By Dave Harcourt •
May 21, 2009
Thirty years after being listed as a World Heritage Sites the Ngorongoro Conservation area is in danger of being ‘deleted’ from the prestigious listing. This legendary wildlife-filled crater, is a 8,300 square kilometer part of Tanzania’s Serengeti.
The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has set the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority very tight goals which must be met if Ngorongoro is to retain its World Heritage Sites listing.
By Lisa Wojnovich •
April 28, 2009
The last time you visited an aquarium, you probably saw one. With their zebra-like stripes, multiple spines, and elaborate fins, they’re quite beautiful and incredibly distinctive. But red lionfish are also voracious carnivores that breed like rabbits and are poisonous to boot. And they’re invading the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
By Derek Markham •
April 9, 2009
Fishermen based in Donsol, the Philippines, caught one of the world’s rarest sharks, the megamouth (Megachasma pelagios), in a trawling net on March 30th.
The megamouth is so rare that each one gets numbered, and only 40 other sitings have ever been recorded, making this shark number 41.
Not a lucky number for this one, as it ended up as dinner.
Fishermen in the Philippines accidentally caught and later ate one of the rarest sharks in the world - the megamouth shark.
Only 40 others have been encountered, the World Wildlife Fund said Tuesday. The 1,100-pound, 13-foot megamouth died while struggling in the fishermen’s net on March 30 off Burias island in the central Philippines.
Okay, fishing nets kinda suck!
By Meg Hamill •
October 13, 2008
Scientists in Australia have discovered antibodies in the blood of sharks that could potentially prove effective in battling cancer.
It has been discovered that the antibodies (molecules that fight disease) in sharks are extremely resilient and researchers hope that this quality can be isolated to help slow the spread of cancer, malaria, and other human diseases.
The Australian team discovered that shark antibodies were tough and able to survive in both very acidic and very alkaline settings. This is important as it means that a “shark pill” would still be effective within the very acidic environment of the human stomach.
According to the USDA's annual statistics survey, 10 billion animals are killed for human consumption every year in the United States. (Worldwide, I believe it’s 45 billion.) However, it is more accurate to say that “10 billion land animals are killed for human consumption every year"; otherwise, we’re disregarding the billions of aquatic animals killed for the same purpose – to satisfy human appetites. Although the number of aquatic animals killed for consumption in
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