In a span of just over three weeks, more than 47 tons of plastic waste were removed from America’s largest protected marine reserve, sometimes directly off animals, a stark reminder of the scourge of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. An expedition spent 24 days clearing 10 miles of shoreline in the atolls and islands […]
Tag: plastic pollution
Norway Planning Auditory Experiment Using Whales
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and other welfare groups are calling attention to a planned experiment in Norway using captured minke whales, according to an email from Animal Welfare Institute. Organizations are urging the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to revoke an approval that could be harmful to whales. According to permits discovered by AWI, the […]
European tuna boats dump fishing debris in Seychelles waters ‘with impunity’
In 2019, when Jeremy Raguain turned up for a cleanup campaign on Aldabra Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, he bagged a marine monstrosity like no other: a beached fish aggregating device, or FAD. It was a massive tangle of buoys, netting and fishing ropes weighing hundreds of kilograms. The fishing aid, like most FADs, […]
Wisdom, the World’s Oldest Wild Bird, Hatches Another Chick
In a refreshingly heartwarming story earlier this month, the world’s oldest known wild bird has hatched yet another chick. Wisdom the Laysan Albatross is believed to be at least seventy years old, and is nesting in the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge, a small island in the North Pacific. Wisdom is believed to have hatched […]
The graceful albatross – immortalized in a centuries-old poem as an omen of both good and ill – is under siege.
This is the story of the “Grey-Head.” It’s but a single member of a large family of albatross called Diomedeidae. Major research studies published recently, warn of twin threats facing the already-endangered bird. Each is different. Each is insidious. In general, the albatross carries higher burdens of mercury in its body than any other bird […]
Petition: Camels Are Dying Due to Plastic Pollution
A recent study out of the Journal of Arid Environments is stating that 1% of camels in the United Arab Emirates are dying due to ingesting plastic pollution. As has also been found with marine life and seabirds, the ingested plastic builds up in the digestive system of camels, leading to a range of health […]
Petition: Marine Life Harmed Most By Plastic In Florida Than Any Other State
A recent report from the International oceanic advocacy group, Oceana, has singled out Florida as having more incidents of wildlife being harmed by plastics in the ocean than anywhere else in the United States. Ocean’s report discovered evidence of nearly 1800 marine animals becoming entangled in or swallowing plastic debris in the ocean dating back […]
Petition: Plastic Pollution Critical Threat to Florida Sea Turtles
Two scientists, David Duffy and Catherine Eastman, at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and Sea Turtle Hospital at the University of Florida, wrote an article on EcoWatch about the ubiquity of plastic in the oceans and the harm it brings to sea turtles. Source: Oceana/Youtube Turtles face a variety of threats, including conservation […]