Archive for 'animal welfare'
Making a comeback: Bluefields Bay marine project six months on
A Green Travel Guides crew has just been out to Jamaica to film the latest developments from the marine sanctuary project I reported on in January. Assisted by The Travel Foundation and Virgin Holidays, local fishermen have created Jamaica’s largest marine reserve, to allow depleted fish stocks to recover.
The Bluefields Bay reserve is now a year old, and it seems that fish stocks have gone from strength to strength since my visit at the start of the year. The wardens… Continue reading
Posted: July 19th, 2011 under animal welfare, ecotourism, General, oceans.
Tags: ecotourism, marine, oceans, sustainable tourism
Comments: none
Man vs beast: reconciling community and conservation in Kruger National Park, South Africa
I’ve just got back from an incredible trip to South Africa, where I spent a week at a safari guide-training facility in the northern-most tip of the Kruger National Park. Eco Training is South Africa’s leading training provider for safari guides, and has trained more than 3,000 guides in southern Africa and beyond.
It has three camps in South Africa, but what makes the camp I visited at Makuleke special is that it’s within a unique part… Continue reading
Posted: February 22nd, 2011 under animal welfare, ecotourism, General, green travel, Wildlife.
Tags: animals, conservation, ecotourism, Kruger National Park, responsible tourism, safari, Wildlife
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Saving the wild tiger: a Born Free Foundation conference
Here’s a rather delayed report from the tiger conference I attended at the Royal Geographical Society in December….
Experts from the Born Free Foundation and other bodies met in London following the International Tiger Forum in St Petersburg in November. It was interesting to hear their take on the outcome of the international forum, and how we must now proceed if we’re to stand a chance of saving the 3,200 tigers remaining in the wild.
Debbie Banks… Continue reading
Posted: January 5th, 2011 under animal welfare, General, Wildlife.
Tags: animals, tigers, Wildlife
Comments: none
Aquaculture: a breeding ground for trouble?
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
Posted: January 3rd, 2010 under animal welfare, Food & Cooking, General, oceans.
Tags: animals, Food & Cooking, marine, sustainable practices
Comments: none
Plastic planet: one triumph and one tragedy
I’ve just been readin
g 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
Posted: November 5th, 2009 under animal welfare, General, Recycling, Wildlife.
Tags: animals, marine, Recycling, sustainable practices, Wildlife
Comments: none
Conservation crisis: saving the Tasmanian Devil
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 happ
ening 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
Posted: November 4th, 2009 under animal welfare, ecotourism, General, sustainable travel, Wildlife.
Tags: animals, ecotourism, sustainable travel, Wildlife
Comments: none
The Cove: a review
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
Posted: November 2nd, 2009 under animal welfare, General, Wildlife.
Tags: animals, Wildlife
Comments: 1
Shell shock: oil company gets tough on sea otter
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
Posted: October 5th, 2009 under animal welfare, General, Wildlife.
Tags: animals, green energy, Wildlife
Comments: none
Soya update: my first milk-free fortnight
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, a
nd 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
Posted: September 29th, 2009 under animal welfare, Food & Cooking, General.
Tags: animals, Food & Cooking, sustainable practices
Comments: none
Pus and nonsense: just what does cow’s milk contain?
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 | 6 Comments
Posted: September 20th, 2009 under animal welfare, Food & Cooking, General.
Tags: animals, Food & Cooking, Wildlife
Comments: 6