A scallop fisherman, Alwyn Jones of Bangor, Gwynedd, pleaded guilty to dredging in a no-take zone in Pen Llyn a’r Sarnau SAC, North Wales. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £200 in costs and is the first commercial fisherman to be prosecuted under new law Special Area of Conservation (SAC)

In his defence, Jones claimed his satellite equipment was faulty and that he had been relying on a less reliable navigation system. He said he was trying to access scallop beds that are adjacent to the closed area.

A Save Our Sharks campaign has been launched by conservationists in South Africa, after three large tiger sharks were illegally captured and killed in a protected marine park.

Tourists come from all over the world to swim with the large predators.
that were well known to dive guides at Aliwal Shoal on South Africa’s east coast.

Angry protest and pressure by local dive operators and conservationists led to the fishermen being officially charged.

Tiger sharks are the main attraction for divers in the marine park, with around 20 to 30 of the animals recorded each season together with other species such as bronze whaler, bull and hammerhead sharks. However, the diving operators say the numbers of tiger sharks and blacktip sharks have dropped in the marine park over the last few years the failure to enforce laws against illegal fishing of sharks within the park has been blamed for the decline in numbers.

Scientists are warning that the Chevroned Butterflyfish may be at risk of extinction.

The highly specialised nature of the feeding habits of this particular butterflyfish – the distinctively patterned Chaetodon trifascialis - make it an extinction risk as the world’s coral reefs continue to degrade due to human over-exploitation, pollution and climate change.

They only eat one sort of coral – Acropora hyacinthus – and when that runs out, the fish disappear from the reef.

Researchers found it hard to believe a fish would starve rather than eat a mixed diet, so they tested Chaetodon trifascialis in tank trials on a range of different corals. The fish grew well when its favourite coral was available – but when this was removed and other sorts of corals offered, it grew thin, failed to thrive and some died.

The Acropora hyacinthus coral, which the butterfly fish feeds on, is itself highly vulnerable – to attacks by plagues of crown-of-thorns starfish (thought to be triggered by humans releasing excess nutrients onto the reef as sediment, fertilizer or sewage), to storms and to the coral bleaching caused by the heating of ocean surface waters to 32 degrees or more, which is thought to be linked to global warming.

It is estimated that up to 70 per cent of the world’s coral reefs are now badly degraded, which usually involves the loss of this particular coral – and, when it goes, the Chaetodon trifascialis will also disappear from the reef.