Short-Finned Pilot Whale: There are currently two recognized species of pilot whale, the short-finned and long-finned. In Japan, there are two morphologically and geographically distinct population…
Source: #Taiji Tuesday – Short-Finned Pilot Whale
Michelle Neff
April 24, 2017
We have some very exciting news to share! After a staggering 20 years living at the Seoul Grand Park aquarium, Geumdeung, and Daepo, two bottlenose dolphins will be sent back to the oceans in July. The two dolphins were captured by a fishery net near Jeju Island in 1997 and 1998, respectively, with their names coming from the villages where they were first found. Geumdeung and Daepo were bounced between various dolphin performance theaters around Jeju Island until they were transported to Seoul Grand Park in 1999 and 2002. The pair have been there ever since.
According to the Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending marine animal captivity, the decision to move Geumdeung and Daepo came from Mayor Park Won-soon. The ground-breaking movie “The Cove” greatly influenced the mayor’s decision to rehabilitate and release the two dolphins, even going as far as to pay for the entire project.
After being taken from the wild and then forced to perform meaningless tricks for people, Geumdeung and Daepo are now finally going back home. Wonderful news!
The decision to move the dolphins back into their home is a solution to increase the wild dolphin population near the Jeju shores. Geumdeung and Daepo are around 23 to 26 years old and are still diagnosed as healthy enough to procreate, the average Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphin living up to 30-25 years old.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries plans to carry out training sessions for Geumdeung and Daepo so they will adapt back into the wild. Once they become used to their local surroundings and are able to catch prey, the two dolphins will be transported back to the Jeju island in May and then will return to the ocean around July. With dolphins having complex communication skills, advanced mental capacity, and genuine self-awareness, we are thrilled to learn that Geumdeung and Daepo will soon return to where they belong: the wild.
No animal should have to suffer for the sake of our entertainment. Please never visit or otherwise support a marine park like SeaWorld or Marineland. Instead, support organizations like Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project and Sea Shepherd’s Cove Guardians both of which are dedicated to stopping marine animal captivity. 🐬
Drunk spring breakers filmed themselves using a beached shark as a bottle opener, drinking beer off a star fish belly, and forcing a seagull back to their hotel room. Demand authorities find and prosecute these sick creeps.
Source: Drunk Frat Boys Used Beached Shark as Can Opener – Demand Arrests
Pink dolphins are having their fins cut off by fishermen to use as bait, leading to painful, excruciating deaths. This inhumane practice cannot be allowed to continue. Help save these creatures from cruel deaths by mutilation.
Sharks don’t belong in captivity. Please urge fairs to cancel these cruel events.
A famous surfer has proposed on social media that France’s government should cull sharks daily to resolve the issue of an increase in shark attacks. Culling is cruel and ineffective and should not be promoted by an influential public figure. Tell this surfer that sharks belong in the ocean by signing this petition.
Source: Denounce Surfer for Demanding Daily Culling of Sharks
In the first crustacean cruelty conviction ever seen by RSPCA NSW, one of Sydney’s biggest seafood stores has pleaded guilty to cruelty-to-animals charges.
Source: Ground-Breaking Case: Seafood Store Convicted for Cruelty to Lobster | News | PETA Australia
A museum holds several dolphins in small, dirty tanks with chlorine levels so high that some of the dolphins cannot even open their eyes. Sign this petition and demand that these incredibly sensitive and intelligent animals are moved to a sea pen or an accredited sanctuary immediately.
Source: Save Innocent Dolphins Trapped in Small, Chlorinated Tanks
Malorie Macklin
February 4, 2017
There are many reasons why bottled water is drawing criticism lately. From the incredible amount of plastic pollution that stems from mismanaged plastic water bottles, to the threat of hazardous chemicals leaching from the plastic, to the controversial water harvesting practices of some bottled water companies, to the fact that bottled water is no healthier than tap water, the practice of bottling water is definitely not popular with many crowds.
And while bottled water may serve a degree of reliability in times of natural disaster or compromised water service, the widespread embrace of this $100 billion industry on a daily basis is just not as convenient or healthy as some companies have it cracked up to be. In fact, it’s proving to be anything but convenient or healthy for wildlife. If you care about birds, fish, insects and any number of other creatures, this is one industry you won’t want to be supporting any longer. From the harvest of water by bottling companies to the manufacture and eventual disposal of the plastic bottles, bottled water is truly a danger to wildlife all over the planet.
Diverting Valuable Resources
There are some possible sources of water that bottling companies may elect to use. There are municipal sources where the water comes from the tap, essentially, and accounts for roughly 55 percent of the bottled water available for purchase. Natural sources make up the other supply line and are often referred to in the industry as “spring water.” Some companies choose to add minerals or electrolytes or put the water through various filtration and treatment systems. No matter the source or manipulation of the water, one fact remains: bottled water companies are removing water from a location where it is needed to sell it elsewhere.
Nestlé is one particular company that has gained a lot of bad press lately over its theft of water in drought-ridden California. The state of California has been experiencing an inconceivable drought over recent years. In fact, the span of time from 2012 to 2014 was the driest three-year period in the state’s recorded history! Yet, despite the state’s dire straights, Nestlé continues to operate a pumping operation that extracts 1.9 million gallons of water every single day from San Bernadino National Park because the National Parks Service has allowed them to operate under an expired permit for the past two decades!
Sadly, Nestlé is only one example out of many other companies who carry out similar business.
In the midst of all this water usage, wildlife is poised to take a hit from the water theft that bottling companies like Nestlé, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart are able to practice. In California, the drought is proving harmful to ecosystems from marshes that house endemic species, to forests where trees are dying out in the millions. With their habitat compromised, animals large and small can’t be expected to thrive in such harsh conditions. The drought is also destructive to migration patterns of waterfowl that depend on wetlands during their travel. While bottled water companies may not be the single cause of the drought in California, the fact that they are able to continue to exploit dwindling water supplies and harm wildlife in the process is appalling.
Mixing Oil and Water
It isn’t just the harvesting of water that makes bottled water dangerous to wildlife – it’s also the manufacturing of the plastic bottles themselves that are so disastrous. Plastic bottles require oil for manufacturing, an increasingly inconvenient fact. On an annual basis, Americans alone demand 17 million barrels of oil to produce plastic water bottles. Unfortunately, more drilling is needed from year to year to continue to meet this demand as the PET bottles typically used cannot be converted into other plastic water bottles. Instead, they end up as material for fleece or carpeting.
The seemingly endless demand for oil is proving harmful to wildlife due to the pollution involved in the process. If you need evidence that oil drilling is bad for wildlife, just look at what happens to animals after an oil spill like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Over 8,000 birds, marine mammals and sea turtles were tallied as either injured or dead within the first six months of the spill, and studies posit that dolphin populations are still being impacted by the spill.
Care About Wildlife? Here’s Why You Should Kick the Bottled Water Habit Today
Plastic Planet
Even though plastic bottles are recyclable, the majority don’t end up in the recycling plant. Of the 50 billion plastic water bottles used every year in America, only an estimated 23 percent end up recycled. If the majority of plastic water bottles don’t end up recycled, where do they go?
Landfills are the primary receivers of the 35 billion plastic water bottles we throw out each year, with some escape artists making their way into terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Once a plastic bottle is tossed into the ocean or left on the street, it won’t fully degrade for 1,000 years! It will instead break into many tiny pieces first that have the capability to absorb harmful toxins like PCB’s and DDT. And once the plastic bottle has taken on its new form as a microplastic, it becomes readily available for consumption by animals like fish and plankton. Even then, it never disappears, but rather continues to circulate in a vicious cycle.
Care About Wildlife? Here’s Why You Should Kick the Bottled Water Habit Today
While our world’s oceans are faced with 8.8 million tons of new plastic material every single year, we must acknowledge that plastic water bottles share part of the blame for this problem. Is it rather crazy to think that a single serving of water from a bottling company could lead to wildlife facing hundreds of years of exposure to toxic chemicals and bits of plastic crowding them out of their habitat?
Thirsty for Action?
Now that you’re aware of how bottled water is pretty harmful to furry, feathered, and scaly friends alike, are you ready to step up for wildlife? There are a ton of ways you can help wild animals and insects, but one important way is to make sure you aren’t maintaining a bottled water habit that is harmful to other creatures. Here are a few tips to keep you hydrated without putting your “animal lover” status in jeopardy.
Settle for tap. Tap water is regulated by the EPA, which enforces harsher standards for water quality than the FDA does for bottled water. Barring any unusual circumstances, you should be perfectly safe and healthy relying on tap water to keep you hydrated.
Don’t hydrate with single-use plastic. Invest in a reusable water bottle, mug, cup, mason jar, or whatever else will hold a serving of H2O. Whatever your choice, it’s a better option than a plastic bottle.
Let your voice be heard. Removing support from the bottling industry is certainly a major way to let them know you don’t agree with their business practices. You can take your beliefs a step further, however, and get involved in public action against the bottled water industry. Food and Water Watch is currently leading a campaign against bottled water called “Take Back the Tap” to reduce bottled water’s hold on schools across America.
Taking on the bottled water industry in support of wildlife everywhere is not going to be an easy task, but it is certainly one you can start at home with each sip of water you drink.
Let’s #CrushPlastic! Click the graphic below for more information.
This single photo of a hermit crab illustrates the sad reality of plastic pollution..
This happened recently when Kerstin Langenberger Photography released a picture of an emaciated polar bear, which stunned many of its viewers into silence and made them realize just how vital it is to continue speaking up on behalf of our planet. We were also reminded of photography’s ability to cut right to heart of complex issues when a shocking image comparing the size of SeaWorld San Diego’s parking lot and orca tank began to circulate through social media last month. And now, an equally powerful image has come to our attention again.
In this picture, uploaded by Reddit user HSmidt, we see the reality of what plastic pollution does to wild animals.
The hermit crab pictured has resorted to using a toothpaste cap as a shell. In one sense, this can be regarded as a sign of the crab’s ingenuity, as he or she seeks to make the best of a dire situation … but the fact that the tiny animal’s chosen home is a piece of human-produced plastic – the very substance that is killing so many marine and land animals all over the globe, and leading to a terrifying build-up of waste that may take up to 1,000 years to decompose – cannot help but strike sadness into a Green Monster’s heart.
The facts behind plastic pollution are shocking to behold. In the last ten years, we have produced more of this material than was made in the entire previous century. Shoppers worldwide use around 500 billion single-use plastic bags per year – meaning that these bags are used just once before being discarded. Much of this waste is destined to end up in the ocean, where it now threatens 700 marine species with extinction.
The scariest fact of all? 270,000 tons of plastic are currently estimated to be floating in our oceans: the equivalent of 135,000 cars, 130,000 mid-sized boats, or 1,125 freight trains. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean is growing by the year, with truly frightening implications for marine and human life.
While all these statistics are shocking, it is important to remember the role that each one can play to reduce the excess of plastic every single day. We, after all, have a choice to use disposable plastics on a daily basis or to opt for a reusable, sustainable alternative. For more information on how you can reduce your dependency on plastic, and help save animals like the hermit crab.
15,000 lives have been killed by sharks nets!
https://actionsprout.io/CF26E3/initial
4 Dolphins Bust Out of ‘Recreational Facility’ Where They Were Being Held in Taiji, Japan
Michelle Neff
January 5, 2017
Can you imagine being a dolphin and being held in prison for doing nothing wrong? You spend all your days behind bars with other miserable jail mates. Sometimes they become aggressive towards you due to their own frustrations of being so tightly confined. Why have your freedoms been taken away? Because you provide so-called “public entertainment.”
Unfortunately, for many dolphins and other cetaceans, this is their reality. But at least four dolphins are taking matters into their own fins. In an awesome feat, four dolphins have escaped from a recreational facility named DolphinBase in the Japanese town of Taiji. Taiji is internationally known for the cruel dolphin hunts that take place there every year between September and March, where large numbers of wild dolphins are herded into a small cove. From there, they are either slaughtered for their meat or hand-picked for captive facilities, such as DolphinBase. The four dolphins who escaped are between three to five years old and were being trained to swim with tourists in the facility’s seaside pens. Sadly, they had been held captive for more than six months.
The four dolphins escaped after staff at DolphinBase found their nets slashed. Go dolphins, go!
Local police don’t know who was behind the incident. But unfortunately, three of the dolphins are back in their enclosure, while one dolphin remains missing. We hope he swims far, far away!
It’s no wonder these four dolphins jumped on the opportunity to escape DolphinBase the moment they were given the chance to. Dolphins, which are second in intelligence behind humans, are one of the few animals that can learn new things throughout their lives, and then teach those new skills to their young. Even though it may seem like a neat idea, please don’t swim with dolphins and urge your friends and family to do the same. Not supporting marine parks and learning why there is hope for the demise of the captivity industry are also great steps.
Join the #EmptyTheTanks movement on social media and share this article.
One Green Planet
Imagine you’re taking a day to relax on the beach. There’s a warm, gentle breeze rustling your voluminous, freshly-washed hair –you pretty much look like a super model. You reach for a chip and hear the crinkle of cellophane mixing with the hypnotic sounds of the surf crash against the beach. As the sun presses down on your oiled bronzing skin, you grab your water bottle feel the cool plastic, slick from perspiration, beneath your palm as you take a swig of the ice cold water. Now imagine a 37-foot sperm whale washing up dead at your feet on the beach. Back to reality . . .
A juvenile sperm whale recently washed up dead on a beach of the Davao Gulf just outside of a resort in Samal, located in the Philippines. The autopsy revealed that the whale had, “large amounts of plastic trash, fishing nets, hooks and even a piece of coco lumber in its stomach,” and experts believe the cause of death for this majestic creature was choking on plastic. Seems a little crazy that such a mammoth whale could be taken down by plastic, but this is not the first time this has happened. Of the 54 whale deaths that have been reported in the Davao Gulf, only four of them can be attributed to natural causes. That means that 50 whales have died because of human industry and pollution. This is unacceptable, but how do we stop these senseless deaths?
The Next Time You Use Disposable Plastics – Think of a Dead 37-Foot Sperm Whale
So think back to your fictional day on the beach. Did you know that 18,000 tons of shampoo bottles are thrown out every year? Or that 40 billion plastic bottles end up in landfill every year. We generate around 8.8 million tons of plastic waste annually and only 15 percent of it is recycled – the majority of it makes it back into our oceans. From there it makes it into the stomachs and throats of marine life like the young sperm whale in this picture. Plastic pollution chokes, cuts, and entangles marine life and is currently endangering 700 different species with extinction around the world. So the next time you’re fantasizing about your perfect day, cut disposable plastics out of the picture, and while you’re at it – cut them out of your real life as well. Join One Green Planet’s #CrushPlastic campaign to learn about how you can stop plastic pollution at the source. Stop daydreaming about saving the world and start doing it.
Let’s #CrushPlastic! Click the graphic below for more information.
The cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning should have been made illegal long ago. Rhode Island just passed a law to end this inhumane industry, and now the entire U.S. must act. Sign this petition to demand a nationwide ban on this irresponsible trade.
Precious marine habitat and sea life are being threatened by a planned memorial to a warrior king off the coast of Mumbai. Sign this petition to stop the building of this memorial and protect the marine environment and sea life in the Arabian Sea.
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