Fish

In the case of cod in the North Sea, eastern channel and Skagerrak...things took a turn for the worse in 2008, when a greater proportion of the stock was caught than in any year since 1999," the European Commission said in a statement.

"We are not that far away from a situation of complete collapse," said Jose Rodriguez, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana.

Conservation measures for desperately depleted cod have not delivered the promised revival of supplies – partly because of continued over-fishing exceeding agreed quota limits.

According to an analysis of the Atlantic cod’s genome, scientists have discovered the fish have evolved to survive without a set of genes thought essential to the immune system. It is hoped the finding will lead to better vaccines for farmed cod and even open new avenues of medical research for human disease.

The unique fish is called the Benguela-goby, or bearded goby, and is found only on the anoxic continental shelf outside Namibia and South-Africa. Since the collapse of the sardine fisheries, this goby has become the new predominant prey species for larger fish, birds and mammals in the region

The Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) and its collaborators announced today the world’s first use of an acoustic underwater camera to survey juveniles of goliath grouper in mangrove habitats.