Archive for Sea Turtles

Blue Ocean Institute’s Dr. Carl Safina speaks out at TEDx Oil Spill event in DC

Bluefin Tuna, Climate Change, Dolphins, Fish, Fishing & Fishermen, For the Birds, Gulf of Mexico Oil Blow-Out, News, PBS Television Show: "Saving the Ocean", Sea Turtles, Whales on June 29th, 2010 No Comments

Guest blog by Stephen Dishart, Executive Director, Blue Ocean Institute To view Carl’s TEDx Oil Spill lecture click here. Safina points to gross negligence as the cause of the spill With a remarkable agenda of speakers, the hottest topic on the planet and a crowd of environmental experts and others eager for the latest word [...]

Tortoise Trust Web – Walmart turtle abuse

Sea Turtles on January 25th, 2010 12 Comments

This was just forwarded to me and is sufficiently disturbing that I am posting it in its entirety here. Please send those letters to Walmart! —Carl Safina TortoiseAid International Action Alert CRUELTY AT WAL-MART In many North American Wal-Mart stores, “pet supply” sections have an area where photos and information about animals in need of [...]

A Call to Costa Rica to Protect Leatherbacks

News, Sea Turtles on September 4th, 2009 6 Comments

The following op-ed appeared in LaNacion, on September 2, 2009. For the spanish version click here! Editor, La Nacion To the Editor, Many international conservationists are disturbed by news that Costa Rica’s Congress is considering a bill to do away with Las Baulas National Park. Baulas is not only absolutely vital to the existence of [...]

Let's See Sea Turtles

Sea Turtles on April 22nd, 2009 5 Comments

The sea turtles heading to Florida’s shores for their annual nesting ritual are true survivors.   Unlike some of their kind, they’ve avoided getting snagged on commercial fishing lines that stretch for miles offshore.  One particular trouble spot is the bottom longline fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. A snapshot of the statistics shows why…  When [...]

Survival of the Leatherbacks

Sea Turtles on June 5th, 2008 3 Comments

The New York Times’ Andy Revkin writes, “Does the world need leatherback turtles?  Most likely not.”  http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/a-race-to-save-ancient-sea-turtle-species/ To morph into an actual question, this tiresomely vague query, “Does the world need…[fill in the blank],” has to ask: For what?  For whom? Implied is that people are the same as “the world.”  Accepting this bold assumption, [...]

Useless? Says Who??

Sea Turtles on May 13th, 2008 6 Comments

The following is a guest blog by Megan Smith of Blue Ocean Institute: Recently, Land Rover launched an ad campaign (see below) that creates parallels between facts they deem either “useful” or useless.”  I realize that many individuals have historically turned to Land Rover regarding matters of utility when facing such conundrums as:  “Does this [...]

Loggerheads in the Headlines

Sea Turtles on October 20th, 2007 1 Comment

When I was writing my book “Voyage of the Turtle,” my focus was on the sumo wrestler among sea turtles, the gigantic Leatherback that can weigh a ton. But through my travels, concern about another species, the Loggerhead Turtle, also kept recurring. Two recent publications merit attention: 1) a new five-year global review of the [...]

California Longlines vs. Leatherbacks

Sea Turtles on August 15th, 2007 2 Comments

On August 10th, The California Coastal Commission unanimously rejected a proposal to grant one fishing company a short-term permit to use longlines to target swordfish off the U.S. West Coast from Santa Barbara north into Oregon. Longline fishing (using a line tens of miles long with thousands of baited hooks) has been banned off California [...]