China rejects contaminated US oysters

In a "man bites shark" story, China recently halted the import of contaminated oysters from the US.

That's a turnaround, Chinese regulators stopping a questionable food import from overseas. Maybe we need to take another look at food safety; it's not just health risks caused by bad people from far away.

The oyster problem arose in Washington state in the US because ofoysters contaminated with an annoying bacteria Vibrio parahaemolyticus. In case you're skeptical, here's the US FDA announcement on the problems with Washington oysters.

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Your CO2 killed my oysters

Human CO2 is killing oysters on the US west coast. It's the early stages of our CO2 assault on the ocean.

CO2 makes carbonic acid in water. Since we're responsible for the excess CO2 in the air, then there is absolutely no debate about the human causes of the ocean acid monster.

Here's an interesting and scary article about how oyster growers on the west coast have been hit hard by the ocean acid monster, and how they've responded with a good adaptation strategy. They only take low CO2 water into their oyster tanks. BTW, the strategy works for an oyster farm, but not for wild oysters, they're stuck living in the water no matter how much CO2 it contains.

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Overfishing ends in the US

That's right, overfishing is no longer a problem in the US. This good news comes from fisheries scientist Steve Murawski. I know Dr. Murawski and if he says it, I believe it.

I worked on the 2006-7 reform of US fishing laws and this was an important goal, it's amazing to see the reforms working. Thanks need to go to many people, but especially US Senate staff member Margaret Spring for leading the reform, and the late US Senator Ted Stevens (Republican) for being a conservative champion of responsible fishing.

This is a monumental success, overfishing has been a problem in the US for at least a century.

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Ocean conservation battle in Australia

Australia is going backwards, just when they seemed like smart protectors of the Great Barrier Reef.

Scared of losing too many votes for protecting oceans, politicians in Australia are being reeled in by recreational fishing interests. This is eerily similar to a movement in the US called "Freedom to Fish.

Called a recreational fishing movement, the US Freedom to Fish was more astroturf than grassroots, largely driven by big fishing equipment manufacturers.

There are some signs that the anti-ocean conservation campaign is working in Australia. Will fishing votes defeat ocean conservation? Check out the Shame on Shimano website to see how some people are trying to fight back against the anti-ocean protection effort.

Enjoy the nice "freedom to fish" picture from the US (right). And let's wait and see if similar things make an appearance in Australia.

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Obama launches ocean protection plan

America's oceans will be better protected in the future, thanks to a new ocean protection initiative from US President Obama. The new plan is to create a national ocean council to coordinate and strengthen ocean management, to create spatial planning to organize what we do in the ocean, and the emphasize ecosystem-based management.

That's a lot of bureaucratic hoo-hoo, but the result should be a more careful watch on our normal practice of doing anything anywhere in the free-for-all frontier approach we normally use in our oceans. News reports seem cautious but basically positive, so maybe people are ready for this type of smart ocean use.

Good on Obama, ocean progress!

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Desalination in California

Salt is the enemy, at least if you want to use ocean water for drinking or irrigation. With the world running out of fresh water, and plenty of salty ocean water at hand, no wonder people want to do industrial-scale salt removal. It's easy to do, and the only obstacle has been the cost. Is that changing? Will we turn to the ocean for our fresh water supplies?

Here's the latest, the largest ever desalting plant in the US up for final approval in Southern California.

Desalination, desalinization, desalinisation, salt removal...whatever you call it, it may be an idea whose time has finally come.

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