Blog: Oceans

Tokyo Two allowed back to work

Posted by jossc — 14 April 2009 at 11:08am - Comments

This article by Lisa first appeared on our Making Waves weblog on 10th April.

Junichi on his first day back in the Greenpeace Japan office
Junichi on his first day back in the Greenpeace Japan office

After nine months of disconnection from their colleagues and workplace, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki walked back into the Greenpeace Japan office last week like long-missed adventurers finally home.

Of course they did not come in on the same day, as while the bail conditions binding them have been relaxed enough for them to speak to their colleagues and come back to work, there are still a lot of kilometres left on their road, and they still cannot communicate directly with one another or be in the same place at the same time.

Article tagged as: japan, tokyo two, whaling

Tesco takes shark-fin of the shelves

Posted by Willie — 8 April 2009 at 10:45am - Comments

This female Caribbean Reef Shark in Roatan apparently survived a finning - most do not. CC copyright yukikokubo
This female Caribbean Reef Shark in Roatan apparently survived a finning - most do not © CC yukikokubo

Tesco have just announced that they're going to stop selling shark fins in their stores in Thailand.

This follows some bad press on the issue and subsequent lobbying by the Shark Trust to clean up their act.

Sharks are a dividing issue with people – some people love them and are fascinated by them, others are terrified of them. Whilst sharks have an ferocious and fearsome reputation, and any shark attack or alleged sightings of man-eating great whites off Cornwall make the news, we rarely hear of the impact we humans are having on sharks. And we are having an enormous impact.

Article tagged as: co-op, EU, sainsburys, sharks, tesco, thailand, tuna

Never mind the pollack

Posted by Willie — 7 April 2009 at 9:49am - Comments

Pollack - creative commons (copyright leibatiheim)
A pollack called Colin... what's in a name?

Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you. Unless you're at the fish counter it seems, where the retailers Sainsbury's have 'renamed' pollack as 'colin'.

No, it's not April Fools' Day - apparently customers had a bit of an issue asking for pollack. I guess in much the same way as Uranus started being pronounced 'Yoo-ran-uss' at some point in the last couple of decades to avoid embarrassment and puerile jokes.

Article tagged as: colin, orange roughy, overfishing, pollack, pollock, sainsburys

If feeding fish to cows is the answer, somebody's asking the wrong question...

Posted by Willie — 2 April 2009 at 4:11pm - Comments

cows copywrite michelle lyles (creative commons)

Fish? No thanks, I'm vegetarian... © CC Michelle Lyles

Sometimes, you are a bit dumbfounded by stories that make the news. Seriously, you couldn't make some of it up, could you? I couldn't let this one pass (so to speak) without comment.

Today's belter is the new study suggesting that feeding fish to cows will help climate change. Yes, you read that right. The theory is something like this – cows, which we farm for milk, meat and leather, produce methane. Most of this is by burping, not flatulence as the comics would prefer. Methane is a bad, nasty, evil greenhouse gas. And we want to cut those down, don't we?

Article tagged as: agriculture, climate change, co2, emissions, fishmeal, ocean acidification, oceans

If feeding fish to cows is the answer, somebody's asking the wrong question...

Posted by Willie — 2 April 2009 at 4:11pm - Comments

cows copywrite michelle lyles (creative commons)

Fish? No thanks, I'm vegetarian... © CC Michelle Lyles

Sometimes, you are a bit dumbfounded by stories that make the news. Seriously, you couldn't make some of it up, could you? I couldn't let this one pass (so to speak) without comment.

Today's belter is the new study suggesting that feeding fish to cows will help climate change. Yes, you read that right. The theory is something like this – cows, which we farm for milk, meat and leather, produce methane. Most of this is by burping, not flatulence as the comics would prefer. Methane is a bad, nasty, evil greenhouse gas. And we want to cut those down, don't we?

Article tagged as: agriculture, climate change, co2, emissions, fishmeal, ocean acidification, oceans

Corals in deep trouble

Posted by Willie — 24 March 2009 at 11:28am - Comments

Rainbow Warrior documenting cold coral formations off the Norwegian coast, March 2009

Rainbow Warrior documenting cold coral formations off the Norwegian coast

To most people, the word 'coral' conjures up images of clear, shallow tropical seas, glistening white sandy beaches beneath a blazing sun, and an array of colourful fish that would resemble the cast of Finding Nemo. Sun-drenched places like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia immediately spring to mind.

Article tagged as: coral reefs, EU fisheries, norway, rainbow warrior

Tata's turtles

Posted by jossc — 20 March 2009 at 6:10pm - Comments

Sea turtles have been nesting at Gahirmatha on the Orissa coast of India for hundreds, possibly thousands of years. But if we don't act now, we could see this change within a decade – an eye blink in geological timescales.

A new port being built at Dhamra, near Gahirmatha, will push the endangered olive ridley sea turtle closer to the slippery edge of extinction. The main threat to the turtles is posed by dredging to make a channel deep enough for large ships to anchor.

Article tagged as: india, oceans, olive ridley turtles, TATA, videos

Tata's turtles

Posted by jossc — 20 March 2009 at 6:10pm - Comments

Sea turtles have been nesting at Gahirmatha on the Orissa coast of India for hundreds, possibly thousands of years. But if we don't act now, we could see this change within a decade – an eye blink in geological timescales.

A new port being built at Dhamra, near Gahirmatha, will push the endangered olive ridley sea turtle closer to the slippery edge of extinction. The main threat to the turtles is posed by dredging to make a channel deep enough for large ships to anchor.

Article tagged as: india, oceans, olive ridley turtles, TATA, videos

Whaling on trial

Posted by jossc — 20 March 2009 at 11:50am - Comments


Whaling on Trial from Greenpeace on Vimeo.

My colleague Maarten over at Greenpeace International has just released this video telling the story of Junichi Satu and Toru Suzuki (the Tokyo Two), the anti-whaling activists soon to be tried in Japan for the supposedly heinous crime of informing their government that crew members on the whaling ships were stealing meat and selling it on the black market.

Following a tip-off from an an informant working in the whaling industry, they obtained a box of stolen whale meat, held a press conference and asked for an investigation. The result? Amazingly the government exonerated the whalers after little or no investigation, and put Junichi and Toru on trial instead. Hmmm, sounds like some people in high places over there are willing to go to extreme lengths to stop the Japanese public hearing the truth about what the government insists is a purely 'scientific' programme.

Article tagged as: japan, tokyo two, whaling
Syndicate content

Follow Greenpeace UK