Moving Turtles to Safety
Among the videos on National Geographic’s website is a Gulf Turtle Eggs Relocated video about volunteers moving loggerhead turtle eggs to a new, safe location. I’m so glad that biologists have agreed to move the turtles rather than let them hatch and swim into the oil spill.
As well, the video shows 22 Kemp’s Ridley turtle babies that were released into a safe part of the Atlantic shore. As I wrote in this blog’s May 5th article Conserving Turtles, Kemp’s Ridley turtles are the world’s most endangered turtles/tortoises, and live only in the Gulf of Mexico.
Altogether, over 700 turtle nests are to be relocated. The turtle rescue group is represented on the video by volunteers and a couple of spokespeople from the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies. The video is an interesting inside look at a conservation operation, thanks to National Geographic and Videographer and Field Producer Fritz Faerber.
Tags: Conservation, eggs, endangered, Gulf of Mexico, Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, Kemp's Ridley, loggerhead, National Geographic, oil spill, turtle, US Fish and Wildlife, video
Whaling Debate
When the dust settled from the recent debate between conservationists and the International Whaling Commission, they had decided to postpone making a decision about re-legalizing whaling, for one year.
The Chair and Vice Chair of the IWC, backed by Japan, Iceland and Norway, wanted to reverse trends and make commercial whaling legal again, according to National Geographic’s NatGeo NewsWatch. Luckily, non-whaling countries led the way in saying NO to the proposal to legalize commercial whaling and approve killing quotas in an international whale sanctuary around Antarctica.
You’d hope that after the Sea Shepherd Society and some leading North American media have shown the barbarism of whaling, coupled with our knowledge that whales are intelligent and increasingly rare animals, re-legalizing whaling would not be under consideration.
Native claims complicate matters such as this, and Greenlanders have been allowed to kill 200 of the common minke whale, but also 19 of the endangered fin whale, according to Repeating Islands.com. Add Humpbacks to the list – this year, Denmark offered to trade nine fin whales for nine humpbacks. Repeating Islands, a Caribbean based news service, is concerned that if this continues it may impact humpback whale watching in the Caribbean. Sadly, some of the whales end up as meat on supermarket shelves rather than frolicking in the sea.
An estimated 1.5 million whales were killed in the 20th century, and now some species such as the blue whale are threatened with extinction. With Japanese whaling ships killing whales in the Antarctica sanctuary, and then selling the whale meat, things need to change.
The Whaling Commission has postponed, for one year, making a decision about re-legalizing whaling. Let’s work with NGO’s, such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare, to ensure that whales that are still alive on our planet are preserved.
Tags: Antarctica, commercial, Greenland, humpback, International Whaling Commission, Japan, National Geographic, quotas, Sea Shepherd, whaling
Wildlife Photos
The International Conservation Photography Award winners show the most incredible photos of an amazing subject – the wildlife of our planet. Several years ago I happened to be in Alberta during the summer when the Award winner’s photos were exhibited at the local museum. Over several weeks, I visited the display about 8 times and told everyone who would listen that they should go.
The Award seems to have expanded since then and now include landscapes, flora, communities at risk, and Puget Sound at Risk. They kindly post some of the winner’s photos online, and you can visit them at their website.
If you’re going to be anywhere near the Seattle area this summer, you have until September 6th to visit the display of Award winner’s photographs. The exhibit is at the Burke Museum, who is also kind enough to put a sampling of the photographs online. Burke’s selection is the same quality that I saw in Alberta, and it is exciting to see them in real life (versus online only). I mean, have you ever seen a photograph of a beluga whale or seal or giraffes look like that before?!
That’s not to say that looking at cool wildlife photographs online is anything less than fun. There’s a display of 99 of the best wildlife photographs as showcased by the National Geographic at Cool Pictures/Cool Stuff. National Geographic is a world leader in photography, and their best of the best shows it.
Altogether, each and all the photographs show us what an incredible world we live in.
Enjoy!
Tags: Award winners, Burke, Cool Pictures, International Conservation Photography, museum, National Geographic, nature, photos, Puget Sound, Seattle, Wildlife
Wildlife Apps & Crittercams
Wildlife apps and cams can be a fun way to tune in and watch animals. Sometimes they are charitable, as in the case of the iGorilla app that allows iPhone and iPad users to watch members of gorilla families in Virunga National Park in Africa. Each app costs $4, and most of the money goes to help the gorillas survive the threats of poaching, civil conflict, deforestation and disease. App users can select a gorilla family and follow them through reports, photos and videos. So reports the BBC.
When finding a reliable list of online wildlife webcams that are all working became harder than it should be, I thought of reversing my search. And yes, there are Crittercams that show you the world from the animal’s point of view. For a donation to the National Geographic of between $26 and $210, you can order a copy of a Crittercam DVD filmed on the back of either an elephant, humpback whale, gray seal, loggerhead turtle, or a white shark. Hopefully you’re reading this in either Canada or the US, because the DVD’s will only be shipped to addresses in those two countries.
Through another page, there’s a short video of a crittercam riding the back of a leopard seal into the waters of Antarctica. As well, you have an opportunity to virtually construct a critter cam.
If you scroll down this page, on the right hand side near the bottom is a link that opens to a virtual tour of the Crittercam Exhibition. It has been touring since August 2007, and will continue to tour around the United States until January 2012. There’s an online virtual tour of the exhibition that is fun, and is like the next best thing to being there.
Tags: crittercam, iGorilla, iPad, iPhone, leopard seal, National Geographic, Virunga National Park, wildlife app
Our Days After Earth Day 2010
The 40th annual Earth Day was a success, with an estimated one billion people in 190 countries participating in some way, according to Earth Day’s website. Many people are forming green teams, dedicated to finding cost-effective ways to promote sustainability. Doing simple things such as printing on two sides of paper, and using a reusable water bottle rather than buying a new container each time you drink coffee or water. A stainless steel travel mug is the best option for this, so you can avoid the toxic effects that plastic water bottles have been found to give.
Meanwhile, the three day World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth wrapped up in Cochabamba Bolivia. This conference largely grew out of how so many NGO’s were barred from any official dialogue at Copenhagen. Over 30,000 people participated in Bolivia and the conference resulted in a wide recognition that a world referendum is needed on climate change, a climate justice tribunal, and the protection of the rights of Mother Earth. Several people blogged about the conference. Hopefully they will accomplish an agreement at the summit planned to be held in Mexico later this year. Their bottom line is that they want to establish a legal framework for protecting our increasingly threatened natural environment and raising the global consciousness about Mother Earth, on which we all depend for life.
Now that so many people are on board, what are some of the things we can do going forward? This being the Friday File, what’s fun?
Sustainability can be fun if we take the right attitude to it. My current stainless steel travel mug is decorated with zebra stripes with a pink border, and I love using it. Look at lists of things we can do, such as on Earth Day’s website, and make a fun version of it.
If you’d like some inspiration, check out National Geographic’s website that shows some fun ways that Earth Day has been celebrated over the years.
And sometimes activities can be fun just because we’re helping our home planet and making a difference.
Tags: Bolivia, Copenhagen, Earth Day, National Geographic, People's Conference, sustainability, travel mug
