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In 2010, my life changed when Dr Henk Tennekes and I traded books. His was: The systemic insecticides: a disaster in the making and ours was: The Year of the Bumblebee: Observations in a small Nature Reserve. Dr Henk Tennekes, an independent toxicologist based in the Netherlands, was the first researcher to recognise the extreme toxicity of low levels of systemic neonicotinoid insecticides that have become widespread in the environment.

Fewer birds appear to live in Vermont today than 25 years ago, according to recent research by the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. The most dramatic declines in bird populations were seen among those that live off flying insects, scientists say. Known as aerial insectivores, this diverse group of birds has declined 45 percent in Vermont, according to the study.

New monitoring in the Bay Delta shows that the water is a soup of urban and agricultural insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. When combined, pesticides at sublethal levels can have deadly synergistic effects on fish. “The Sacramento River and San Joaquin River have been monitored for years, but historically there has been little monitoring in the Delta itself,” says Michelle Hladik, an environmental chemist who leads the USGS Pesticide Fate Research Group.

The impairment of liver function by low environmentally relevant doses of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) is still a debatable and unresolved matter. Previously we have shown that rats administered for 2 years with 0.1 ppb (50 ng/L glyphosate equivalent dilution; 4 ng/kg body weight/day daily intake) of a Roundup GBH formulation showed signs of enhanced liver injury as indicated by anatomorphological, blood/urine biochemical changes and transcriptome profiling.

SALMON catches on River Tweed and its tributaries fell by seven per cent last year. A total of 7,680 fish were taken by rod and line during the 2016 season - down from 8,091 in 2015 – reflecting a year-on-year downward trend since 2013 when over 14,000 salmon were caught. There was an even sharper fall in the number of sea trout taken by anglers in 2016 – from 1,280 to 2,323 – the lowest catch in the past decade.

CORACLE fishermen on the River Teifi have reacted immediately to concerns about the falling levels of fish stocks by agreeing to return any salmon they catch. The Teifi Coracle Netsmen has also called on other anglers to adopt a catch and release policy after shock new figures from Natural Resources Wales (NRW) showed a sharp decline in the number of fish caught. There was just over 40 declared net catches of salmon on the river in 2015 compared to about 115 in 2014. Declared rod catches were down from 300 in 2014 to just over 200 in 2015.

A recent analysis by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) shows that 93% of the assessed fish stocks are overexploited, and a number of them are on the verge of depletion. In addition, the Mediterranean Sea has lost 41% of its marine mammals and 34% of the total fish population over the past 50 years. An estimated 10 000 to 12 000 marine species inhabit the Mediterranean Sea, but this extraordinary biodiversity is in grave danger. Further delays in concerted action could result in irreversible damage and a collapse of key stocks that are essential to the fisheries sector.

The B.C. Wildlife Federation is concerned about declining fish and wildlife populations – and is calling on the province to do something about it. The BCWF is kicking off a series of town halls across the province to discuss the matter. It's also urging people to sign a petition calling on government to dedicate all hunting licence and fee revenues directly to wildlife management. "B.C. is one of the most biodiverse jurisdictions in the world, yet one of the most under-funded fish and wildlife management jurisdictions," the group says. According to the federation, B.C.

Massachusetts scientists say they have reached the same conclusions as their federal counterparts in a study about the poor status of cod fish in the Gulf of Maine. The Boston Globe (http://bit.ly/2n4iLGQ ) reports the scientists found the region's cod are at a historic low of about 80 percent less than the population from a decade ago. Micah Dean oversaw the survey for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. He says he hopes fishermen who doubted federal government's science on the issue will find the results credible. Republican Gov.