I’m posting a video that I haven’t actually watched… because I don’t think I can take it.
Warning – it purportedly shows oil-soaked dolphins in their death throes.
|
|
||
|
In the international waters south of Malta, the Greenpeace vessels Rainbow Warrior and Arctic Sunrise deployed eight inflatable Zodiacs and skiffs into the azure surface of the Mediterranean. Protesters aboard donned helmets and took up DayGlo flags and plywood shields. With the organization’s observation helicopter hovering above, the pilots of the tiny boats hit their throttles, hurtling the fleet forward to stop what they viewed as an egregious environmental crime. It was a high-octane updating of a familiar tableau, one that anyone who has followed Greenpeace’s Save the Whales adventures of the last 35 years would have recognized. But in the waters off Malta there was not a whale to be seen. What was in the water that day was a congregation of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a fish that when prepared as sushi is one of the most valuable forms of seafood in the world. A memorial to Philippe Cousteau Sr on the 31st anniversary of his death… Philippe was a diver, a pilot of hot air balloons, helicopters, fixed winged aircrafts, and the PBY seaplane he proudly called his Flying Calypso. He wrote, directed, filmed, photographed, and produced more than 30 films with his father for “The Under Sea World of Jacques Cousteau.” He won Emmys and foreign awards for best documentaries, and was number eight in the survey of the best-known people in the world. He was also the most loving, kindest, honest, and extraordinarily decent human being I have ever known.
Scientists have found and described almost 2 million living species, but the total number of species likely exceeds 7 million with some estimates as high as 30 million. Although our eyes are drawn to large and charismatic animals, typically vertebrates like birds and mammals, earth’s biodiversity is dominated by bacteria and invertebrates like insects. Every year we discover new organisms, with almost 20,000 “new” species described in 2008. Unfortunately, that matches the number of known species that we lose each year, with most extinctions resulting from habitat loss and pollution. The International Institute for Species Exploration celebrates some of these “new” species in their annual top ten list, with several marine species making the grade. To explore the wonders of life, from killer sponges to psychedelic frogfish, click on the following link: http://species.asu.edu/Top10 |
||
|
Copyright © 2012 ReefHugger.net - All Rights Reserved |
||
