Posts Tagged ‘Climate Change’
Give the ocean a chance – our message from the UN Ocean Conference
Whales are our climate allies – meet the scientists busy proving it
One world ocean – why we need to think globally and act locally
On World Ocean(s) Day let’s remember that there is only one ocean on our world. All the water flows through one connected system and this was illustrated to me when I was on an expedition in Greenland. Oceanographers were finding chemical fallout from nuclear tests carried out in Russia in the early 1960s. It had…
Read MoreSave the whales, save the world – convincing governments that whales will help us fight the climate crisis
Whales and dolphins are awesome. They are intelligent, self-aware, socially complex and they need and deserve our protection. But, did you know they are also our allies in fighting the climate crisis? As we begin a new year with hope and optimism, we’re thinking big like a whale and setting our ambitions high. Help save…
Read MoreFinancial worth of whales revealed
Policymakers and economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have placed a substantial value on the benefits of having healthy whales in the ocean. The report looks at the economic benefits whales provide to industries such as ecotourism, and also the environmental benefits (such as how much carbon they remove from the atmosphere by absorbing…
Read MoreCanada approves pipeline despite concerns for Southern Resident orcas
In extremely disappointing but not unexpected news from Canada last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion – a project long opposed by First Nations, coastal communities, and environmental groups in both Canada and the U.S., in addition to the British Columbia provincial government and the state of Washington.…
Read MoreUnusual Mortality Event declared for gray whales in Pacific
Gray whale deaths have spiked on the West Coast May 31 2019 – NOAA Fisheries has officially declared that the elevated numbers of gray whale strandings in 2019 on the west coast of North America an Unusual Mortality Event (UME). Approximately 70 gray whale strandings have been counted in California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska as…
Read MoreInternational scientific congress talks whale poo
Whale poo and its contribution to marine productivity and climate change mitigation will be part of the agenda of the 28th International Congress for Conservation Biology, which opened July 23 in Cartagena, Colombia. Scientists will consider how a range of eco-friendly services provided by whales could underpin conservation decisions made by large organisastions that determine…
Read MoreWhales could help save Arctic Seed Vault
Recently, Norway announced that the entrance to the Global Seed Vault in the Arctic was flooded after very high temperatures caused the permafrost to melt. The vault, a storage facility deep inside a mountain on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, is designed to preserve the world’s crops from future disasters. The store holds seeds from c.5,000 crop…
Read MoreManaging or Recovering Leviathan
Is it time to reframe the conversation? A recent article published in Oceanography by Dr. Phillip Clapham is entitled Managing Leviathan: Conservation challenges for the great whales in a post-whaling world. In the article, Dr. Clapham reviews the history of modern whaling (i.e. industrial, commercial whaling) and its removal of nearly 3,000,000 whales in the 20th Century alone, reducing some…
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