Three U.S. consumer groups petitioned the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday to subject a new genetically engineered salmon to a more rigorous review process than is now in place before the fish can be approved as safe to eat.

The fish at issue, AquaBounty Technologies' AquAdvantage salmon, is currently classified as a new animal drug for the purposes of FDA review.

Groundwater in the entire areas has turned saline, say protesters

Residents of Neendakara and Ezhupunna in the northern tip of the district have joined hands to protest against the large-scale aquaculture farms in their region, which they say has not only brought paddy farming to a halt in the area, but also rendered the entire groundwater table there saline.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is emerging as a hot issue in preparations for June’s Rio conference, styled as a once-in-a-generation chance to restore a sick planet to good health.

The US is fighting a proposal, backed according to France by least 100 countries, for transforming UNEP from a poorly noticed, second-string unit into a planetary super-agency.

Environmentalists have long complained that Nairobi-based UNEP, set up in 1972 as an office of the UN and with a membership of only 58 nations, lacks clout to deal with the globe’s worsening ills.

Selenium contamination from a phosphate mine in southeastern Idaho is linked to fish deformities such as two-headed trout, and the problem would worsen if discharge limits were eased, a new government report found.

The findings come as Smoky Canyon Mine, run by the J.R. Simplot Company near the Wyoming border, is asking the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to relax restrictions on the amount of selenium that the mine may drain into tributaries of the Snake River, a world-class trout stream.

The second half of 2012 will prove critical for the Vizhinjam International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) project. The three-season Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project will be completed in July.

Before the port can come up on the 110 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea, the EIA report has to be published and public hearings held. Next, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has to give its nod.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association today designated the Atlantic sturgeon an endangered species, providing it greater legal protections, following a petition the Natural Resources Defense Council submitted in September 2009.

The UN High-Level Panel Global Sustainability released its report in Addis Ababa yesterday entitled Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing.

The Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Ministry and the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) assisted by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations have produced the first volume of Sri Lanka Fisheries Atlas.