The Latest Orca News: Two Species Considered, Marineland Tragedy, and Lagoon Rescue
Release Date: 04/08/2024
Ships Without License Plates: The Dark Fleet Behind Fishmeal
How To Protect The Ocean
In a single day in March 2024, Gambian navy officers arrested eight industrial trawlers. Seven were fishing in waters reserved for local canoes, four were using illegal nets, and every one had switched off its tracking beacon. That one patrol shows a problem playing out across the global ocean. About three in four industrial fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, and many of the boats supplying the fishmeal that feeds farmed fish are among the hardest to see. In this episode of How to Protect the Ocean, Andrew Lewin follows the boats that catch the fish behind fish feed. He covers how...
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Whose Dinner Becomes Fish Feed?
How To Protect The Ocean
On a May morning in 2017, the people of Gunjur in The Gambia woke to find their lagoon had turned red, with dead fish on the surface. Investigators traced the pollution to a fishmeal plant up the road. In this episode, Andrew Lewin follows the feed from West African beaches to farmed salmon fillets in Europe and North America, building on The Outlaw Ocean Project’s five-year investigation into the fishmeal industry. Small, oily fish like sardinella and bonga are everyday protein in Senegal and The Gambia. Fishmeal plants buy them in unlimited volumes, outbid the women who have smoked and...
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The Fish That Feed Your Fish: What Farmed Salmon Really Eat
How To Protect The Ocean
The family behind the world’s largest salmon farming company built a global industry. Now one of its members is asking how it can be sustainable to grind up fish from poorer countries, ship them across the world, and feed them to salmon sold to wealthier shoppers. In episode 2048, Andrew Lewin follows farmed fish from your plate back to the fishmeal boat to answer him. More than half the seafood eaten worldwide now comes from farms, and most of it is fed. Andrew breaks down what fishmeal and fish oil are made of, why roughly a fifth of the global wild catch ends up as feed, and how forage...
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What Your Farmed Salmon Ate: Inside a Five-Year Fishmeal Investigation
How To Protect The Ocean
More than half the seafood eaten on Earth now comes from fish farms, and most of those farmed fish are raised on fishmeal made from wild-caught fish. Maya Martin, deputy editor at The Outlaw Ocean Project, joins Andrew Lewin to unpack Food for Feed, a five-year investigation that traced fishmeal from the ships that catch it, through the plants that grind it, to the farmed fish on your plate. Maya explains how forage fish like sardinella and anchoveta are pulled from waters off West Africa, Peru and Southeast Asia, often from stocks that are already overexploited and from communities that...
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How to Read the Seafood Counter Like a Marine Biologist
How To Protect The Ocean
Picture a big sign over the seafood counter promising sustainable fishing, with a fish every independent guide says to avoid sitting on ice right below it. In most countries nobody broke a rule, because the word "sustainable" on seafood has no legal definition. In this final episode of our sustainable seafood week, Andrew Lewin walks you through how to see past that sign and choose seafood you can feel good about. You'll learn how to use the eco-labels and seafood guides that have already done the research for you, including the Marine Stewardship Council's blue tick for wild seafood, the...
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Is Bottom Trawling Always Bad? It Depends Where
How To Protect The Ocean
Off the south coast of England, about 100 kilometres out, sits Haig Fras, a granite reef covered in jewel anemones and cup corals. For years it was protected on paper, yet heavy fishing gear could still drag across it. In March 2024, that finally changed. In this episode, Andrew Lewin explains why where we fish matters as much as how much we fish, and what it takes to turn a line on a map into real protection. Andrew breaks down the difference between midwater and bottom trawls and puts the damage shown in the recent Ocean documentary into context. Bottom trawling lands about a quarter of the...
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The Trapdoor That Saves Sea Turtles From Shrimp Nets
How To Protect The Ocean
A Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the most endangered sea turtle on Earth, gets swept into a shrimp trawl. It hits a metal grid, slides out through a flap in the net, and swims away. That small trapdoor, the turtle excluder device, is one of the biggest success stories in fisheries management, and in late August 2026 a US federal appeals court upheld the rule extending it to skimmer trawl boats 40 feet and longer. In this episode, marine biologist Andrew Lewin walks through the bycatch fixes that are working and the fights still underway. You’ll hear why North Atlantic right whales get tangled...
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The Cod Came Back: What a Fishery Collapse Teaches Us About Overfishing
How To Protect The Ocean
Five centuries ago, explorers off Newfoundland described cod so plentiful that a weighted basket lowered into the sea came back full. By July 2, 1992, so few remained that Canada shut the northern cod fishery overnight. About 30,000 people lost their work in what became the largest single layoff in Canadian history. In this first episode of a week-long sustainable seafood series, Andrew tells the story of how the collapse happened and how slowly the cod came back. Andrew then breaks down the words that cause the most confusion in fisheries headlines: overfishing, overfished, depleted, and...
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How to Choose Sustainable Seafood
How To Protect The Ocean
You want to eat seafood the right way. Then you hit the seafood counter and face a wall of labels, a sign promising “sustainable practices,” and an employee who has no idea where the tuna came from. Add documentaries like Seaspiracy telling you to quit fish entirely, and it’s tempting to give up and buy whatever looks good. Unsustainable fishing is the biggest threat to marine biodiversity, so those choices carry real weight. In this episode, Andrew’s good friend Dr. David Shiffman joins the show to talk about his new book, Why Sustainable Seafood Matters. David spent two years on the...
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Slow Down for Whales: How Global Shipping Learned to Share the Ocean
How To Protect The Ocean
Blue whales can’t dodge ships. When scientists tracked blue whales alongside cargo ships off Southern California, the whales responded in just over half the encounters, and every response was the same: a slow, shallow dive. Not once did a whale move sideways out of the ship’s path. Models suggest ships kill around 18 blue whales a year off the U.S. West Coast, nearly eight times what the population can lose and still recover. The good news is in the data. Most blue whale strike deaths happen in a small slice of ocean, and that’s where ports, air quality agencies, marine sanctuaries, and...
info_outlineToday's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast dives deep into the world of orcas. From the consideration of two species of orca to the tragic death of an orca at Marineland in France, and a delicate rescue operation for a mother orca off the coast of Vancouver Island, host Andrew Lewin covers it all.
Tune in to stay updated on the latest ocean news and learn how you can make a difference for our marine friends.
Link to one of the articles: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/06/stranded-orca-calf-rescue-canada/
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Efforts are being made to reunite the stranded calf with its extended family of transient orcas to ensure its survival. The calf, left orphaned after its mother tragically drowned in a scenic lagoon off the coast of Vancouver Island, is in a precarious situation. The calf is unable to survive on its own in the lagoon, as it requires marine mammal meat such as seals or sea lions for sustenance, rather than the birds it has been seen hunting.
A team of marine mammal experts, drone technicians, veterinarians, environmental consultants, and indigenous people are working together to devise a plan to reunite the calf with its extended family. The hope is that the calf's grandmother, aunts, and other members of the transient orca family will come to the lagoon to retrieve the calf. However, the calf is currently unable to navigate the narrow passage out of the lagoon on its own.
Various methods have been considered to facilitate the calf's reunion with its family. Initially, attempts were made to entice the calf out of the lagoon by playing sounds that mimic the calls of its family members. However, this method was unsuccessful. Other options, such as using a helicopter to lift the calf out of the water or craning it out and transporting it to the other side of the lagoon, are being considered. These methods pose risks to both the calf and the crew involved, as being out of water for an extended period can be stressful and dangerous for the orca.
The indigenous people in the area have a deep cultural connection to the orcas, viewing them as symbolic of their ancestors. The orca's role in their stories is significant, further emphasizing the importance of saving the stranded calf. The collaborative efforts of experts, including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, veterinarians, and indigenous communities, highlight the urgency and complexity of the situation.
The clock is ticking for the calf, and a decision must be made soon to ensure its survival. The tragic loss of its mother, who was pregnant at the time of her death, adds to the urgency of reuniting the calf with its family. The ultimate goal is to ensure the well-being and survival of the orphaned calf by reuniting it with its extended family of transient orcas.