Order of the Gauhati High Court in the matter of Hasibur Rahman Vs State of Assam & Others dated 19/04/2024. The state of Assam vide Notification, January 20, 2024 has published a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for restricting import/stock/sale of fish imported from other than self sufficient states by road/river …
THE United States has once again lost the battle to use trade measures to determine not only tuna fishing methods but also the impact of tuna fishing on other species. In response to a complaint by the Netherlands and the European Community, the second panel report of the General Agreement …
THE controversial tilapia, a fast-breeding African fish, has been surreptitiously used by a company near Madras for pollution control experiments, despite a ban. Although the Union department of biotechnology had initially permitted the introduction of tilapia for pollution control and funded experimental projects that used them, it has been subsequently …
THE BATTLE of wits between the hunter and the hunted calls for increasingly ingenious strategies on the part of each. Recently, two Danish scientists reported that certain species of fish may be evolving the ability to detect sonars -- high-frequency sound signals -- used by whales, dolphins and humans alike …
Is something wrong with the fish species around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands? So would it seem, going by a recent decision of the environment and fisheries departments of the island to cultivate European bass imported from Denmark in marine cages in the coastal waters. The decision was taken reportedly …
MECHANICAL mining rights are being considered on the flood-prone Kalu Ganga south of Colombo for the South African gem trading company, Colombo Sapphire Ltd. According to Panos Features, this will increase the threat of floods as dredging by CSL might weaken the banks and cause them to collapse. Besides, siltation …
FISH CURRY and Rice is the catchy title of the latest in the genre of citizens' reports on the state of the environment, but it tells you little about what the book contains. It "does attempt to tell of the Goan recipe for life. And why we should join and …
AS THE global warming debate heats up, scientists are looking towards the most unlikely source for clues -- penguins. They suspect the availability of fish on which penguins feed is increasing in the waters of the Antarctic Ocean, which are warming slightly. Therefore, fatter penguins would indirectly confirm the greenhouse …
CAVIAR, the ultimate synonym for luxurious living and a major Russian export, is facing a triple threat of poaching, pollution and petroleum. Female sturgeon swim down the Volga river to the Caspian sea with their bodies heavy with the eggs that are pickled to form caviar. But with poachers flourishing, …
TURTLES, bought originally as children's pets at the height of the Mutant Ninja Turtle craze, are posing a serious threat to bathers in the French Riviera. Biologists say the pet turtles, abandoned and flushed down lavatories or discarded in lakes, have flourished in the hot climate and absence of predators. …
A GLOBAL system for sustainable management of the world's fish stocks, which are being rapidly depleted by heavily subsidised national fishing fleets, is essential to prevent their extinction, participants in a recent UN conference have urged. The session in New York, a follow-up to the Earth Summit in Rio de …
SUFFERING from chronic asthma? Try swallowing a live fish and you may never wheeze again. For more than 150 years now, thousands of people have been gathering once every year in a bylane in the old city of Hyderabad, to avail of a secret herbal medicine that is placed inside …
MOST OF us know fish to be cold-blooded creatures that alter their temperature to match that of the surrounding water. But some fish, the tuna for example, are warm-blooded, a fact that had long puzzled biologists. Barbara A Block, biologist at the University of Chicago and three of her students …
THE POPULAR fish, Palla, or Ilish as it is known in Bangladesh, is an endangered species, says a Panos Features report quoting Mirza Arshad Beg, former chairperson of the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Beg says dams have restricted the fish's movement in the last few decades and, …
NOW THAT Hiroshi Nakajima has been confirmed as director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), at the organisation's annual general assembly held in early May, he has to start setting his house in order -- a formidable task by all accounts. At the WHO annual general assembly, 93 countries voted …
RIGHT on the heels of the Tomsk-7 nuclear disaster, the British weekly, The Observer, reports Russia has been dumping nuclear reactors at sea and plutonium from nuclear warheads is posing a threat to international fishing grounds off the Norwegian coast. The weekly also alleges that the Russian submarine fleet is …
KERALA'S coastal waters have become a battleground, putting traditional fisherfolk, who don't have an alternative vocation, against operators of mechanical monsters looking for quick profits from the sea. Linked closely with the dispute is the fate of the marine ecosystem. Conflicts between traditional and mechanised fisherfolk take place all along …
A PROPOSED sewage treatment plant has trapped the 6.49-sq-km temple town of Guruvayur in controversy, pitting its residents against the villagers of nearby Chakankandam, where a 1.5 million litres per-day sewage disposal plant is to be located. Guruvayur residents held a seven-day sit-in recently to press for early implementation of …
WHILE the European Community has rejected vehement French demands for a ban on the import of cheap fish primarily from Russia and other non-EC countries, it has agreed to monitor fish exports from these countries more closely. France -- one of the biggest fish consumers in the EC -- had …
Chief minister Biju Patnaik's attempt to wriggle off the Chilika prawn project hook has left him impaled even more firmly. The onus of proving the Chilika Aquatic Farm Ltd (CAFL) project is environmentally safe has fallen on his government following a state high court order that Orissa officials must conduct …
CONTROLLING floods in the plains is laudable, but it is not a harmless activity as far as near-shore fish are concerned. Almost all fish-harvesting in Bangladesh is near the shore. All the dams, culverts, embankments and river closures installed in Bangladesh to protect 3 million, flood-prone hectares, have led to …
