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A story about aquaculture on a North Carolina news site gave me food for thought. The journalist visited a research facility which is developing methods of artificially cultivating saltwater fish (aquaculture has been used more for freshwater fish to date).

In many ways, I think aquaculture sounds like a sensible idea.

• Natural fish stocks around the world are now dangerously low because of overfishing. By farming fish in giant tanks, we can reduce the pressure on

I’ve just been reading an update on efforts in Egypt to make the Red Sea the first plastic bag-free zone in the country.

Discarded plastic bags were causing the deaths of birds, turtles, dolphins and other marine creatures which swallowed or became entangled in the rubbish blown out to sea. I’ve dived the Red Sea a couple of times and been disappointed to see litter – it really makes your heart sink… Continue reading

I’m researching a feature about conservation volunteering for Australia and New Zealand magazine at the moment, and have been upset to hear what’s happening to the Tasmanian Devil.

They’re much cuter in real life than in the Looney Tunes cartoon. They’re not fussy eaters, and have one of the strongest jaws in the world so will chomp down bones and all, but they’re actually quite a shy marsupial, and an icon the Tasmanians are very proud of… Continue reading

I finally got to see The Cove last week. If you haven’t heard about it, I posted a trailer for it back in July. It’s a documentary about the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins in a hidden cove in Taiji, Japan. After the best are cherry-picked by oceanariums around the world, the rest are stabbed to death. The meat, which is toxically high in mercury, is sold as whale meat, and even given to children in free school lunches.

I’d been looking forward to… Continue reading | 1 Comment

This spoof story from The Onion is the funniest thing I’ve read in ages…..

“Executives from the Shell Oil Company blasted a floundering, oil-covered sea otter Monday, accusing the small aquatic mammal of grossly exaggerating the effects of last week’s hazardous petroleum spill.

According to Shell president Marvin Odum, the otter has been putting on “quite a show” in front of rescue workers and clean-up crews, and… Continue reading

I’m now two weeks into my cow’s milk ban, and I’ve done pretty bloody well. Soya yoghurt is not too bad at all, and Alpro makes a tasty chocolate mousse dessert.

For cereal and porridge, I’ve had to swap from soya milk to rice milk, which is much more drinkable. And I’ve had to allow myself one cup of tea with real milk per morning, as I couldn’t finish a mugful made with either soya or rice milk, and… Continue reading

Eavesdropping on the Tube yesterday, I overheard an alarming fact that made me almost choke on my strawberry yogurt smoothie. A girl was telling her friend how she’d recently given up cows’ milk, after finding out “it’s full of pus and blood and all sorts”.

Hoping she’d made it up, I launched a full-scale Google investigation as soon as I got home. Alas, it does appear to be true – PETA has an entire campaign about it… Continue reading | 1 Comment

Naomi Campbell has been up to her old fur-wearing tricks again, with photos just revealed from a photo shoot for Dennis Basso. In the photos, she poses in Basso’s Russian sable coats, which can cost up to $200,000.

Any celebrity wearing real fur will be pounced upon, but Campbell is the most hated of them all for her outrageous hypocrisy: in 1994 she took part… Continue reading | 2 Comments

Is it just me, or did the BBC go out of its way to find ridiculous contestants for its ‘Wildest Dreams’ programme? In case you haven’t seen it, the premise is this: nine ‘ordinary people’ were flown out to Africa to learn the skills of wildlife film-making, facing a different challenge each week, with the worst performer being sent home.

I’m a little bitter because I would have loved to be on the show myself (I certainly didn’t see… Continue reading | 1 Comment

I take biscuits very seriously. A good cup of tea and a biscuit can be the only thing which keeps me going at half past three in the afternoon. They are a great source of debate – how much chocolate coating can a biscuit have before it becomes an item of confectionery?  Is the Jaffa Cake a cake or a biscuit? And why do they still insist on putting Bourbons into Family Favourites tins when no-one likes them?

Something… Continue reading | 3 Comments