marine environment matters
I call this blog a nature blog, but this is the first post about the marine environment.
Visiting the Melbourne Aquarium is always a wonderful experience. Like Melbourne Zoo, its aim is to help conserve animals in the natural environment, not just to be an arc for animals extinct in the wild.
Global warming, government policies privileging business over conservation and a plague of plastic bags that kill birds and sea creatures like turtles, are among the risks.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society (ACMS) is dedicated to protecting ocean wildlife and their homes. It's the organization to work with if you want to play a role in advocating for sea creatures.
One recent campaign was to protect 'local' great white, tiger and bull sharks from being killed in Western Australia. The ostensible goal of this policy was to protect swimmers. But sharks are migratory animals, and do not frequent particular beaches. This policy threatened some of our most vulnerable wildlife. Sharks are apex predators, and play a vital role in keeping the seas healthy by keeping other species in balance.
The Western Australia government drew back from this appalling policy of culling sharks using baited drum lines because of public opposition. But the ACMS is still keeping a close eye on the government to make sure it doesn't implement a shark cull by stealth. The policy still allows for large sharks swimming past the Western Australian coast to be killed on sight as they are deemed to be a 'risk to human safety'.
Another campaign is to do something about the rubbish polluting our streets, rivers and seas. Comedian Frank Woodley has made a quirky video about this topic, called Give Frank a Break.
The marine environments cover so much of the earth--we can't neglect them! Great post!
ReplyDeletethanks Beth.
DeleteMore and more of our coastline is being made into marine conservation areas, but this causes problems for the fishermen who catch our fish. There must be a compromise somewhere.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that it is not ordinary fishermen who are the problem, but those with long lines and nets that scrape the bottom and kill everything for miles around. ACMS gives info to let us know which fish are fished sustainably, so we can make good consumer choices.
DeleteThe release of balloons should be banned and all plastics should contain a packaging deposit. That's my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteI agree Denise, all that stands in the way of your proposal is political will.
DeleteLove this...how awful what we are doing to the majority of the world....
ReplyDeleteit's scary, I try to look for the glass half full instead of empty ...
DeleteI wonder if we will ever clean up the oceans from all the debris that went into it after the tsunami in Japan.
ReplyDeletedear Linda, I wonder too ...
DeleteWe are also concerned about marine ecology here, as we border the Gulf of Mexico. It is terrible when we hear of fish die-offs or see dead marine mammals on the beach.I did not realize that turtles mistake plastic for jellyfish, but your photos show why that can easily happen. Just another reason to avoids plastics as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteDear Deb, living where you do, it must be terrible to see and hear of the destruction due to the oil industry.
DeleteI am encouraged, when I read about volunteers at the Silvermine wetland. Monitoring for pollution, and between them and the Council sorting problems ASAP. That in turn helps prevent the spills reaching the sea.
ReplyDeleteWe are experimenting with shark nets, and we have shark monitors who warn swimmers out of the sea, when they see a shark.