Ocean plastic pollution is expected to grow fourfold by 2050, and by 2100 there could be 50 times more microplastics. Many species are being pushed to the brink of extinction, with 88% of marine species negatively impacted by plastic pollution. It’s estimated that up to 90% of seabirds and over 50% of sea turtles ingest plastic.
Subsistence fishers in Malaysia struggle to survive as coastline-altering land reclamation projects displace their traditional docks and massive commercial trawlers tear apart the seabeds.
A former crewmember of the supertrawler Margiris spills the beans to Blue Planet Society. The following words were received by us via social media and are unedited.
After a lengthy Blue Planet Society campaign, including a petition signed by over 250,000 people, Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries has issued a statement (below) regarding dolphin bycatch in EU waters.
The killing of common dolphins by fishing vessels may be the world’s biggest non-cull slaughter of a large mammal species.
Why are marine conservation organisations encouraging people to eat ocean wildlife? The Good Fish Guide, the Sustainable Seafood Guide, Seafood Watch, most well-known marine conservation organisations have a site dedicated to promoting the consumption of the very animals they purport to conserve.
We would expect that a huge, charismatic, and ecologically important predator would be celebrated in its own right. Especially if it is also endangered, has evolved some extreme physiological and behavioural adaptations to enable it to excel as one of the oceans’ top predators; this fish even hunts in coordinated packs much like a pride of lions.
These animals are at the top of the marine food chain. They are important keystone predators that can help structure marine ecosystems. Their role as predators can even help with carbon dynamics, keeping carbon locked up in marine sediments, or by controlling the amount of respiring biomass in our seas.
The European eel is considered to be a keystone species, maintaining a balanced aquatic ecology, both as a predator and prey species, in addition to being an important nutrient flow to and from the sea.
Boating supplies retailer West Marine joins a long list of corporations including AON, Astoria Bank, Budweiser, BASF, Foley Caterpillar, Goslings Rum, Lexus, Merrill Lynch, Toyota and Royal Bank of Canada that have pulled out of shark tournament sponsorship at Blue Planet Society’s request.
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