Some people spend a long time deciding what they want to do in life. Hazel McBride feels lucky that she’s always known. As a child in Scotland, she watched a VHS tape of Free Willy on repeat. That was the first time she felt a connection with killer whales. The second time was at age eight, on a trip to SeaWorld Orlando in 2000. Shamu was the animal world’s greatest celebrity, and in the US, SeaWorld ads were ubiquitous. Kids wanted to see the killer whales, and after they saw…
Tag: Marine life
From China’s emissions to Australia’s offshore windfarms, things are moving on climate – some even in the right direction | Adam Morton
If you’re searching for some hope on the climate crisis before the Cop28 UN meeting in Dubai this month, try this: China may be changing direction on pollution earlier than expected. Lauri Myllyvirta, a longtime China analyst now with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, calculated that CO2 emissions from the world’s biggest national polluter are likely to fall next year and could then go into “structural decline”. While the country’s emissions have increased this year – unsurprisingly, given that Beijing lifted zero-Covid controls at the end…
Wildlife traffickers plead guilty to illegally importing sea cucumbers
Wildlife traffickers pleaded guilty this week in federal court in California to illegally importing endangered sea cucumbers – which are prized in China for food and medicine and as a reputed aphrodisiac – from Mexico. Zunyu Zhao and Xionwei Xiao were charged with conspiracy and illegal importing of brown sea cucumbers worth over $10,000 from 2017 to 2019 and are scheduled to be sentenced in September and November, respectively. Prosecutors haven’t said where in the ocean the sea cucumbers were obtained. But the defendants were allegedly found with the smuggled…
China’s moratoriums on fishing do ‘nothing to protect squid’
Annual short-term moratoriums on squid fishing imposed by Chinese authorities are probably meaningless as there appeared to be little fishing activity in the areas before the bans were announced, analysis has claimed. In 2020, China’s ministry of agriculture and rural affairs announced a pilot program banning fishing in parts of the south-west Atlantic Ocean from July to October, and parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean from September to December. “During the period, all Chinese fishing boats in the area will suspend operations,” the ministry said. However, an analysis by the…
‘It’s not like chicken farming’: why manta rays are chopped up in Sri Lanka
Every morning, starting at 3am, Lakshan hacks up manta rays. A wholesale buyer who plies his trade at Sri Lanka’s largest fish market, in the city of Negombo, just north of Colombo, he jostles with fishers offloading their catches. His business is primarily to find fresh tuna but he also buys 700kg (1,540lb) of manta and devil rays every day. He doesn’t want the ray’s meat, which most Sri Lankans don’t eat. Instead, he’s after the gill plates: cartilage that helps manta and devil rays filter out microorganisms in ocean…
Australia live news update: fifth child airlifted to hospital with irukandji jellyfish sting; Albanese and Dutton trade insults over Indigenous voice
From 4h ago Fifth child stung by irukandji on K’gari in a fortnight A primary school-age girl has become the fifth child airlifted to hospital from K’gari with suspected irukandji jellyfish stings in the past fortnight, AAP reports. The girl was swimming in the ocean near a popular creek at K’gari – also known as Fraser Island – when she was stung on her lower back and leg. Her parents used vinegar and water on the stings before the RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter landed on a beach on the western…
Turtle concern: Australian businessman denies threatening to sell Conflict Islands to China
The owner of 21 tropical islands off the coast of Papua New Guinea says he never threatened to sell them to China and his main aim is to save the turtles that nest there. Ian Gowrie-Smith, an Australian businessman and investor, bought the Conflict Islands, which lie less than 1,000km from the Australian coast, almost two decades ago. The largely uninhabited atolls are a nesting ground for critically endangered hawksbill and green turtles, whose breeding season begins within weeks. Some then migrate to the Great Barrier Reef. Gowrie-Smith had been…
Chinese influencer who ate great white shark investigated by police
A Chinese influencer is under police investigation after a clip of her roasting and eating a great white shark went viral. Footage of the vlogger, known by her online pseudonym Tizi, showed her feasting on the predatory fish, which police in the central city of Nanchong confirmed was a great white. “It may look vicious, but its meat is truly very tender,” Tizi said while tearing off large chunks of the animal’s barbecued meat, in a video posted in mid-July. In the video, since deleted, she is seen unwrapping a…
Illegal overfishing by Chinese trawlers leaves Sierra Leone locals ‘starving’
Along Tombo’s crumbling waterfront, dozens of hand-painted wooden boats are arriving in the blistering midday sun with the day’s catch for the scrum of the market in one of Sierra Leone’s largest fishing ports. In a scrap of shade at the bustling dock, Joseph Fofana, a 36-year-old fisherman, is repairing a torn net. Fofana says he earns about 50,000 leone (£3.30) for a brutal, 14-hour day at sea, crammed in with 20 men, all paying the owner for use of his vessel. “This is the only job we can do,”…
Smuggling Australian rock lobsters into China a national security threat, Hong Kong customs chief says
Rampant smuggling of Australian rock lobsters into mainland China is a national security threat, Hong Kong’s new customs chief said Thursday as she vowed to crack down on the trade. Lobsters are one of a number of products from Australia that China has restricted imports of as relations between the countries plunged. But they remain a prized and much sought-after delicacy in mainland China. Imports of Australian rock lobsters to Hong Kong – which maintains no restrictions on the crustaceans – have since sky-rocketed, with suspicions that the vast majority…