Deep Sea Reporter

22/05/2025

The spurdog has since 2011 been red-listed and critically endangered but has now started increasing. In the Northeast Atlantic, the quotas showed a set at 22 309 tons. How and why did this happen? Can there be an underlying cause?

Watch our newest episode on our website, and click the link below!

Website: https://www.deepseareporter.com/

18/05/2025

Do you know about the Harbour Porpoise?
It is the tiniest whale and it has a day, 18th of May!
Here are some facts about this special creature.

Episode: https://www.deepseareporter.com/the-baltic-sea-porpoise-an-unexpected-victim-in-a-war-torn-world/
Website: https://www.deepseareporter.com/

30/04/2025

Not everybody knows, that fish can feel stress and pain, just like every other animal. Scientists have done research on what fishing technique cod fish find the most stressful. The results are presented in a picture here, but if you're interested in how they came to these conclusions, watch our episode on stressed cod.

Episode: https://www.deepseareporter.com/stressed-cod-what-is-the-best-way-to-catch-them/
Website: https://www.deepseareporter.com/

28/04/2025

We visited SVA, Swedish Veterinary Agency and met with a researcher investigating the decline in seal pup populations and the reasons behind their deaths. We interviewed Elina Thorsson, a veterinary pathologist, and received some interesting insights. The episode will be released this week—keep an eye out for it on our website, deepseareporter.com!

Website: https://www.deepseareporter.com/

04/04/2025

Hundreds of miles from the nearest port, the Saya de Malha Bank is one of the most remote areas on the planet, which means it can be a harrowing workplace for the thousands of fishers from a half dozen countries that make the perilous journey to reach it. The farther from shore that vessels travel, and the more time they spend at sea, the more the risks pile up. Dangerous storms, deadly accidents, malnutrition, and physical violence are common threats faced by distant-water crews. Each year, a fleet of several dozen Sri Lankan gill-netters makes some of the longest trips made to the area, often in the least equipped boats.

Some of the vessels that fish the Saya de Malha Bank engage in a practice called transshipment, where they offload their catch to refrigerated carriers without returning to shore, so that they can remain fishing on the high seas for longer periods of time. Fishing is the most dangerous occupation in the world, and more than 100,000 fishermen die on the job each year. When they do, particularly on longer journeys far from shore, it is not uncommon for their bodies to be buried at sea.

Sri Lankan gillnetters are not the only fishing vessels making perilous journeys to reach the rich and biodiverse Saya de Malha Bank. Thai fishmeal trawlers also target these waters, traveling more than 2,500 nautical miles from the port of Kantang. In January 2016, for example, three Thai trawlers left the Saya de Malha Bank and returned to Thailand. During the journey, 38 Cambodian crew members fell ill, and by the time they returned to port, six had already died. The remaining sick crew were hospitalized and treated for beriberi, a disease caused by a deficiency of Vitamin B1 or thiamine. Symptoms include tingling, burning, numbness, difficulty breathing, lethargy, chest pain, dizziness, confusion, and severe swelling.

03/04/2025

This video contains a scenario of shark finning. A shark gets captured, mutilated for its fins and tossed back into the sea, unable to swim and meet a slow and painful death.

The video offers a window on the booming trade that has decimated local shark populations. About two-thirds of Sri Lanka’s domestic shark and ray species are listed as threatened by extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. That threat has now moved further afield, to the high seas far from Sri Lankan shores, including to the Saya de Malha, putting yet more pressure on an ecosystem UNESCO has described as “globally unique,” an underwater jewel that, should it disappear, could never be replaced.

Sri Lankan vessels have historically targeted sharks in the country’s national waters, but as domestic stocks of sharks have been decimated, the Sri Lankan fleet moved into the high seas, areas including the Saya de Malha Bank.

To avoid wasting space in the ship hold, deckhands usually throw the rest of the shark back into the water after they cut off the fins, which can sell for a hundred times the cost of the rest of the meat. It’s a wasteful process and a slow death, as the sharks, still alive but unable to swim, sink to the seafloor. To offset poverty wages, ship captains typically allow their crew to supplement their income by keeping the fins to sell at port, off books.

02/04/2025

The video offers a window on the booming trade that has decimated local shark populations. About two-thirds of Sri Lanka’s domestic shark and ray species are listed as threatened by extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. That threat has now moved further afield, to the high seas far from Sri Lankan shores, including to the Saya de Malha, putting yet more pressure on an ecosystem UNESCO has described as “globally unique,” an underwater jewel that, should it disappear, could never be replaced.

To avoid wasting space in the ship hold, deckhands usually throw the rest of the shark back into the water after they cut off the fins, which can sell for a hundred times the cost of the rest of the meat. It’s a wasteful process and a slow death, as the sharks, still alive but unable to swim, sink to the seafloor. To offset poverty wages, ship captains typically allow their crew to supplement their income by keeping the fins to sell at port, off books.

Sri Lankan vessels have historically targeted sharks in the country’s national waters, but as domestic stocks of sharks have been decimated, the Sri Lankan fleet moved into the high seas, areas including the Saya de Malha Bank.
Credit: The Fishcutter

Most of the more than 200 ships that have been tracked on the Saya de Malha in recent years, the vast majority target tuna, but they also are catching sharks in huge numbers. The prize for many of these ships are the fins, which sell for hundreds of times the cost of shark meat.
Credit: Dlika Vlogs

30/08/2024

What is hidden?

At first, all you see are huge schools of glassfish. But as they move aside, the hidden wreck of the USS Saratoga appears.

This 270 meter long aircraft carrier, sunk during atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, has been resting on the ocean floor for decades. It was damaged by the first nuclear test (an aerial explosion) but ultimately sank after the second test, an underwater explosion called "Baker."

These tests had an enormous effect on nature, but now the ship is covered in corals and surrounded by marine life, transformed into a thriving underwater habitat.

Our team, Johan Candert and Tobias Dahlin from Deep Sea Reporter, is currently diving deep at Bikini. The dives require extensive decompression, but it's worth it to capture these hidden wonders and witness the resilience of nature.

Swipe to reveal what’s hidden behind the fish.

23/02/2024

Biomass and biodiversity. Two rather dull and stiff words. But words often associated with Raja Ampat.

Raja Ampat is situated west of Papua New Guinea, right in the heart of what's known as the "Coral Triangle."

Here, there are the most species per square meter on the entire planet.

Color, shape, and an abundance of peculiar creatures coexist in an immense underwater environment.

At first glance, it feels "untouched," a forgotten paradise. And that's why we're here. To film the paradise beneath the surface - the Ocean Dreams Dream!

We've only been here for three days, but it's certainly unique. Neither I nor my photographer colleague, Göran Ehlmé, have ever experienced so many fish, at least not in so many different species.

But it's not just fish. Every millimeter of rock formations and old dead coral reefs is covered in life in all its forms.

Hard corals, soft corals, sponges, anemones, and sea squirts vie for space.

A bubbling ecosystem with an enormous biomass and biodiversity that gives me a sense of hope.

Text: Johan Candert
Photo: Johan Candert / Göran Ehlmé

14/01/2024

https://www.svtplay.se/video/KZm2XBg/makten-over-havet

Europas hav töms på fisk. Torskbeståndet i Östersjön har kollapsat och i EU:s del av Medelhavet är nästan alla arter överfiskade. Men trots detta blir fiskekvoterna större än vad EU:s fiskelag slagit fast när ministerrådet samlas för att förhandla. Hur är det möjligt? Svensk dokument...

22/12/2023

The EU fisheries ministers have agreed on the herring fishing in the Baltic Sea next year.

As usual, we can continue to fish, despite the fact that, according to many observers, the herring are running out.

But there is one law that the ministers seem to forgotten about, which could lead to them having to tear up this year’s compromise.

Paragraph 4.6 of the EU’s multi-year management plan for the Baltic Sea (MAP).

Reportage: Lena Scherman
Animation: Natalia Quintana

20/10/2023