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The government has suspended fishing on Lake Victoria amid fresh concerns over dwindling stock. Mara regional commissioner Magesa Mulongo told Murangi villagers the suspension will be in place from July to October this year. He said: "We are left with no other option but to suspend fishing activities on the Lake; anyone caught fishing will be punished," said Mr Mulongo. The RC said fishermen should find other income-generating activities to support their families over the two month suspension. There have been concerns over the sharp decline in stocks in Lake Victoria.

A leading ocean conservation group sounded an alarm over the state of Canada’s fishery in a new report that reveals that less than 25 per cent of the country’s fish stocks are considered healthy and the status of almost half is unknown. The status of a whopping 45 per cent of stocks couldn’t be determined due to an absence of basic or up-to-date information, which the report attributed to a lack of transparency in Canada’s fisheries.

A few years ago on a Sunday drive near the edge of West Fargo, creeping along with no particular route in mind, one of my kids let out the proverbial, "look." Instinctively, I took my foot of the gas—not that slowing from 10 mph down to 5 mph would make much of a difference—but it was slow enough to allow enough of a look to positively identify the bird as Western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta). Years ago, a meadowlark, even near the edge of town, might not have prompted a stop.

Researchers from Mainz University Medical Center and Goethe University Frankfurt discovered that the use of active systemic insecticides called neonicotinoids causes the alarming bee mortality. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE. It is led by Professor Ignatz Wessler of the Institute of Pathology at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and collaborated with Professor Bern Grunewald of the Bee Research Institute at Goethe University Frankfurt and other colleagues.

The saltmarsh sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus) is disappearing from its home on the East Coast and could be headed for extinction, say scientists whose work could help protect the little birds. The sparrows, which weigh about half an ounce, live in coastal areas from Maine to Virginia during the breeding season and migrate farther south in the winter. Researchers with a group of universities have been tracking them for several years and reported this month that eight out of every 10 of the birds has disappeared in the past 15 years.

Spain‘s colorful array of birds have made the country a renowned bird watching spot. But it may no longer be a haven for the birds and the people who love them. A new report from SEO/BirdLife Spain says that Spain has lost 64.5 million birds in the past 20 years. Over 1,000 SACRE scientists came together to collect bird data between 1996 and 2015, reports Andrea Small for Audubon. The scientists would go to a spot two times each spring to record the birds that they saw and heard. In total, the scientists collected data from 20,000 stations.

While pesticide companies and some researchers say the tiny Varroa mite is the main culprit in declining honeybee health, new Dutch research concludes that bees are more vulnerable to mites and other stressors because of their constant diet of neonicotinoid insecticides. The debate about what's killing honeybees and other pollinators has continued for several years, with Varroa mites largely taking the blame for colony collapse disorder.

Industry association PlasticsEurope has joined MEPs, health campaigners and other industry groups in criticising long-overdue criteria to define endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which the European Commission published this week. While the comments themselves differed, there was agreement that the criteria, required to determine what substances should be banned as hormone-shifting endocrine disruptors under European Union biocides and pesticides regulations, were not in line with the legislation.