New Zealand Navy abandons pursuit of notorious poaching vessels in Southern Ocean – ‘These boats were caught red-handed fishing illegally, yet were able to thumb their noses at the New Zealand Navy’

16 January 2015 (ONE News) – Foreign Minister Murray McCully is urging Sea Shepherd to avoid actions that put their lives or the lives of others at risk in the Southern Ocean. The controversial anti-whaling campaigners claim they’re taking over the fight against illegal fishing operations by three boats in the Southern Ocean. A navy […]

13 species we might have to say goodbye to in 2015

By Hyacinth Mascaren1 January 2015 (Global Post) – British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough once asked: “Are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?” This year marked the 100th anniversary of the death of the last passenger pigeon, Martha, who managed […]

Notorious pirate fishing vessel in Southern Ocean flees activists – ‘Many layers of deliberate concealment of ownerships and profits protect these illegal operations’

By Andrew Darby 4 January 2015 (The Age) – Abandoned gillnets up to 25 kilometres long, banned in the Antarctic, have been seized as a notorious pirate fishing boat tries to shake a marathon pursuit with Australian Sea Shepherd boats. Prized “white gold” toothfish have been recovered with countless other fish and crabs from one […]

Antarctica’s most wanted illegal fishing boat tailed by Sea Shepherd – ‘We’ll stay with them for however long it takes’

By David Beniuk4 January 2015 (The Mercury) – SEA Shepherd activists are vowing to tail Antarctica’s most wanted illegal fishing vessel until it is forced into port and its crew arrested.  Bob Barker skipper Peter Hammarstedt says his vessel has enough fuel to outlast the Nigerian-flagged Thunder, which is wanted by Interpol and black-listed by […]

Full scale of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans revealed for first time – More than five trillion pieces weighing 269,000 tons are floating in our oceans

By Oliver Milman10 December 2014 (The Guardian) – More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage throughout the food chain, new research has found. Data collected by scientists from the US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of 5.25tn plastic […]

Graph of the Day: World ecological footprint of human consumption

(UNDP) – Over the years there has been much debate about what sustainability means and about what measures can track sustainable progress— or the lack of it. In 2012 the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio took a broad view that sustainable progress must cover all three dimensions that affect people’s life chances—social, […]

Global appetite for resources pushing species to the brink of extinction – ‘These recent extinctions could have been avoided through better habitat protection’

17 November 2014 (IUCN) – Pacific Bluefin Tuna, Chinese Pufferfish, American Eel, Chinese Cobra, and an Australian butterfly are threatened with extinction. Fishing, logging, mining, agriculture and other activities to satisfy our growing appetite for resources are threatening the survival of the Pacific Bluefin Tuna, Chinese Pufferfish, American Eel and Chinese Cobra, while the destruction […]

Video: Global Fishing Watch – Technology illuminating the global fishing fleet

(globalfishingwatch.org) – Global Fishing Watch is the product of a technology partnership between SkyTruth, Oceana, and Google that is designed to show all of the trackable fishing activity in the ocean. This interactive web tool – currently in prototype stage – is being built to enable anyone to visualize the global fishing fleet in space […]

Sushi eaters pushing Pacific bluefin tuna to brink of extinction – ‘Our planet is constantly losing its incredible diversity of life, largely due to our destructive actions to satisfy our growing appetite for resources’

By Michael Casey 17 November 2014 (CBS News) – The never-ending demand for Pacific bluefin tuna among sushi lovers is driving the iconic fish towards extinction, a conservation group said. The Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the status of the tuna from “least concern” to “vulnerable,” which means it is now […]

Japan cuts self-alotted Antarctic whale quota by two-thirds

18 November 2014 (AFP) – Japan said on Tuesday it has cut its Antarctic whale-catch quota by two-thirds in a move it hopes will convince international opponents it is conducting genuine scientific research on expeditions in the region. The International Court of Justice — the highest court of the United Nations — ruled in March […]

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