… a study found that just 79 percent of known fish species has been formally described, and that the largest gaps in knowledge centered on the oceans’ most diverse habitats …

… California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suspended all fishing in the San Francisco Bay after the area’s worst oil spill in two decades. The governor called the 58,000 gallon spill, which occured after a cargo ship collided with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, an “unbelievable human failure” …

… German scientists developed LOKI, a device that can recognize and count organisms as small as 0.2 millimeters across. It will be used to study zooplankton, a critical food source for juvenile fish …

… prospectors snatched up rights to develop commercial wave farms along the U.S. West Coast in “a kind of gold rush,” said a local official. A possible source of alternate energy, no wave farms are currently in operation …

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… a report by Food and Water Watch found that the fish sold by one of four experimental government-run fish farms in U.S. waters cost the taxpayers $3,000 per pound to produce…

…a coalition of business owners, recreational fishermen, and locals took out a full-page ad in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper asking Premier Gordon Campbell to disallow fish farms near the migratory route of juvenile salmon …

… Oceana and WildAid released a report on sharks that said the one-time predator king of the seas was in danger from overfishing. The report asked lawmakers to restrict the import of shark fins …

… the film Sharkwater debuted in the U.S. …

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… the African island nation of Mauritius hoped to expand its fisheries employment by 3,000 in the next two years …

… and meanwhile, the Irish whitefish fleet will be cut by 30 percent so that the remaining fishermen may be in line with the amount of whitefish stocks …

… an Irish trawler pulled up €420,000 worth of cannabis from waters off the Donegal coast, where it had been stashed in two wrapped bales …

… the annual Japanese whaling season is set to open. This year it will include humpbacks in addition to minke and fin whales …