable future. Read the rest of this entry >>

You may recall the recent post by TakePart’s Ciara O’Rourke who wrote about evidence that the Arctic could lose its summer ice cap in as little as ten years.

Well, the Arctic continues to make headlines. Last Thursday, the U.S. issued its Arctic Report Card. The report says that global warming is melting glaciers and sea ice at much more drastic rates than just five years ago, and at rates faster than predicted.

Aside from the conspicuous effects on wildlife habitat, such as that of polar bears, walruses, caribou and reindeer, changes in Arctic ice have consequences for the rest of the world.

The Arctic is a key regulator in the amount of heat stored in the world’s oceans, as well as its ice. Richard Spinrad, head of research for NOAA, told MSNBC.com that, “the loss of sea ice is messing with the thermostat for the globe.” Read the rest of this entry >>