Plankton

What happened at the International Whaling Commission 2016 meeting

Posted by Willie — 28 October 2016 at 4:48pm - Comments
Image of a whale's fluke (tail)
All rights reserved. Credit: Greenpeace

The International Whaling Commission meeting 2016 has just come to a close. Delegates from 64 countries spent a week discussing and debating whales, in Potoroz, Slovenia.
Greenpeace’s international team was there, and here’s a quick roundup of what happened.

Article tagged as: biodiversity, commercial whaling, ecosystems, International Whaling Commission, IWC, oceans, plankton, SAWS, scientific whaling, vaquita, vote buying, whale poo, whales, whaling

Why is everyone talking about whale poo?

Posted by Willie — 20 October 2016 at 4:55pm - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: Paul Hilton

Whales are special. No, not for any stereotypical hippy la-la reasons, this is *science*!

Healthy oceans need lots of healthy whale populations: they keep things in balance, help disperse and mix nutrients, support entire ecosystems and help fight climate change.

Surprised? Read on…

Article tagged as: carbon, carbon sink, circle of life, co2, conservation, ecosystems, ecotourism, IWC, nutrients, oceans, plankton, poo, whale falls, whale poo, whale watching, whales, whaling

Fishing for plankton is ridiculous.

Posted by Willie — 1 June 2016 at 5:04pm - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/Sheldon_J._Plankton/gallery
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

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
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