Friday, August 29, 2014

Week In Review - August 29, 2014 - Sea Save Foundation

1. Thailand's Top Hotel Chain Banishes Shark Fin from Menus
2. Chennai, India Becoming Hub of Illegal Shark Fin Trade
3. Larger Marine Protected Areas Needed to Save Key Species
4. Study Shows Coral and Fish Avoid Damaged Reefs, Preventing Reef Recovery
5. Twenty New Coral Species Listed As Threatened

1. Thailand’s Top Hotel Chain Banishes Shark Fin from Menus


Thailand's leading operator of hotels, Centara, has announced it will no longer serve shark fin at any of its locations. Centara was one of the first businesses to join the Fin Free Thailand campaign launched in 2013. 





2. Chennai, India Becoming Hub of Illegal Shark Fin Trade 


During 2012-2013, an estimated 90 tons of shark fins were smuggled out of Chennai, a city on the Indian coast off the Bay of Bengal, despite all shark species being protected under the nation’s Wildlife Protection Act. Although shark meat is generally not eaten in India, demand for fins around the world continues to drive overfishing in Indian waters, according to C. Samyukta of Humane Society of India. A workshop on implementing the new CITES shark listings was held this week in Chennai. 


3. Larger Marine Protected Areas Needed to Save Key Species


A study published in the journal Ecology Letters reports that the world’s most ecologically valuable fish species are not sufficiently protected by existing marine protected areas. Existing efforts to protect fish have focused on saving the largest numbers of species, rather than those that serve essential functions in marine ecosystems. The areas most vulnerable to this problem include the coastal waters of Chile, the eastern tropical Pacific, and the eastern Atlantic Ocean.


4. Coral and Fish Avoid Damaged Reefs, Preventing Reef Recovery


Overfishing, which depletes seaweed-eating fish, can lead to the overgrowth of seaweed on reefs and subsequent coral collapse. A new study published in the journal Science shows that young fish and coral larvae can detect chemical signals from the seaweed and avoid settling on those degraded reefs. The bottom line: designating a damaged reef as a marine protected area may not be enough to help it recover.






5. Twenty New Coral Species Listed As Threatened


The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ruled this week to increase the number of protected corals from 2 to 20, making it the largest Endangered Species Act ruling so far. A total of 83 species had been proposed for listing. Most of the species, which include pillow corals, star corals, and a rough cactus coral, live in the Caribbean and are suffering from bleaching, rising ocean temperatures, and disease.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Week In Review - August 22, 2014 - Sea Save Foundation

Week In Review - August 22, 2014 - Sea Save Foundation


1. Sea World Is Grounded: Stock Continues to Plummet As Sales Hit Record Low
2. Fishermen Lobby to Shoot Thousands of Sea Birds
3. New Zealand Bans Shark Finning
4. Florida Representative Steve Southerland Seeks to Block Clean Water Act Rule
5. Spiny Dogfish Sharks May Be Awarded Some Federal Protection
6. Ecotourism Promotes Shark Conservation    
7. Sharkageddon! Scientists Concur: Most Inaccurate Shark Week Program Thus Far 


1. Sea World Is Grounded: Stock Continues to Plummet As Sales Hit Record Lows



According to The Huffington Post, Sea World stock is down 45% from last year, partly due to awareness efforts ranging from the launch of the expose film Blackfish to successful petitions demanding that Sea World stop current practices.

The public has a voice, and currently it is being heard.

Read More




2. Fishermen Lobby to Shoot Thousands of Sea Birds

Conflicting interests are coming to a head in Oregon. Fishermen are trying to fill their quotas of salmon, and hungry cormorants are competing for the catch. Butch Smith, a fisherman, said that killing thousands of the birds “is the one thing out of anything else we can do to recover salmon fastest.”

Stan Senner, Director of Bird Conservation at the National Audubon Society, argues that killing off some of the cormorant colony, which makes up one-quarter of the birds’ western population, “is an extreme measure, totally inappropriate.” 

Read More


3. New Zealand Bans Shark Finning  


New Zealand’s conservation minister, Nick Smith, hopes that a recent law prohibiting shark finning will fortify the country’s reputation for sustainability and environmental protection.  

New Zealand joins a global movement. "We are chipping away at unsustainable shark finning one nation at a time," commented Sea Save Foundation's Give 'Em the Fin campaign manager, Jay Martinez.





Read More

4. Florida Representative Steve Southerland Seeks to Block Clean Water Act Rule

Citing federal overreach and the need for economic recovery, Rep. Steve Southerland (FL) has filed a bill called the Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act (H.R. 5078). This bill seeks to prohibit implementation of the Clean Water Act Rule.

“Southerland’s legislation is a misguided reaction to the proposed rule,” said Vicki Tschinkel, a former secretary for Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection and a coalition member, in a statement. “This legislation intervenes in the middle of the public commenting process and raises suspicion that the industry groups demonstrating today do not want to allow citizens to voice their support of our natural resources. Clean water depends on clear standards.”

Read More


5. Spiny Dogfish Sharks May Be Awarded Some Federal Protection

A federal law may soon be passed in the United States that will require all spiny dogfish sharks be brought to shore with their fins attached. This regulation is already in place in Maine, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

The regulation is important because it deters fishermen from engaging in the unsustainable practice of finning.


Read More


6. Ecotourism Promotes Shark Conservation  

Swimming with sharks might be the best way to save them. Evidence continues to flood in that the best way to curb shark killing is by boosting local economies.  

If a living shark brings in more money than a dead one, we will continue to see global communities shifting from careers in shark fishing to tourism.

Read More


7. Sharkageddon! Scientists Concur: Most Inaccurate Shark Week Program Thus Far

Sit with a group of more than 15 scientists as they watch an evening of Shark Week programming. 

This article explores and disputes a series of inaccuracies woven throughout "Sharkageddon" factual programming. 



Read More

Friday, August 8, 2014

Sea Save Foundation - Week In Review - August 8, 2014

Shark fin sales dip, aquarium board considers dolphin release, super-sized marine sanctuary created, and much more in this week's edition. Please READ, LIKE, SHARE!

1. Vancouver Aquarium: Whale and Dolphin Breeding Programs No More!



The Parks Board of Vancouver, B.C., voted unanimously to end the whale and dolphin breeding programs at the Vancouver Aquarium. The committee also called for a study to look for alternatives to cetacean exhibits and to examine the impacts of captivity on these intelligent social mammals. "We feel that breeding an animal for a life of captivity without there being a sound conservation reason for that should be banned and prohibited," said board member Niki Sharma.  

Read More


2. Another Asian Airline Soars As Thai Airways Bans Shipment of Fins




Thai Airways International
Thai Airways has issued an embargo on the shipment of shark byproducts. Momentum is growing, and the lucrative but unsustainable fin market in Hong Kong and China is facing stronger international opposition. 
Thai Airways International

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3. "California Dreaming" About Rainfall: Driest Conditions in History of the State




The United States federal government has been monitoring drought since the 1990s. This year has tipped the scales and been the worst on record. The state's $44.7 billion agricultural industry is being threatened, as are the natural flora and fauna. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate is blaming man-made global warming for this season's drought.

Read More

4. Dramatic Fall in Chinese Shark Fin Sales After Banquet Ban

 
Demand for shark fin soup in China has dropped following a ban at government banquets. Restaurants, hotel chains, and airlines are taking the soup off their menus, and some seafood wholesalers have stopped selling fins. Young Chinese in particular are rejecting the traditional dish. Shark fin trade in Guangzhou, the center of the industry, is down 82%.

Read More

 


5. New Caledonia Unveils the World's Largest Nature Preserve at 320 Million Acres

New Caledonia, a small island chain in the South Pacific, has set aside a marine sanctuary twice the size of Texas. The area was chosen for its deep sediment basins, underwater mountains, 1.1 million acres of coral reefs, and rich biodiversity, including 48 species of shark. Improved management of the island's marine resources may also offer economic benefits, such as increased sustainable fishing and tourism.

Read More


6. Trinidad & Tobago Join Growing List of Countries With Shark Fin Bans

Minister Devant Maharaj has a strong track record of supporting international efforts to curb shark finning. Now he has helped usher in a national ban on shark finning. T & T is the first Caribbean country to establish a shark finning ban.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Obscuring & Outwitting: Octopuses, Octopi, or Octopodes


Chameleon of the ocean floor, the octopus has the largest brain of any invertebrate and is among the most intelligent of water-dwelling creatures. Octopuses can change to gray, brown, pink, blue, or green to blend in with their surroundings. They may also change color as a way to communicate with each other.

These slippery creatures are armed with hundreds of powerful suckers that line their eight tentacles, which have the dual senses of taste and touch. The pressure from these same suckers is capable of tearing flesh.

Although the octopus has no internal or external skeleton, it boasts an extremely complicated nervous system supported by three hearts. Two hearts pump blood through the gills, while the third pumps blood through the body.

By employing foresight, planning, and even tool use, octopuses can perform amazing feats of dexterity and agility. They use rocks and jets of water as tools, and are known to use coconut shells to hide from predators.

Don’t take our word for it. Watch this octopus escape from inside a closed jar:


These fast swimmers jet forward by expelling water through their mantles. When cornered in a tight spot, they can squeeze into impossibly small cracks and crevices where predators can't follow. If all else fails, an octopus can lose an arm to escape a predator's grasp and re-grow it later with no permanent damage.

Sources
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/octopus.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/octopus.aspx
http://www.onekind.org/be_inspired/animals_a_z/octopus/
http://www.allthesea.com/Octopus.html
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6474

Friday, August 1, 2014

Making Waves: Sea Save's Week In Review - August 1, 2014

Get an eyewitness look at the Hong King fin market, delve into an ocean plastic mystery, and more in today's Week In Review.

1. Gary Stokes, Ardent Sea Save Supporter and Shark Conservationist, Documents Hong Kong Fin Market


On July 28, Gary Stokes encountered these fins drying on the streets in Sheung Wan. He stopped to make inquiries and was told that they were all severed from blue sharks and were imported from Spain! The Spanish fishing boats loaded these in the western Pacific Ocean. The fins will be shipped next week to China. Shipments are arriving every week.


2. Good News: Shark Fishing and Trade To Be Restricted in UAE


New regulations on the fishing and sale of sharks in the United Arab Emirates will place restrictions on fishermen and traders, preventing the export of sharks caught in UAE waters, limiting the use of some fishing tools, creating a buffer zone in coastal waters, and extending the duration of the no-take period. The regulations also forbid the targeting of shark species under CITES. Although the change is not an outright ban on all trading of shark products, as conservations have been lobbying for, it's a positive first step.

Read More

3. Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal Pup Killed in Apparent Dog Attack



A two-week-old Hawaiian monk seal was found dead, and several others found injured, from an apparent dog attack on a Kauai beach. The critically endangered seal, found only in Hawaii, is one of the rarest marine animals in the world and one of only two remaining monk seal species. NOAA recently celebrated 2014 as having the highest number of newborns in several years, with just two born on Kauai in 2013 and four the previous year.

Read More

4. Is It Time to Rethink Our Approach to Protecting Endangered Species?


Stanford scientists are questioning the theory that protecting individual threatened species is equivalent to protecting entire ecosystems. Citing the example of the bumphead parrotfish, which now poses a threat to corals, a newly published study warns that threatened species can damage their surrounding ecosystems if their numbers grow too high. Conservation efforts should be focused on protecting and restoring entire ecosystems, including top predators such as sharks.

Read More

5. New Dolphinarium Under Construction in Thailand



Thailand is taking a step back with the development of a new dolphinarium in Phuket, designed to contain six dolphins, including several allegedly captured in Japan. The news will tarnish the country's reputation abroad. India, meanwhile, recently became the fourth country to ban keeping dolphins in captivity.

Read More


6. Where Has All the Ocean Plastic Gone?


Plastic production has quadrupled since the 1980s, yet the location of all the plastic that has been making its way into the oceans is a mystery. The five major subtropical gyres are filled with plastic debris, but there should be a lot more of it. Most likely, the fine particles of plastic are accumulating in the deep ocean, where they will modify the ecosystem in ways we can't yet predict, says the author of a recent study. A new map of ocean plastic may help.

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7. Passionate about Sharks and Rays? Check Out the Annual Elasmobranch Conference



The 2014 Annual Scientific Conference of the European Elasmobranch Association will be held in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, November 7-9. The conference, which focuses on the conservation of chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, skates, and chimaeras), will include sessions on policy making, restoration measures, husbandry, tagging, and more. An excursion will be offered on the last day.


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8. Poaching Continues at Cocos Island


Despite ongoing international efforts, poaching continues unabated within the borders of Cocos Island, a World Heritage Site.  On July 23 alone, park patrol boats discovered a longline with 38 hooks, 13 supporting buoys, and two dead sharks at one mile from the island.  Another fishing line rigged with 131 hooks was found two miles from the island.  Both were well within the protected area of this Costa Rican national park.

Read More (In Spanish)