From now on, Princes will have all their tinned tuna caught by either pole and line or purse seine fishing, which are safer to other ocean animals than the fish aggregation devices (which Greenpeace calls ocean annihilation devices) they have been using. The changes will become complete by 2014, which gives them several years to change.

Further, Princes is now going to support the Pacific Commons marine reserves and have agreed not to source fish from that region.

Although Greenpeace is happy with this, they realize that the majority of ocean space is not protected so will continue to campaign for a network of marine reserves that cover 40% of the world’s oceans.

The poll also found support from two-thirds (66%) of people for reform of the controversial Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in order to ensure the recovery of fish stocks and also allow future generations to make a living from the sea, WWF writes.

If the politicians listen to the polled people, they might implement longer viewed fishing policies than what has existed up till now. And all fish will be caught sustainably, not just that which gets the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) logo.

WWF is calling for a meaningful reform of the European Common Fisheries Policy including sustainable management, long term planning, regional management, ecosystem health, and improved quality. And the new policy would apply to all European fisheries and fishing boats anywhere in the world.

The poll states that the UK people are ready for the change. Hopefully the politicians will listen and act accordingly.

One solution for birds is a tori line, which is a bird-scaring line that is towed behind a fishing vessel and that stops birds from coming too close to the fishing hooks. The tori line has bits of material hanging from the line, which is enough to keep the birds away. Study results show that during days when the longline gear was set without using a tori line, 25 birds were caught. However, when a tori line was used, not a single bird was caught.

The remaining challenge is finding a way to prevent the tori line from becoming entangled in the fishing line. Once they solve this problem, it will be easier to persuade long line fishing fleets to use tori lines and to stop killing birds.

The team transplanted 200 rockfish yearlings to rock clusters off Point Atkinson in 1997, and additional maturing fish were added in 2004 and 2005. 

Recently, Aquarium researchers have found babies in the nursery habitat as well as several different year classes of rockfish offspring.  2006 apparently was a strong year, in which a higher number of fish larvae survived.  Although the rockfish breed every year, the larvae is so tiny many don’t survive.  That’s why conservation has to be long term.

Rockfish are an important part of the marine ecosystem.  Whereas most types of rockfish specialize in what they eat, the black rockfish helps to keep a balance by preying on different parts of the marine community, says Dr. Marliave.  “When you start losing species from an ecosystem the whole system gets fragile.”

One key to success for the black rockfish is that the Aquarium staff had good historical data.  The area “was a known ideal habitat with piled boulders on different ledges at different depths over a very deep rocky reef”, Dr. Marliave told me.  Nearby is ideal nursery habitat.  “It’s an ideal little cosmos and there’s a nice back eddy in this cove, so that will retain a lot of larvae,” Dr. Marliave commented. Both the adult and the nursery habitat has to be protected.

You can help improve the black rockfish’s chances for success.  “It’s not legal to take either ling cod or rockfish around Vancouver because they are just too depleted,” Dr. Marliave explained.  So if you ever see someone jigging (that’s still fishing) anywhere in the Howe Sound/Vancouver area, report them to the Observe, Record and Report program.  While it’s okay for people to be in a boat and trolling for salmon, some people deliberately try to catch a ling cod or rockfish, and should be reported.  “You can’t really fish for ling cod without catching rockfish,” Jeff said. “

If you want to see some Black Rockfish, cohorts of the transplanted fish are on display in the Pacific Canada Display, the Vancouver Aquarium’s largest display tank.

But there’s hope.  Apparently lionfish taste great, and efforts are being made to develop a market in which humans can eat lionfish into local extinction in the areas it doesn’t belong.

Sea to Table is a New York based organization which seeks out locally and sustainably managed fisheries needing better access to direct markets and provides a direct connection between fishermen and chefs.  In a recent interview, Sean Dimin of Sea to Table told me about the high level of interest that was shown when lionfish was made available in several restaurants in the test markets of New York and Chicago.  “With a few boxes and plenty of conversations around the country, we feel there is a large enough market to tackle this problem,” Dimin commented.

That lionfish tastes delicious is a large success factor.  Although it could be sold through a conservation story, people would only go so far in supporting the effort if the taste wasn’t there.  But the lionfish feeds on small crustaceans and fish, and has a similar taste to snapper.  The delicate, snow white flesh has an almost sweet flavor.

Now that the market has been found, Sea to Table is working on creating a reliable supply.  The challenge is that conventional harvesting methods, such as hooks and lines, don’t work.  Lionfish are top predators, not scavengers which might feed on already dead animals such as bait in a fish trap.  Sea to Table has been working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) off the coast of North Carolina, as well as with a number of dive outfits, to try to find a solution.  One method that works is using live bait.  When live bait fish are put into a 2 litre soda bottle and then placed into a fish trap, the lionfish think it’s a school of small fish and enter the trap, becoming trapped themselves.  The live bait can be used again and again, unlike dead bait.

Dimin also mentioned “the largest of the fish processors in the Bahamas are working to develop traps and are also working on putting bounties out there for spear fishermen to go and harvest” as many lionfish as possible.  Bounties were used previously but became too expensive to maintain when the number of lionfish exceeded the budget.  But bounties become affordable when paid by a fish processing plant that sells the fish.  “It’s a commercialization of directed overfishing”, suggests Dimin.

So if a reliable supply can be obtained, human appetites for healthy and delicious foods might just eat this menacing species out of existence in the areas it causes harm.  It looks like this invasive species story is heading towards a deliciously happy ending.