Mad as a Marine Biologist

High-res That’s two now… from the same region… what’s up whale sharks? A dying whale shark washes up on the shores near the city of Yogyakarta in Indonesia’s Java island after being stranded in shallow waters overnight. Police and volunteers from Animal Friend Jogja prevented local villagers from chopping up the 13-metre-long animal for its meat. Whale sharks, the world’s largest fish, are classified as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Photograph: Suryo Wibowo/AFP/Getty Images

That’s two now… from the same region… what’s up whale sharks?

A dying whale shark washes up on the shores near the city of Yogyakarta in Indonesia’s Java island after being stranded in shallow waters overnight. Police and volunteers from Animal Friend Jogja prevented local villagers from chopping up the 13-metre-long animal for its meat. Whale sharks, the world’s largest fish, are classified as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature

Photograph: Suryo Wibowo/AFP/Getty Images

(via faunafacts)

“

Palm oil facts:

* 90 per cent of Sumatra’s orangutan population has disappeared since 1900. They now face extinction

* 90 per cent of wildlife disappears when the forest is replaced by palm, creating a biological desert

* 98 per cent of Indonesia’s forests may be destroyed by 2022 according to the United Nations

* 43 of Britain’s 100 top grocery brands contain or are thought to contain palm oil

”

The Independent. Warning, article will infuriate. (via climateadaptation)
climateadaptation: Looks like about 200 orangutans were killed. I’ll post more in the am. sexyactionplanet: Sumatran Orangutan: “It is no longer several years away, but just a few months or even weeks before this iconic creature disappears”Hundreds of orangutans are believed to have died in fires deliberately lit by palm oil companies in the last few weeks. Conservationists say the rare Sumatran orangutan could now be wiped out within weeks. Read more here.

climateadaptation:

Looks like about 200 orangutans were killed. I’ll post more in the am.

sexyactionplanet:

Sumatran Orangutan: “It is no longer several years away, but just a few months or even weeks before this iconic creature disappears”
Hundreds of orangutans are believed to have died in fires deliberately lit by palm oil companies in the last few weeks. Conservationists say the rare Sumatran orangutan could now be wiped out within weeks.

Read more here.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.6 has struck under the sea off Indonesia’s northern Aceh province.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) said a tsunami had been generated but its likely impact was not yet clear. It advised national authorities across the Indian Ocean region to “take appropriate action”.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reports in the capital that there had been no tsunami reports so far, “but we remain vigilant”.

“Our warning system is working well, and I have ordered the national relief team to fly immediately to Aceh to ensure the situation is under control and to take any necessary action,” he said.

Bruce Presgrave of the USGS told the BBC that the quake was caused by the earth moving horizontally, rather than vertically, therefore had not displaced large volumes of water.

“We can’t rule out the possibility, but horizontal motion is less likely to produce a destructive tsunami,” he said.

Sutopo, a spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, said electricty was down in Aceh and there were traffic jams to access higher ground. “Sirens and Koran recitals from mosques are everywhere,” he told Reuters. 

The tremor was felt as far away as Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. 

Read More: BBC

Photos Source: MSNBC 

High-res sexyactionplanet: Ghost Nets don’t discriminate…  [Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been abandoned at sea, lost accidentally, or deliberately discarded. They travel the oceans of the world with the currents and tides, continually fishing as they progress through the waters… This is an Australian Saltwater Crocodile found entangled in an Indonesian trawl net.] - Photograph by Jacky Castellain

sexyactionplanet:

Ghost Nets don’t discriminate… 

[Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been abandoned at sea, lost accidentally, or deliberately discarded. They travel the oceans of the world with the currents and tides, continually fishing as they progress through the waters… This is an Australian Saltwater Crocodile found entangled in an Indonesian trawl net.]

- Photograph by Jacky Castellain

High-res First ever survey shows Sumatran tiger hanging on as forests continue to vanish Jeremy Hance The first-ever Sumatran-wide survey of the island’s top predator, the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), proves that the great cat is holding on even as forests continue to vanish. The study, carried out by eight NGOs and the Indonesian government, shows that the tiger is still present in 70 percent of the forests surveyed, providing hope for the long-term survival of the subspecies if remaining forests are protected. “This survey  is a milestone for Sumatran tigers. The results provide the most up-to-date and reliable information ever collected for this Critically Endangered subspecies and is the first time that such a large number of organizations have worked together so effectively,” lead author Hariyo Wibisono of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and chairman of the Sumatran Tiger Forum (HarimauKita) said in a press release. WCS was joined by Panthera’s Tigers Forever program, Fauna and Flora International (FFI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) among others. Researchers surveyed 13,500 kilometers of forest transects seeking indirect signs of the tiger, such as footprints. They found new priorities for tiger conservation, including the Leuser-Ulu Masen landscape in Aceh Province. “This study puts Aceh’s previously unsurveyed forest firmly on the map as a global priority for wild tigers in Asia,” explained co-author Matthew Linkie with FFI. Notably, Aceh has implemented an effective logging moratorium since 2007, preserving its forests. Another region that showed tigers doing well was the Kerinci Seblat-Batang Hari forest landscape. Read more  ** Some good news at last ** 

First ever survey shows Sumatran tiger hanging on as forests continue to vanish

Jeremy Hance

The first-ever Sumatran-wide survey of the island’s top predator, the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), proves that the great cat is holding on even as forests continue to vanish. The study, carried out by eight NGOs and the Indonesian government, shows that the tiger is still present in 70 percent of the forests surveyed, providing hope for the long-term survival of the subspecies if remaining forests are protected.

“This survey  is a milestone for Sumatran tigers. The results provide the most up-to-date and reliable information ever collected for this Critically Endangered subspecies and is the first time that such a large number of organizations have worked together so effectively,” lead author Hariyo Wibisono of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and chairman of the Sumatran Tiger Forum (HarimauKita) said in a press release. WCS was joined by Panthera’s Tigers Forever program, Fauna and Flora International (FFI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) among others.

Researchers surveyed 13,500 kilometers of forest transects seeking indirect signs of the tiger, such as footprints. They found new priorities for tiger conservation, including the Leuser-Ulu Masen landscape in Aceh Province.

“This study puts Aceh’s previously unsurveyed forest firmly on the map as a global priority for wild tigers in Asia,” explained co-author Matthew Linkie with FFI. Notably, Aceh has implemented an effective logging moratorium since 2007, preserving its forests. Another region that showed tigers doing well was the Kerinci Seblat-Batang Hari forest landscape.

Read more 

** Some good news at last ** 

High-res mabelmoments: British photographer Steve Jones submerged himself in the water to capture the relationship that has developed between man and whales sharks. Locals Indonesian peninsula of West Papua have struck up a bond with the monster fish, which can measure up to 12m in length. Fishermen hand feed them and even leap into the water to cut them free should they get caught in fishing nets.

mabelmoments:

British photographer Steve Jones submerged himself in the water to capture the relationship that has developed between man and whales sharks. Locals Indonesian peninsula of West Papua have struck up a bond with the monster fish, which can measure up to 12m in length. Fishermen hand feed them and even leap into the water to cut them free should they get caught in fishing nets.

(via ecoevolution)

take-nothing-but-photos: Toilet paper brand wipes out forests and endangered species An investigation released today reveals that Auckland based company Cottonsoft is sourcing its toilet paper from rainforests in Indonesia, home of the critically-endangered Sumatran tiger.The evidence is the result of an eight-month investigation by Greenpeace, the Green Party and WWF-New Zealand into exactly where the toilet paper sold by New Zealand retailers originates from.  Cottonsoft refused to disclose where they were sourcing their toilet paper from so samples were sent to a US laboratory for forensic testing. This confirmed the presence of mixed tropical hardwoods (timber that comes from rainforests) in a range of Cottonsoft products.

take-nothing-but-photos:

Toilet paper brand wipes out forests and endangered species

An investigation released today reveals that Auckland based company Cottonsoft is sourcing its toilet paper from rainforests in Indonesia, home of the critically-endangered Sumatran tiger.

The evidence is the result of an eight-month investigation by Greenpeace, the Green Party and WWF-New Zealand into exactly where the toilet paper sold by New Zealand retailers originates from. 


Cottonsoft refused to disclose where they were sourcing their toilet paper from so samples were sent to a US laboratory for forensic testing. This confirmed the presence of mixed tropical hardwoods (timber that comes from rainforests) in a range of Cottonsoft products.