How’s this for a sign of the times and a flashing danger indicator for the Australian fishing industry?

The Big Prawn, for many the highlight of family holidays to northern New South Wales and Ballina, has a very uncertain future. Like the Big Pineapple, the Big Merino and the Big Banana, this icon has represented Australia for years.

A colleague recently asked me to sit in on one of his marine science lectures at a local university. She had invited a representative of the State Fisheries Department to address the students and describe the employment opportunities for them after graduation.

The visiting scientist outlined the role of the department and the duties of the staff and finished the talk with a description of his own research dealing with several species of sole, the bottom dwelling flatfish.

With California in a big financial pickle, many proposals have come forth to rescue it from financial ruin. None are more bizarre than the proposal from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

An article on National Public Radio here in the US describes the efforts of a group to re-establish the sardine as the king of seafood in Monterey, California, home of Cannery Row and John Steinbeck.

The “Sardinistas" are a sardine-loving group that might be best described as green foodies and their aim is to knock off the big three: tuna, salmon and shrimp.

One of Seattle's top tourist attractions, the fish-throwers at the Pike Place Fish Market, has a new challenge: they may be forced to throw rubber fish after demands from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

The fish throwers are not a bunch of amateur fishos.

Pike Place Fish is now used as a case study in business schools and universities around the world. Four books have been published about the business, one, an international best seller. They are the subject of the best selling training videos and DVDs in the world.