I Don’t Think You’re Ready, For This Jelly

In Sweden, jellyfish populations overwhelmed and clogged a nuclear power plant’s pipes. These pipes turned out to be extremely important as they cool the plant’s turbines, and the nuclear power plant had to shut down. A year before, the same thing happened in California. In less extreme cases, yet still costly, large amounts of jellyfish have clogged fishing nets and damaged fishing gear. All of these jellyfish problems have raised eyebrows, and when scientists looked into jellyfish populations, they found that jellyfish are blooming more often, earlier, more intensely, and staying longer.

Around the world, jellyfish populations are booming. While this may not seem like such a big deal, it is yet another sign of climate change and environmental degradation, one that is costing various industries millions of dollars. In addition, the jellyfish feed on plankton, crustaceans, small fish, and fish eggs, which are all food resources of which larger mammals such as whales rely on. Jellyfish are thriving in places the don’t usually thrive, and this is seen as a sign that oceans around the world are stressed or unhealthy.

***Jellyfish population trends. Red indicates an increase with a high degree of certainty, while orange indicates an increase with a low degree of certainty. Blue indicates a decrease. Green represents a stable or variable population. Grey indicates no data.***

In areas where jellyfish populations have boomed causing nuclear power plants to shutdown, scientists have found that the species is causing the damage is the common moon jellyfish. This species of jellyfish thrives in areas of the ocean that have been “overfished or have bad conditions.” Bad conditions refers to anything from toxic chemicals, fertilizers, and too much trash in the oceans. Overfishing leaves lots of open space for the jellyfish to thrive, and when the fish are gone, jellyfish have the chance to dominate the ecosystem. It seems as though we have another case where humans have exploited the environment and caused detrimental effects.

What You Can Do To Help

One of the biggest problems with the booming jellyfish populations is that no monitoring exists to track the jellyfish populations. Data gained from the monitoring is needed for scientists to figure out how to address the issue. Luckily, a website and apps for iPhones and Androids have been created where the public is able to report where jellyfish are blooming. The scientists will use this data to figure out where jellyfish are, how often the blooms are occurring, and for how long. Without the help of the public, this research would be too expensive. With more research occurring, scientists will be able to find and implement ways to curb the jellyfish explosion. If you see jellyfish, report it!

Photo Cred: cbc.ca

As always: comments, questions, concerns or even random thoughts? I would love if you shared them with me so please comment below!

Safari Hunting as a Conservation Measure

Where's Mary?

It seems like on a fairly regular basis there is a large outcry from the public about big game hunting in Africa. Disproportionally, it seems that these attacks are focused on attractive women (ex. 1, ex. 2) – but is certainly not limited to just women (ex. 1).  This is an ongoing debate that will never be settled until there are no more animals left.

First, let me present my credentials: while I am not personally a hunter, I come from a family of hunters and grew up around hunting. My dad is an avid hunter, hunting deer and pheasants in Iowa, and taking many trips to hunt big game in the United States and abroad. I have joined him on two such trips, Zambia in 2010 and Zimbabwe in 2013. Both of the safaris were hard work – lots of walking, tracking and waiting…

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You Know Exactly What This Is About

They Call Me Crazy Legs

You know what’s coming. This is all about that one girl who hunts stuff: Kendall Jones.

I’m not one who likes to jump into the middle of a social media debate like this one, but I haven’t paid a visit to the ole blogosphere in a while and needed to do a little somethin somethin.

Let’s start off with some honesty

I have done little to no research on this topic. I wasn’t even sure what Kendall’s name was until I actually had to type it out moments ago. Actually, the initial plan for this post was to make up a new name for her every time I would have referred to her. But that seemed a little insensitive because she’s an actual person with actual feelings and stuff, imagine that.

Most of my commentary will stem from the quick little snipits of information that I have received from the…

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Global Gala

Hey guys, don’t forget to get your tickets to the INDEVOURS annual Global Gala! There will be a silent and live auction along with entertainment and guest speakers. Click on the poster to purchase your tickets!

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Some Not So Humble News!

The Humble Bumble was a blog post I wrote which described why bees are so important to humans, and how these bees are threatened from the use of pesticides. At the end of this post I has stated that Health Canada would reevaluate the measures it had taken to combat pesticides harming bees if these measures proved insufficient. In addition, I stated that the measures were indeed not enough and that further action was needed.

It is with great pleasure that I can now inform you that Ontario is looking to restrict the use of bee-killing pesticides!

Ontario’s Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal has said that Ontario wants to ““move away from the widespread, indiscriminate use of neonicotinoid-based pesticides.” These are the pesticides which have been deemed unsafe by many scientists and ecologists world-wide. Leal is considering implementing a licence system to control the use of the pesticide. This is not quite the ban which Europe has itself done. The licence system is one where the province hopes to reduce the use of the pesticide to only areas where there is ‘demonstrated need’.

The article that was released shows that there is growing evidence against neonicotinoid-based pesticides which links the pesticides to killing bees. The increased media attention has grown since the provincial election in June where the topic has been much discussed, and more big names have been reviewing their stances on the use of these pesticides. Rona, Canadian Tire, and Home Depot are now reassessing their need to use the pesticides and Health Canada is monitoring the situation.

This is a great step forward in protecting our bees and gaining more awareness on the issue. Hopefully this will lead to more adaptation, monitoring, and elimination of the harmful pesticides we use in Canada!

PhotoCred: http://www.salon.com/2013/12/14/can_bees_be_trained_to_sniff_out_cancer_this_designer_says_yes_partner/

As always: comments, questions, concerns or even random thoughts? I would love if you shared them with me so please comment below!

A Familiar Face: A follow up to Game Over

She’s back.

Thanks to a reply from Simon and Tomm, and a mention by Josh, I have decided to do a follow up blog post on Kendall Jones, trophy hunting, and this article.

As mentioned by Simon, the article describes how trophy hunting can help conservation efforts in Africa. The study states that trophy hunting has received a bad name in from many different people and countries, due in part to reckless hunting resulting in species extinction. However, the study then goes on to state that hunting has facilitated the recovery of struggling species by giving ranchers incentives to reintroduce animals into environments in order to have more opportunities to hunt them. Specifically, it gives the example of the white rhinoceros who grew from a population of 50  one century ago, to 11,000 population members today.

While this example of how hunting (even trophy hunting) can aid in the conservation of species exist, much controversy remains. Tomm mentioned this controversy in a reply to my original Game Over blog post.

“…people think that paying $40,000 for a tag to go kill a rhino is going to help ‘conserve’ the population. While it does raise awareness, it’s also a bit of an irony that endangered or the ‘big five’ have to die to make a point about wildlife conservation. Wildlife conversation has never taken on that trademark of a dark side until recently.

It is also somewhat of an unfortunate instance that African countries have to rely on this type of tourism to add to their economy, and might speak to the perils of the order of the state in some of these cases that this is looked upon as a last resort rather than promoting other forms of smaller (terms of $$) tourism.”

I agree with Tomm. How is it that killing is the best way to conserve?

Per Josh, sport hunting brings in an astounding $200 million a year from tourists in Africa. This figure is a large one for many African nations, and as such, they are unwilling to stop an activity that brings in a large amount of money. In fact, the bans which I described in my earlier post (where Australia banned certain animal part importations) are being fought by Zimbabwe in an attempt to keep the money flowing.

The situation we find ourselves in is one of weighing ecological values against economical values. Which are more important? The answer most likely depends on who you ask and what situation you find them in. I for one value conservation, and at this point, it seems as though one of the only ways to find funding for conservation is through hunting and permits. This is a balance between inhumane activities and species conservation.

If this is truly the case, a search for a more humane way of funding conservation is needed. In addition, hunting permits need to be regulated. Kendall Jones attempted to defend trophy hunting as conservation by stating that “permit money goes back to local communities who use it to fund schools and water wells.” Now i’m not an expert, but that does not sound like ecological conservation to me.

Photo Cred: cbc.ca

As always: comments, questions, concerns or even random thoughts? I would love if you shared them with me so please comment below!

Game Over

 

Does this picture look familiar? Well this picture was taken by ‘big game hunter’ and ‘conservationist’ Kendall Jones. The picture is part of a news and social media story that has recently gone viral. Jones hunts big game animals and posts the pictures of her kills on her social media pages. She is looking to start a TV show in 2015 which follows her exploits, and has recently become the subject of much (justified) outrage. The viral news story can be found here. 

“In 2008, (age 13) I took my second trip to Africa to start my Big 5 experience”.

**The ‘big 5’ is referencing to the 5 most coveted big game animals to hunt, the lion, elephant, leopard, buffalo, and rhinoceros.**

“The first animal I ever shot was a White Rhino with a .416 Remington!”

“On this trip I also took some plains game, such as impala, kudu and mountain reedbuck home.”

Do Kendall’s actions appall you?

Well you are not alone. Thousands of people have joined her social media sites to criticize her actions.People from South Africa demand that she ‘leave their animals alone’ because what right does she have to ‘kill off another countries’ animals’. Others shame and threaten her, and have set up petitions to shut down her social media sites and stop her hunting exploits.

However, Kendall and her supporters continue to pursue the big 5 claiming that big game hunting is necessary to control populations, and to protect livestock, noting that permits sold for hunting animals gives all of the money raised back to fund schools and water wells. As a result, right now Kendall is hunting “leopards, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, zebras and impalas with bows and guns” in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Personally, I am against trophy hunting. In Kendall’s news story, she describes a type of trophy hunting called canned hunting. This is a legal practice where animals such as the big 5 are bred and farmed in order to later be hunted in captivity.This practice is inhumane. The animals are contained within a compound and are not given a fair chance to run and hide. Sometimes they are even baited within the compound to make the hunting even easier. In Australia, Jason Wood organized a campaign to ban trophy hunting. He has illustrated how inhumane canned hunting is:

“I don’t even call it hunting, most of the time they have bait there. There’s this very graphic video I’ve seen where you have a lion just lying under its food and it just gets shot. And the very distressing thing is the lion is perplexed as to what is going on – why, because it is used to interaction with humans.”

The Good News

As a result of Wood’s campaigning, Australia has banned trophy hunters from bringing home all rhino body parts they collect from overseas. While this may seem like a small step, it is a significant one. If a hunter cannot bring home their ‘trophy’ for their mantle and prove that they were ‘skilled’ enough to kill a rhino, there is a lot less incentive to pay $40000 to go and kill it. In addition, hopefully this will be an example that will persuade other nations into doing the same. 

While Kendall is still able to go trophy hunting in foreign countries, it is essential for nations around the world to not only ban trophy hunting, but also to follow in Australia’s footsteps and ban the importation of the body parts they gain abroad. 

Sign petitions and find additional information here:

https://www.change.org/

https://www.change.org/search?q=trophy+hunting

http://www.change.org/petitions/republic-of-south-africa-government-ban-trophy-hunting

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Facebook_CEOMark_Zuckerberg_Remove_the_page_of_Kendal_Jones_that_promotes_animal_cruelty/?wNPCMhb

Kendall’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/_kendalljones_

Kendall’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kendalltakeswild/info

Photo Cred: cbc.ca

As always: comments, questions, concerns or even random thoughts? I would love if you shared them with me so please comment below!