Not only does the ghost fishing gear account for about 46 percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a new study has found that the amount of commercial fishing line left in Earth’s oceans each year is enough to stretch to the moon and back, reported The Guardian.
It’s no secret that fishing gear often results in the entanglement of untargeted marine species, including those that are endangered, threatened and protected like seabirds, sea turtles, sharks and marine mammals. Gillnets are one of the most widely used types of fishing gear in the world and are often the culprit in this unwanted bycatch. […]
Oakland conservation group the Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to require trap fisheries to convert from traditional crab fishing gear to new ropeless or “pop-up” gear in all United States waters within the next five years. The old gear has led to many entanglements and injuries of endangered whales […]
Scientists in a South Florida county have gotten a pleasant surprise this year. A record number of endangered leatherback sea turtles nested on beaches in Broward County this season, nearly doubling the previous record high. “It’s difficult to say why Broward County saw such an increase in leatherback nesting this season,” Broward County biologist and […]
California is taking extra steps to protect its official state reptile. The state’s Fish and Game Commission voted Thursday to list the Pacific leatherback turtle as endangered under California’s own Endangered Species Act, as the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) announced in a press release. The action comes as the population of these turtles off […]
Something strange is happening to sea turtles in the Florida Keys, and scientists and conservationists are working together to understand why. Stranded green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Southernmost island chain in the United States are showing high rates of internal and external tumors — 51.5% to be exact. This is more than double […]
The 8.7 million species that inhabit this Earth did not evolve in a world dominated by human activity, and this can cause problems when climate change or pollution transforms a previously advantageous environment into a perilous one. This is the case for juvenile sea turtles, a study published in Frontiers in Marine Science this month […]
By Malaka Rodrigo Up to 100 turtles and 20 dolphins have washed up dead on Sri Lanka’s beaches in the past month, as experts fear a link to the leak of toxic chemicals from a sunken freight ship. “So far, around 176 dead turtles have got washed onto different beaches around Sri Lanka,” said Thushan […]
By David Duffy and Catherine Eastman Plastic pollution has been found in practically every environment on the planet, with especially severe effects on ocean life. Plastic waste harms marine life in many ways – most notably, when animals become entangled in it or consume it. We work as scientists and rehabilitators at The Whitney Laboratory […]
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