Grinding up fish to feed to fish is ‘absurd’: fears over UN aquaculture plan
Nearly half of the world’s wild fish catch will be ground into animal feed for farmed fish if plans to expand aquaculture go ahead, a report has found. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is aiming to increase aquaculture—where fish are farmed rather than caught in the wild—production by 75% by 2040.
Iceland considers ban that would leave just two countries that allow whaling
A bill to be submitted by Iceland’s government in February 2027 could outlaw whaling, leaving Norway and Japan as the world’s only remaining nations to permit commercial hunts. The industry in Iceland has provoked years of opposition from animal rights campaigners alongside prominent Hollywood figures.
Trump rollback of U.S. forest protections could accelerate extinction of 400 endangered species
According to a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity, the rollback of the Bill Clinton-era “roadless rule” could put 7.4m acres of endangered-species habitat and nearly 1,800 miles of protected rivers and streams at risk, while opening more than 45m acres of national forests to roads, drilling and logging.
The world’s rarest Great Ape is worse off than we thought
When scientists identified the Tapanuli orangutan as its own species in 2017, it immediately became the world’s rarest great ape. A survey suggested there were fewer than 800 remaining. The animals had already been pushed into a forbidding mountainous territory about the size of Los Angeles in northern Sumatra, and were hemmed in by human […]
U.S. declines to protect endangered monkeys used in medical research
Long-tailed macaques, monkeys native to Southeast Asia, have been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2022 after their populations declined by at least 50% over 30 years. Yet, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has twice now declined to consider protecting the species under the domestic Endangered Species Act. The most […]
Costco’s organic chicken isn’t what it seems
Organic chicken costs on average more than twice as much as conventional chicken, and people buy it in part because they believe that the animals are given a much better life. But a new undercover investigation reveals that these expectations may often be far from reality.
Industrial chicken farming accelerating spread of diarrhea bacteria, study finds
The study found a dramatic increase in the exchange of campylobacter strains between wild birds and chickens as farming has intensified, creating the ideal conditions for the bacteria to mix, spread and acquire new traits. There has also been a rise in antimicrobial resistance traits in circulating strains, raising concerns that serious illness in people […]
The first major overhaul of public lands grazing looks to cut out public involvement
For the first time since 1995, the Bureau of Land Management is rewriting its grazing regulations. The new rule, which governs ranching across 155 million acres of public lands in the West, would heavily favor the livestock industry. Public lands grazing is overseen by a nearly century-old system that heavily subsidizes some of the wealthiest […]
‘Death sentence’: Trump administration to open habitats of endangered species to logging and mining
The Trump administration repealed a crucial part of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), finalizing a new rule that will open habitats of imperiled wildlife to development, logging, mining, and other uses. For the last 50 years, the landmark environmental law included a broader understanding of the word “harm”, which ensured that not just the plants […]
Pacific gray whales facing ‘catastrophic’ die-off as climate crisis hits food supply
Climate change is driving a gray whale “catastrophic mortality event” in the Pacific Ocean as melting sea ice depletes food sources and the animals starve, environmental groups warn. Meanwhile, a range of other issues, like ship strikes, oil spills, microplastic pollution, algal blooms and Russian harvesting are also probably contributing to the die-off that has […]
Chile’s salmon boom
Chile has become the world’s second-largest producer of salmon, despite the fish being non-native to its waters. In this new investigation, Marcos Zegers documents the industry from hatchery to slaughter, revealing crowded conditions, environmental concerns, and the growing impact of salmon farming on local ecosystems and communities.
Lawsuit launched to strengthen protections for Arizona’s endangered fish, snakes, frogs
The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a notice of its intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Arizona Game and Fish Department for failing to address decades of damage to the state’s endangered aquatic species from non-native fish stocking, in violation of the Endangered Species Act.