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In this beautiful video from The Dodo, scuba divers rescue whale sharks stuck in a fishing net. The best part comes next—when the divers' newfound friends hang around to celebrate.
The extraordinary whale shark takes 30 years to reach maturity and can live more than 100 years. They can grow more than 40 feet long. They can even stand on their tails.
And while they are the largest fish in the sea, they are not predators, but rather filter feeders subsisting on the tiniest food available—zooplankton and small fish such as sardines and anchovies swimming into their open mouths.
Their size and thick skin help protect them from predators, but not from humans, as commercial fishing has exploited them to the brink of extinction.
This amazing footage was shared by Txus R. at Indocruises.
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Check out this video from Great Big Story to see how scientists are solving crimes against animals.
Wildlife, including endangered species, are killed illegally, smuggled and sold for billions of dollars each year.
Founded by a crime scene investigator, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, uses state-of-the-art technology (as well as flesh-eating beetles). Meet some of the forensics experts at "the only full service crime lab for wildlife in the world."
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In this video from BBC Earth, flying fish make spectacular escapes from their underwater predators, the Dorado fish. Leaping and sailing hundreds of yards above the water is an impressive act—and one very much appreciated by the frigate birds looking on.
Watch the incredible video above.
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Car collisions with deer, elk and moose happen about a million times a year, but what if animals had their own crossings to move around safely?
In Banff National Park, the strategic placement of wildlife overpasses and underpasses has proven to be immensely successful. If implemented widely, such a system could reduce the extreme costs in animal lives and billions of dollars to humans.
And as climate change forces animals to migrate, their need to cross roads will only increase.
Watch this video from Vox to see how this problem—and the cost of addressing it—can be solved today.
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Marine life rely on sound to navigate, socialize, and find food and mates, but it's becoming increasingly difficult for them to hear each other. Noise caused by human activity is now an inescapable threat to their lives.
In the video above from Vox, we hear some of the amazing sounds that underwater creatures make, and learn how they're impacted by noise pollution.
From leisure boats to industrial seismic blasting, humans have created an extreme situation. It's hard not to compare it to sound torture, now banned for being cruel and unusual punishment!
If we wouldn't inflict such pain on our worst enemies, then why are we so ruthless to our neighbors in the sea?
Be sure to watch the video to the end to get to the good news!
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In this video from Wired, former Vice President Al Gore answers the most popular climate change questions searched on Google.
His new documentary, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, gives a status update on his original film, An Inconvenient Truth, from 11 years ago. As Gore discussed with Stephen Colbert last week, the need for a sequel does not mean a complete lack of progress on protecting the planet.
<p>On the contrary, Gore's "tremendous hope" that "we're gonna win this" is based on recent advances in <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">solar</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> power technology. Just as mass communication is easier today than in 2006, <a href="The%20need%20for%20a%20sequel,%20as%20Stephen%20Colbert%20suggested%20last%20week,%20could%20indicate%20a%20lack%20of%20progress">renewable energy</a> is now more and more inevitable. Even <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/6-reasons-why-texas-leads-the-nation-in-wind-power-1906696525.html">Texas realizes</a> that it just makes more sense.</p><p>And if there's anyone who understands the leading role of technology, it's Al Gore, who really did <a href="http://web.eecs.umich.edu/~fessler/misc/funny/gore,net.txt" target="_blank">help create the Internet</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"></p><div id="39002" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="MLIX3B1501250726"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="887428070336077828" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Al Gore Delivers Most Damning Indictment Yet of Trump's Presidency https://t.co/4ofvoxynCX @IMPL0RABLE @NeverTrumpPAC</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/887428070336077828">1500414314.0</a></blockquote></div><p></p>
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Kyara, a killer whale born at SeaWorld San Antonio just three months ago, died Monday at the park, as reported in this video from Newsy. Kyara is the last orca to be born in captivity under the SeaWorld breeding program, which shut down in 2016.
In a statement, SeaWorld said the cause of death was "likely pneumonia" and that "Kyara had faced some very serious and progressive health issues over the last week."
<p>In response to Monday's sad news, <a href="https://www.peta.org/" target="_blank">People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)</a> Vice President Colleen O'Brien issued this statement:<br></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"SeaWorld executives have dollar signs where their eyes should be, but even they can't ignore that 3-month-old Kyara died on #BoycottSeaWorldDay while Academy Award nominee James Cromwell was preparing to lead PETA supporters in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/official.peta/videos/10155599559084586/" target="_blank">a takeover of SeaWorld's orca show</a>. Forty orcas have now died on SeaWorld's watch—it's time for the abusement park to move the remaining animals to seaside sanctuaries before the death toll hits 41."</p><p>Cromwell's protest at SeaWorld San Diego emphasized that all 40 orcas to die at SeaWorld had their lives cut short because they were in captivity.</p><p>"Orcas deserve a full life in the ocean, not a life sentence of swimming endless circles until they drop dead from disease," Cromwell said. "My friends at PETA and I want SeaWorld to move these intelligent animals to seaside sanctuaries without delay."</p><p>Last August, EcoWatch <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/peta-urge-seaworld-last-orca-mother-birth-seaside-sanctuary-1965538356.html" target="_self">reported</a> that PETA was trying to persuade SeaWorld to let Kyara's pregnant mother, Takara, give birth in a seaside sanctuary.</p>
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The colossal mass of throwaway plastic—from straws to bags to bottles—has grown much faster than recycling and disposal efforts can contain it. You might even say this is obvious, no matter where you look.
As a result, places that were once considered pristine—such as Antarctica and the ocean floors of Australia—have become inundated with plastic waste.
Check out this video from National Geographic to watch underwater photographer Huai Su film a diver collecting an endless amount of plastic bottles that litter the seafloor off Xiaoliuqiu Island, Taiwan.
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It's a good year to be a Clemson Tigers football fan, but a bleak time to be an actual tiger in the wild. A loss of habitat and population has pushed tigers to the brink of extinction.
Clemson, and three other universities with tiger mascots—including Auburn, Louisiana State University and the University of Missouri—are teaming up to save the world's remaining tigers.
Check out the video above from Newsy to see how the U.S. Tiger University Consortium is taking on "a moral responsibility" to protect and double the tiger population by 2022.
After all, having an extinct species mascot would be nothing to cheer.
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In this video posted to Facebook by Krystal Gamage, two fishermen off the coast of Owls Head, Maine, find a baby seal trapped in plastic fish netting. What happens next is worth watching until the end.
Even in the waters of the Antarctic, long thought to be pristine, plastic pollution has recently been measured at shockingly high levels.
Wouldn't it be great if every story about plastic pollution had a happy ending?
Watch as Coyote Peterson and the Brave Wilderness Team Take You to an Abandoned Fortress
17 July 2017
Adventure
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Coyote Peterson and the Brave Wilderness team take kayaks to an island off the coast of Maine, where an abandoned fortress from 1858 now displays a sign reading, "ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK."
"There's always a chance that something interesting can be found," Peterson testifies as they approach Fort Gorges. Upon entering the huge castle, he exclaims, "It feels like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!"
Check out the video above, gone viral with more than 3.1 million views. Find out out what Peterson means when he observes, "It's like a whole ecosystem," and discover how you too can visit this wild place!