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Ghosts of the Ocean

By: Martin Stelfox, Olive Ridley Project 

A growing human population combined with an insatiable appetite for seafood has dramatically increased pressure on fishing communities worldwide. To keep up with the demand for seafood products, fishers around the world are replacing nets made with natural fibers like cotton and coconut to cheaper and stronger materials like plastics. While synthetic materials help fishers meet higher demands, they pose many new threats to marine habitats.
The FAO estimates that 640,000 tons of fishing gear is abandoned, lost, and discarded in our oceans annually and has been given the term ‘ghost gear’. The majority of ghost hear is composed of plastic which does not biodegrade and has a much longer lifespan.
Fishers are the first to feel the brunt of losing their nets since they are costly to replace.…

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Marine Mammal Research & Conservation in Sri Lanka

From our new partners at the Biosphere Foundation

In 1979 the International Whaling Commission declared the Indian Ocean (north of 55° S latitude) a Marine Mammal Sanctuary and encouraged international cooperation to protect the populations of great whales in the area. Sri Lanka lies within the sanctuary and is frequented by blue, sperm, humpback, minke and Brydes whales as well as numerous other cetaceans. These dwindling populations are under threat from toxic pollution (mercury, PCB’s and heavy metals), noise pollution, gill net fishing that entangles marine mammals, collision by increasing commercial shipping traffic, starvation due to ingestion of plastic and other garbage, small gene pools, and shifting feeding and migratory patterns due to global warming.
Biosphere Foundation is collaborating with the University of Ruhuna and Captain Raja (whale watching ship, Raja & the Whales).…

Posted in Partner Stories |