By Joel Connelly15 September 2015 (Seattle PI) – Poaching and slaughter of wild creatures, from Africa’s great elephants to manta rays in the Pacific Ocean, has become the Earth’s fourth-largest illegal criminal activity, creating what conservationists call an “extinction economy.” As one watches the new film, Racing Extinction, by Academy Award-winning documentary maker Louie Psihoyos, […]
By Kelly House2 September 2015 (The Oregonian) – The federal agency in charge of managing fisheries has ruled four stocks of Pacific Northwest salmon are being overfished. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Department of Commerce on Wednesday posted a notice in the Federal Register of the excessive fishing pressures on Chinook and Coho […]
By Fiona Harvey15 September 2015 (The Guardian) – Tuna and mackerel populations have suffered a “catastrophic” decline of nearly three quarters in the last 40 years, according to new research. WWF and the Zoological Society of London found that numbers of the scombridae family of fish, which also includes bonito, fell by 74% between 1970 […]
By Angel Canales14 September 2015 (ABC News) – Famous for its pink coloring, the Chinese white dolphin is under threat of extinction in Hong Kong. Among other things, their shrinking habitat has deprived them of food and shelter, experts say. “So that’s why it has seriously impacted the number of dolphins in Hong Kong,” Samantha […]
20 August 2015 (UVic) – You need not look far to find the world’s “super predator,” a term used by UVic scientists to describe how human dominance has bred an unrelenting predacious global culture that threatens nature’s balance. Research published in the Aug. 21 edition of the journal Science by a team led by Dr. […]
OAKLAND, CA, 14 July 2015 (Global Footprint Network) – Today marks the date the United States has busted its annual ecological budget, utilizing more resources and services than U.S. ecosystems can regenerate within the full year, according to a new report released by Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in North […]
By Sheila Pell11 July 2015 (San Diego Reader) – A ban on U.S. Pacific sardine fishing that took effect July 1 will mean more food for starving sea lions, pelicans, and other creatures. But there’s no shutting down the other forces rattling the food chain. Weird weather conditions are being linked to mass casualties and […]
By Gary Farrow10 July 2015 (NZ Herald) – Sea Shepherd Australia has launched a new campaign to protect a species much smaller than the whales it has generally focused on, but just as important to the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Krill play a crucial role in the Antarctic food chain, as they are consumed by whales, […]
By Gian De Poloni13 June 2015 (ABC) – Climate change could be responsible for humpback whales becoming exhausted during their annual migration to warmer waters, a whale researcher says. Janelle Braithwaite examined historical whaling data and says climate change may be depleting the Antarctic food sources whales rely on to store energy for their long […]
By Nadia Drake5 June 2015 (National Geographic) – More than 3,000 starving sea lion pups have washed up on California’s beaches since January—easily 15 times more than in a normal year. “It’s unprecedented,” says Sarah Wilkin, national marine mammal stranding and emergency response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And those are the […]