Krill

Orange roughy – a ‘sustainable’ fish certification too far.

Posted by Willie — 21 June 2016 at 2:55pm - Comments

orange roughy illustration

Orange roughy are easy to over fish. So, humans do. But that doesn't seem to be stopping moves to re-define them as 'sustainable' by the Marine Stewardship Council.

True, when we started fishing orange roughy we didn’t know that this slow-growing, long-lived, deep water fish was particularly susceptible. But now we definitely do. Orange roughy can live to a staggering 150 years old, and are at least 30 years old before they are mature enough to breed. To put that into context: there are probably orange roughy alive today that were born when Queen Victoria was on the throne, and they take about 10 times longer to mature than Atlantic cod.

Article tagged as: albatross, bottom trawling, bycatch, certfication, coral, DSCC, fish, fish names, fur seals, krill, Marine Stewardship Council, msc, new zealand, oceans, orange roughy, seamount, sharks, sustainabile fishing, sustainable, WWF

Fishing for plankton is ridiculous.

Posted by Willie — 1 June 2016 at 5:04pm - Comments

Plankton is justifiably outraged.

In the ocean, plankton is food.

There are two types of plankton – tiny plants (phytoplankton) and tiny animals (zooplankton).

Zooplankton includes some eggs and larvae of things like fish and crabs, as well as some minute animals that feed on phytoplankton. That makes them the first link in any food chain, and the basis for all of the ocean’s food webs.

Article tagged as: aquaculture, arctic, climate change, copepods, farmed fish, Ferrero rocher, fishing, fishmeal, Food Standards Agency, herring SpongeBob SquarePants, krill, mackerel, ocean acidification, oceans, plankton, pollock, whales

World's oldest wild bird has a new chick - but is it a doomed messenger in an increasingly polluted ocean?

Posted by Willie — 16 February 2016 at 2:31pm - Comments

World's oldest wild bird, Laysan albatross Wisdom & chick | https://www.facebook.com/hokuleawwv

Imagine becoming a parent at the age of 65. It might seem miraculous but that is what has happened to the world’s oldest known wild bird, an Albatross living on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Article tagged as: albatross, fish, krill, microbeads, microplastics, Midway Atoll, oceans, pacific ocean, plastic, pollution, recycling, seabirds, squid, turtles, whales

Krill-gotten gains to fund Antarctic research

Posted by Willie — 25 February 2015 at 12:42am - Comments

Adelie penguins eat so much krill it can turn their poo pink. They'd probably like us not to eat any.

Scientific research and conservation need more cash. That’s sadly usually true. It’s especially the case in the Antarctic where research is expensive but absolutely essential given the massive environmental changes happening there.

But although new streams of funding should welcomed for Antarctic research, it’s also important to question where that funding comes from. After all, there’s just a sliver of a chance that some seemingly good PR is actually a mind-bogglingly cynical act of greenwashing.

Article tagged as: antarctic, fish meal, greenwash, Happy Feet, hugh's fish fight, keystone species, krill, Marine Stewardship Council, Monty the Penguin, ocean sanctuaries, overfishing, penguins, southern ocean, whales

Celebrating island (wild) life

Posted by Willie — 22 May 2014 at 12:05am - Comments

Today is the International Day for Biological Diversity. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but put simply it’s a day officially set aside to celebrate the world’s wealth of wildlife. For 2014 the theme is Island Biodiversity.

Article tagged as: biodiversity, chagos, coral reef, dodo, Durrell Zoo, international day for biological diversity, islands, krill, madagascar, mauritius, ocean sanctuaries, penguins, polar bears, seamounts, sharks, South Georgia, turtles, whale watching, whales, wildlife, ZSL

Waddle you do to celebrate World Penguin Day?

Posted by Willie — 25 April 2014 at 12:10am - Comments

'Give us a kiss, it's World Penguin Day!'

It’s World Penguin Day today, April 25^th, and I simply can’t imagine a world that didn’t have penguins in it. So in order to celebrate our funny fine-flippered friends I thought it would be good to pull together some fun facts about penguins. Some are fun, some are facts, and some are both at once.

Article tagged as: antarctic oceans alliance, antarctica, Batman, CCAMLR, climate change, Feathers McGraw, fish, krill, London Zoo, ocean sanctuaries, Octonauts, penguins, southern ocean, sustainable fish

IPCC's global warning means it’s time to get serious about protecting our oceans

Posted by Willie — 31 March 2014 at 11:10am - Comments

We know climate change is the biggest threat facing our planet, which is why it is Greenpeace’s priority campaign across the world. Today’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s highlights the enormous impacts and consequences climate change is having on our oceans. This must act as a wake-up call for everyone who depends on, or cares about our oceans and the vast array of life within them.

These are the most important messages from report - and they mean for our oceans.

Article tagged as: antarctic, arctic, bycatch, climate change, coral, fishing, food security, great barrier reef, IPCC, krill, marine reserves, ocean acidification, ocean sanctuaries, pollution, tuna, whales

Why Greenpeace can't - and won't - endorse farmed salmon

Posted by Willie — 21 March 2014 at 4:13pm - Comments

Greenpeace doesn’t endorse farmed salmon. There you go, that’s it in black and white. Next time you see someone say we do – feel free to forward a link to this blog-post.

I’m writing this to set the record straight after a few instances of producers and retailers (and even the occasional NGO) wilfully misrepresenting us as having supported, endorsed, or given their salmon farming some sort of ‘best practice award’.

Article tagged as: anchovies, canada, chile, fish meal, krill, oceans, pollution, salmon, salmon farming, scotland, seafood, seals, USA

Krill intentions: how low can fishing go?

Posted by Willie — 21 February 2013 at 5:14pm - Comments

Red Krill Oil, advertised by Carol Vorderman

No fishy taste? Claims that krill fishing is sustainable are hard to swallow

It’s a sad day, but I think I have run out of krill puns. Well, I’ve been banging on about this for a few years now, and since Happy Feet 2 basically unleashed every krill joke possible, courtesy of Matt Damon and Brad Pitt, there’s not a lot left.

And that, dear readers, is my worry about krill itself.

Article tagged as: carol vorderman, fishing, hugh's fish fight, krill, overfishing, red krill oil, southern ocean

Krill, baby, krill

Posted by Willie — 26 May 2010 at 3:23pm - Comments

Krill and other plankton are being viewed as a potential food source, but at what cost? (c) cbcastro

We humans are an inventive species. We never tire of finding new ways to do things. Just as we are plundering ever-stupider places to feed our dependency on fossil fuels, so we're unerringly heading to the most environmentally-damaging places to feed our hunger for fish.

The Marine Stewardship Council has just decided to certify Antarctic krill. This is utter madness.

Article tagged as: krill, oceans, plankton

Greenpeace UK