Pursuit of notorious poaching vessel Thunder enters record 100th day – Sea Shepherd calls on Navies to intercept ‘slave’ ship

By Captain Paul Watson27 March 2015 (Facebook) –  DAY 100: The Pursuit of the Thunder. The Bob Barker and the Sam Simon are both on the tail of the world’s most notorious toothfish poacher. A pursuit that has covered over 10,000 nautical miles over three oceans, the Southern, the Indian, and now the South Atlantic, […]

We’re treating soil like dirt. It’s a fatal mistake, as our lives depend on it – ‘Landowners around the world are now engaged in an orgy of soil destruction’

By George Monbiot25 March 2015 (The Guardian) – Imagine a wonderful world, a planet on which there was no threat of climate breakdown, no loss of freshwater, no antibiotic resistance, no obesity crisis, no terrorism, no war. Surely, then, we would be out of major danger? Sorry. Even if everything else were miraculously fixed, we’re […]

Graph of the Day: Californian anchovy (Engraulis mordax) depletion, 1950-2012

25 March 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – The Pew Charitable Trusts support excellent ongoing research on the state of the oceans, and recently Pew’s Paul Shively wrote a good story on the current mass-starvation event among California sea lions (“Starving pups: It’s more than a sea lion problem”). Mr. Shively observes that in addition to sardines, […]

Sea lion strandings on San Diego beaches reach record numbers – ‘They’ve been very malnourished and in some cases, bags of bones’

By Dave Schwab26 March 2015 (SD News) – A surprising influx of malnourished and dehydrated sea lions has SeaWorld San Diego and its trainers working overtime to nurse them back to health before returning them to the wild. More than 550 marine mammals have been rescued so far in 2015, which is more than double […]

Washington State fire chiefs demand transparency on crude oil trains – ‘Your industry has sought and gained exemptions to the sunshine laws’

By Sydney Brownstone25 March 2015 (The Stranger) – Earlier this month, the head of a membership group representing firefighting agencies across the state wrote to the CEO of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway company, demanding that the company turn over information it has previously avoided sharing on crude oil shipments through the Pacific Northwest […]

Poachers slaughter 30 elephants in DR Congo – ‘Poaching onslaught’ carried out by militias and military

Kinshasa, 23 March 2015 (AFP) – Ivory-hungry poachers have killed 30 elephants in a Congolese national park in the past two weeks, park authorities said Monday, adding that the culprits were likely Sudanese militia. News of the Garamba National Park slaughter came as wildlife experts warned at a major summit in Botswana that elephants could […]

Photo gallery: Vanuatu before and after Tropical Cyclone Pam

By Bill Weir, Ivan Watson, and Ray Sanchez25 March 2015 (CNN) – On a quest for what he described as “a Hawaii without hotels, a Bali before burger joints” CNN’s Bill Weir came upon the enchanting South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Tanna Island, the southernmost island on a strip that makes up Vanuatu, is […]

Graph of the Day: Deforestation inside and outside riparian protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, 1988-2010

ABSTRACT: Brazilian environmental law imposes more restrictions on land-use change by private landowners in riparian forests than in non-riparian forest areas, reflecting recognition of their importance for the conservation of biodiversity and key ecosystem services. A 22-year time series of classified Landsat images was used to evaluate deforestation and forest regeneration in riparian permanent preservation […]

Starving pups: It’s more than a sea lion problem

By Paul Shively23 March 2015 (Pew Charitable Trusts) – Here on the West Coast, sea lions evoke plenty of emotions. Some people love them, while others see them as a nuisance. Whatever your view, it’s unsettling to see hundreds of emaciated sea lion pups turning up along the California coast in what could be one […]

Surprise finding heightens concern over tiny bits of plastic polluting our oceans

By Lynne Peeples23 March 2015 (Huffington Post) – Scientists are looking for — and finding — little bits of plastic in a lot of places lately: ice cores, deep sea sediments, coral reefs, crab gills, the digestive system of mussels, even German beer. Now, new research suggests they need not actually be searching for the […]

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