Handing out sustainable seafood guides on the streets of Tokyo (c) Sutton-Hibbert/Greenpeace

There's a common comment in this part of the world, often repeated on the internet especially, about sorting out the seafood problem: namely, we have to change minds in Japan.

Whilst it's a simplistic generalisation, there is a lot of truth in that. Seafood is a global commodity and a global problem. The big markets for seafood are (perhaps unsurprisingly) North America, Europe, and Asia. Read more »

Junichi (right) and Toru (left) working on their defence during their trial (c) Sutton-Hibbert/Greenpeace

Two years ago, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki exposed a scandal involving government corruption entrenched within the tax-payer funded Japanese whaling industry. They are on trial for theft and trespass, and are awaiting the verdict due this coming Monday.

This will be the first blog Toru and I have written together, as up until recently our heavy bail restrictions have meant that we could not be in the same room or even talk to each other without a lawyer present.

The verdict in our trial is approaching, and on Monday 6 September we will know what our fate is. We don't really know what the result would be, all we know now is that it is going to show the status of Japanese democracy. It's a long way from where it was when this case started - our investigation  to end Japan's whaling. Read more »

Is removing salade nicoise from the menu better than searching out sustainable tuna supplies? (Photo (c) FotoosVanRobin)

When you get a bit close to a subject, you get geeky. Before you know it you are scoffing at how other people could possible not know something, because you do. Yet of course it's true that the vast majority of the public are very much in the 'don't know' camp.

That's true of tuna. How many of the tuna-chomping public could tell a skipjack from an albacore in a police line up? How many know how big a yellowfin is? How many think the stuff in tins is bluefin?

Agreed, it is confusing. It's like we generically say 'rhino', or 'tiger', but there are in fact several species. It's more tricky too because to most of us tuna = food. Read more »

It's a confusing time in the north Atlantic with an international controversy brewing over the humble mackerel. Some are comparing it to last century's 'cod wars', when the UK and Iceland went to battle over access to cod fishing.

Mackerel, an exquisitely beautiful fish related to the tunas, is relatively plentiful, occurs in big shoals, and can be caught quite 'cleanly' by seine nets or handlines. For these reasons (as well as the health benefits of it being an oily fish), it has become a firm favourite for those seeking a sustainable option. Read more »

The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise is in the Gulf of Mexico to perform an independent assessment of he Gulf oil spill. Paul Horsman makes his last report from the ship. Photo © Todd Warshaw / Greenpeace

Today, as news of the discovery of a 22-mile plume of oil droplets is revealed in a report in the Journal, Science the first leg of the Greenpeace expedition on board the Arctic Sunrise ended.  The scientists, Drs. Jo Lopez and Chuck Messing from Nova University, have spent much time underwater collecting specimens of sponges and recording what they have found in the Dry Tortugas National Park off Florida. Read more »

Is this the kind of whale watching Icelandic whalers are considering? © Greenpeace/Axelsson

I've long since given up trying to apply any semblance of logic to the arguments for whaling, and the latest news from Iceland doesn't prove me wrong.

It appears that some of the commercial whalers have decided to diversify, into, er, whale watching - to show tourists what whaling is like. The public apparently won't be killing the whales, but allowed to stroke the harpoon and marvel at some bits of whales they cut up earlier.

I suppose in one way this is the whalers' equivalent of paint-balling, or clay-pigeon shooting. But in another it's much more insidious.

Tata's port project could spell game over for a major turtle nesting site © Greenpeace

Guest blogger Ashish Fernandes, oceans campaigner from our New Delhi office, explains how corporate giant Tata is taking legal action against Greenpeace India over an online turtle game.

It's been five years since Greenpace India started its campaign against the Dhamra port project on the east coast of India which threatens a host of wild species including horseshoe crabs and crocodiles. The port happens to be a stone's throw away from one of the world's largest nesting sites for the olive ridley sea turtle and India's second largest mangrove forest, which is a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance to boot.

The port is nearly built, but it's clear that we're still a huge thorn in the side of the company behind this ecological disaster, the giant TATA Steel corporation, which is a 50-50 stakeholder in the project. In the UK, the TATAs are known for their takeovers of steelmaker Corus, Tetley Tea and the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.

Not plenty more where that came from © Greenpeace/Cobb

If you're reading this in the UK, you ran out of fish today.

Basically, the UK eats more fish than its waters produce and, thanks to some nifty fish-counting from the clever folks at NEF, that equates to the 4th of August being the day we use up our year's fish supply. In comparison to the EU as a whole, we fair a month better but then we are a country with quite a lot of seas, certainly in comparison with, er, Austria and Romania. Yet, for almost five full months we are relying on fish from somewhere else. And that might be okay, if there was plenty of it to go around. But of course, as the old saying should go, there aren't plenty more fish in the sea.

As climate change causes the Arctic sea ice to recede, our ship Esperanza has sailed north of Svalbard to survey the poorly understood Arctic Ocean seabed. On the surface, the crew are observing and recording the diverse wildlife that has adapted to survive in this unique and harsh environment. Beneath the waves we are using a remote operated vehicle built and operated by top cameraman Gavin Newman to record the life on the sea bed in fine detail.

Greenpeace is calling for the area of the Arctic Ocean historically protected year round by sea ice to be closed to all industrial activity, including destructive fishing. Read more about the Arctic Under Pressure expedition.

I was gearing up to write something on the interesting new report by the New Economics Foundation (Nef) on how the EU is becoming more reliant on fish from other parts of the world, when my attention was drawn to a piece by the BBC's Richard Black who explains far more eloquently than I ever could what 'fish dependence day' is.

Nef has compared the amount of fish caught within the EU with the amount we consume to find out when - if we only ate our own, EU-caught fish from January 1 - we would have to start using fish supplied by other countries. This year, that day was last Friday 9 July or 'fish dependence day' and, like the global ecological debt day which Nef also computes, it's getting earlier each year as we import more and more fish. Or eat more. Or both.

Like I say, Mr Black covers all the main points and more on a sobering thought exercise. Read more »