Saving Seafood

Genes Reveal How Some Rockfish Live Up to 200 Years

November 12, 2021 — Few groups of animals encapsulate the extremes of longevity more than fish. While coral reef pygmy govies survive for less than ten weeks, Greenland sharks can endure more than 500 years. So when a team of biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, wanted to explore the genetics of aging, they grabbed their fishing gear.

Their preferred catch was rockfish. Found in coastal waters from California to Japan, rockfish are a colorful group of more than 120 species in the genus Sebastes. Some of these closely related species live for only a decade. Others, such as the rougheye rockfish, can live for more than 200 years.

Read the full story at Scientific American

 

EEZs deter unauthorized fishing – but only in high-value fisheries

November 8, 2019 — Exclusive economic zones (EEZs) deter unauthorized fishing by foreign vessels, but only in a handful of countries where the value of the fishery surpasses steep enforcement costs.

A new study finds that unauthorized fishing is 81 percent lower just inside the 200-mile EEZ boundaries compared to just outside them, an indication that assigning nations fishing property rights could lead to protecting fisheries from unauthorized fishing.

Read the full story at Seafood Source