OceanCare Blog
When the walrus comes knocking: a reflection on Wally and other out-of-habitat marine mammals
photo: copyright by Dan Jarvis, BDMLR What do you do if a walrus suddenly turns up in your ‘backyard’ far from its natural home? This is a dilemma that many people have been facing over the last few months as the world’s most famous walrus, Wally, made his grand tour...
Major oil spill off California again threatens Wildlife
A large oil slick off the coast of Orange County in the USA has started to wash ashore over the weekend affecting wildlife and wetlands. The slick is said to cover some 13 square miles (33 sq km) and is estimated in press reports at about 126,000 gallons (572,807...
Is the European Union doing enough to protect marine biodiversity in the high seas treaty negotiations?
Spain must step up and get the EU to revise its worrying stance on environmental impact assessment of activities that may cause transboundary pollution in the negotiations on the UN treaty on the governance of the high seas. Spain, as a country with a long maritime...
There is another world, but it is in this one
("Il y a un autre monde, mais il est dans celui-ci", Paul Éluard) In recent days and weeks, we have been stunned to see how a strange meteorological phenomenon called "heat dome" is causing temperatures of almost 50 ºC, which is unprecedented in the western US and in...
A global registry on fossil fuel reserves
A necessary tool to comply with the Paris agreement June 2021: With the decision to ban the search for new hydrocarbon resources throughout the national territory (land and maritime, including the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone and the continental...
The ‘Exceptionists’: The Swiss Approach to the Plastic Crisis
If a quizmaster would ask you to name something associated with Swiss nature, I’d guess that “green meadows”, “pure mountain air” and “clean lakes and rivers” would be on top of the list. Indeed, the widespread image of Switzerland is often associated by pristine...
Shipping Swiss CO2 to Norway
~Ewoud Lauwerier Not a week goes by without a new ecomodernist project being presented as a revolutionary step towards sustainability. Announced with aplomb, it conveniently offers the most recent technological solution for the transition to a better world. In...
Japan’s Fixed Net Whaling
~Leah Lemieux Over Christmas of 2020, Japanese activists stationed in Taiji became aware that a young Minke whale approximately 5m, had become trapped in fixed nets just offshore from the town harbor. Like much of Japan’s coastline, the Taiji coast is a complicated...
Virtual diplomacy – the new frontiers of the digital world
Empty conference rooms, but digital diplomacy in full swing The COVID pandemic has undoubtedly slowed down diplomacy. However, it has not brought diplomacy to a standstill. On the contrary: without the physical limitations of travelling to a conference, the frequency...
SaveMoby-Project – sperm whale research in Greece in summer 2020
Dr. Alexandros Frantzis, scientific director of the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, has been studying Greek waters and their wildlife for more than 25 years. In 1998 he made a spectacular discovery: There was a population of about 200 sperm whales living just a...