Good morning!
If you’re reading this today (Monday), I’m on a train up to Glasgow for the COP26 climate conference. While I’m not a delegate, I’ll be attending a few events in the Green Zone (for members of the public) and hopefully meeting some other environmentalists.
But what is COP26? And why is it important? I wrote a quick roundup of key articles to help you understand what’s going to be happening in the next couple of weeks. If you’re attending too, drop me a line!
But, COP aside, there’s still been lots of ocean news flooding in (excuse the pun) so here goes…
🐳 Sharks & whales
Nom nom: cool footage shows humpbacks munching on krill (Daily Mail)
Catching some zzzs: epic pics of sperm whales taking a nap (Kingdoms TV)
Babble talk: read about how we’re trying to understand whale song (IFL Science)
10% population drop: the North Atlantic right whale population has dropped to 336 (2020) from 366 (2019) (Yahoo!)
Pucker up: Obviously, always give marine life plenty of space and don’t touch! That said, this dog kissing a whale shark is sweet (Independent)
If you like Baleen and want to support, tell a friend about it
🐙 Marine animals
Turtley awesome: follow the migration of tagged turtles in Montserrat (MCS)
You g-otter be kidding! How otters are helping vital eelgrass ecosystems (Hakai)
Rescue me: five-foot leatherback turtle freed after getting stuck in a Cape Cod river (Daily Mail)
As smart as a three-year-old: new report looks into the cruelty of octopus farming (EuroNews Green)
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🎣🚯 Threats
Double trouble: UNEP predicts plastic pollution will double by 2030 (Vanguard)
Escandaloso: Credit Suisse has been fined £350m for its role in the Mozambican tuna bonds scandal (Guardian)
Plastic fantastic: has the EU’s plastic ban worked? (Yahoo!)
Fishing row: the French-British post-Brexit fishing dispute rolls on (BBC)
💰 How you can help
Educate yourself: Find out how climate change might affect you (BBC)
Some ideas: Check out six ways the UK can fight climate change (BBC)
Huge list: great ways to support climate action (The Green Fix)
Plant a tree: Carbon offsetting is complex and it isn’t the be-all-and-end-all solution. But planting a tree with a company that invests in projects that meet industry-leading carbon standards is a great step you can take. As a member of their climate committee, I have a forest with Ecologi (affiliate link)
🐚🐠 Ecosystems
Getting hot in here: study finds which staghorn corals are more able to withstand heatwaves (Phys.org)
Regrowth: more has been discovered about the patten of regrowth for damaged coral reefs (Phys.org)
Remote risk: are more remote coral reefs at higher risk of being affected by climate change? (Oceanographic)
Thanks, as always, for reading. If you find this newsletter useful, please consider leaving a virtual tip to help keep it running
Hope you have a great week and see you on the other side of COP26 - hopefully there will be some positive outcomes for our planet!
Melissa