Marine

In a concerted effort to ensure that African Oceans are not overexploited and also not seen as a dumping ground for dangerous materials, participating countries at the just concluded conference of the Association of Heads of African Maritime Administrations have agreed on the need for population, assets and critical infrastructure protection from maritime pollution by prevention of dumping of toxic ...

A scientific expedition to explore life on undersea mountains – or seamounts – in the high seas south of Madagascar is under way. The expedition is a key stage of a project aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of seamount ecosystems in the South West Indian Ocean, led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The three-week-long expedition aboard ...

Four illegal fishing cases have been found during a joint surveillance mission conducted by Greenpeace and Sierra Leone fishery authorities. Two Chinese vessels and one Korean vessel have been arrested for infringements of Sierra Leone fishing legislation, including possessing or using illegal fishing nets on board, no visible marking and a lack of required paperwork, including log books and authorisation ...

Africa is once again at the centre of global focus, thanks to an initiative aimed at ensuring that its marine economies are climate-resilient. In the face of a changing global climate, Africa and its coastal communities that rely on the oceans for their food security and livelihoods are considered particularly vulnerable. But succour may just be around the corner, going ...

For the first time, scientists have recorded a spring fish migration simply by conducting DNA tests on water samples. “Environmental DNA” (eDNA), strained from one-litre (quart) samples drawn weekly from New York’s East and Hudson Rivers over six months last year, revealed the presence or absence of several key fish species passing through the water on each test day. The ...

The Minister of Sanitation, Environment and Sustainable Development of Côte d’Ivoire has called on African states to put value to the coastal and marine environment as it provides multiple benefits to people. Anne Desiree Ouloto made this call at the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Abidjan Convention which started in the Ivorian capital city of Abidjan on Monday. It ...

The Greenpeace ship, My Esperanza, is currently on an expedition in West Africa to document the threat from overfishing to the marine environment and food security for millions of Africans depending on fish to survive Four fishing vessels have been arrested in Guinea Bissau waters after joint patrols by Greenpeace and the Fisheries Surveillance Department of Guinea Bissau (FISCAP) found ...

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has expressed concern over the increasing menace of sand mining and dredging in parts of Lagos State, describing it as a “disastrous” venture. The organisation has thus called on the relevant government agencies to urgently curb the menace before it gets out of hand. Sand mining is the process of removal of sand and gravel ...

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Thursday, February 23 2017 launched a global campaign to eliminate major sources of marine litter – such as microplastics in cosmetics and the excessive, wasteful usage of single-use plastic – by the year 2022. Launched at the Economist World Ocean Summit in Bali, Indonesia, the “#CleanSeas campaign” is urging governments to pass plastic reduction policies; ...

Greenpeace ship – “My Esperanza” – has docked at the port of Praia in Cape Verde. For 11 weeks, the Esperanza will sail the waters of six West Africa States – Cape Verde, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Senegal – to raise awareness on the state of fisheries through political events, public engagement and consultations with the West-African ...