Endangered Species and Habitats

Many years ago, the writer and wilderness advocate Laurens van der Post wrote poignantly that “We have to become once again not only the voice and the reason of this wounded earth of ours, but also its healer and defender…” and through these words, encapsulated an urgent environmental issue of our time.

Scientists fear the largest mass extinction since the disappearance of the dinosaurs because of a deadly disease which is sweeping through populations of frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and caecilians across the globe. Amphibians have thrived for hundreds of millions of years but as many as half of all species could perish unless a solution is found.

A controversial Japanese mission to hunt humpback whales in the Antarctic has been temporarily abandoned, a top government official says.

At least 21 endangered crocodile-like gharials have been found dead over the past three days in a river in northern India, wildlife officials say.

Japanese whalers set out today on a quest to hunt more than 1000 whales, including 50 endangered humpback whales.

I found the “Save Our Seas” and “Fishing For Fun” articles in Issue 1 of Biophile particularly intersting, as I have seen, first-hand, the slaughter and uncaring (or should I say total unconsciousness) of recreational fisherman here in Ponta do Ouro.

Sea turtles have inhabited the Earth for over 100 million years. Now, as a result of harmful fishing practices, these gentle ocean dwellers may only have 10 years left.

Time is running out for the Amazon rainforest.
And the fate of the ‘lungs of the world’ will take your breath away.

Our wine industry is responsible not only for the dreadful consequences of the ‘dop system’ but also for the massacre of a wide variety of animals, insects and reptiles which are killed, mashed up and their blood spilled into the wine.

Covering more than two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, the oceans were once thought to be an inexhaustible resource, too vast to be damaged by the actions of humans. We now know differently.

A spotlight has recently been shone on the South African Navy’s underwater explosions in False Bay during the peak of the whale season. The Navy believes that the official Southern Right whale season runs from August to November but recent studies show that it is somewhat longer than this.