Everyone knows water and oil don't mix, but post-Deepwater Horizon research is proving oil and fish is an even worse combo that is looking increasingly toxic.

The latest report comes from the University of South Florida, which revealed a federal government survey of the entire Gulf of Mexico showed "the area that has the highest frequency of fish diseases is the area where the oil spill was."

This map, that accompanied the report, is a graphic illustration of the dangers oil development poses to the valuable Gulf of Mexico fisheries resource.

Can hunting endangered African species help save them? That's the question the news segment that aired last night on 60 Minutes is asking.

From this story on cbsnews.com:

The scimitar horned oryx . . . the addax . . . the dama gazelle - three elegant desert antelope that you'd hope to see on a journey through Africa, except that their numbers are dwindling there. Which is why Lara Logan went to Texas -- yes, Texas. There, on large grassland ranches, some exotic species that are endangered in the wild have been brought back in large numbers. But there's a catch: a percentage of the herd is hunted every year by hunters who pay big money for a big catch.

When it comes to wetlands protections, it's hard for sportsmen to find any heroes in Washington these days. We have a House majority that spent last year shouting its opposition to restoring protections to 20 million acres of vital wetlands stripped by the Supreme Court, and vows to continue that assault this election cycle. And we have a president who makes a lot of noise about helping--but then doesn't follow through.

So as Congress returns to work this month, sportsmen's conservation groups find themselves fighting on two fronts in the battle to restore protections to those temporary and isolated wetlands. Here's the situation:

When the GOP blocked attempts to correct those court rulings with the proposed Clean Water Restoration Act, conservationists were cheered when the Obama Administration stepped in last spring sending its agencies a proposed new wetland "guidance"--spelling out which wetlands they could protect. This wouldn't put protections back on everything, but it would help.

Louisiana released its long-awaited master plan to permanently address the nation’s most severe fish, wildlife and economic disaster: The destruction of the great Mississippi River estuary and the rest of the state’s coast.

This incredible resource is the winter home or stopover point for 70 percent of migratory waterfowl in North America. It is critical to 90 percent of all marine species in the Gulf such as reds, tuna, snapper, tarpon, amberjack and kings. It is also the top tonnage seafood landings in the contiguous U.S. and produces 50 percent of the nation’s wild shrimp crop, 35 percent of its blue claw crabs and 40 percent of its oysters. All 110 species of neo-tropical migrants use it with 50 species nesting there and 60 using it as a stop-over on long migrations.

Something died a quiet death at midnight Dec. 31 that should have set off a huge celebration in the sportsmen's community--and all others who love fish, wildlife, clean water and air: the 45-cents-per gallon ethanol subsidy expired. 

We're not cheering the end of an annual $2-6 billion annual subsidy American taxpayers have been sending to refiners for the last three decades, although there's nothing wrong with having a party about that. We're lighting the fireworks for the end of a well-intentioned program that turned into an environmental disaster.

Some history:

Ethanol originally was considered good news by conservationists because it would mean reducing the amount of carbon-producing fossil fuels with a renewable plant-based product. What could be more green? But the small push for ethanol grew into a big rush in 2007 when President George W. Bush -- to the cheers of most in the green community -- announced the goal of having 15 percent of domestic gasoline consumption converted to ethanol in 10 years. Before you could say "more row crops, less prairie grass" corn prices had gone from $2 to $4 a bushel, and by the end of the following spring, the nation had planted 90 million acres in corn -- the most since World War II.

by Bob Marshall

Efforts Underway to Stop "Pirate Fishing"

It looks like 2012 may be the year the international fishing community begins an aggressive effort to stop "pirate fishing"--that worldwide fleet of boats operating in direct violation of the laws of their home countries, using foreign ports to unload their illegal catches. It's also known by the acronym "IUU" fishing--for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

It's a big deal; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association reports pirate fishermen haul in up to 26 million tons of seafood annually with a value possibly as high as $23 billion worldwide, posing a real threat to the future sustainability of global fisheries.

Legislation was introduced in Congress last month to implement an international agreement the United States negotiated with European nations that sets out standards for accepting commercial fish landings.

Any sportsman who has followed habitat fights over the years knows this: Fish and wildlife always pay a price for fossil fuel extraction -- and if sportsmen are not involved in setting policies at the front end, disaster will almost surely follow for fishing and hunting.

The latest example is the current rush to riches unleashed across the nation by the revolution in shale gas extraction. The general population sees this as a godsend in supplying a fuel source that is domestic and friendlier to the atmosphere than oil -- and is creating jobs and millionaires in the process.

But the Philadelphia Enquirer recently reported sportsmen in Pennsylvania are finding out that, like most gold rushes, this one can trample their woods and waters. Construction of a trench for a 50-mile gas pipeline in Lycoming County left open to the elements "sent mud sliding down hillsides, fouling a stream." Now, "environmentalists and sportsmen have been raising alarms about the effects on the landscape. They worry about construction mud clogging waters and disrupting fish spawning, and about pipeline rights-of-way cutting swaths through forests, destroying treetop canopies."