Greenpeace UK

Support sustainable fishermen with the Arctic Sunrise

victoriah — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:56:15 +0000

This spring the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise and its crew set out on a journey to support the growing movement of Europe’s sustainable fishermen.

The European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform negotiations are in their final stages. Greenpeace has been working with fishermen to demand a new CFP that gives greater fishing rights to sustainable fishermen, ends destructive fishing practices and puts the health of our seas and fish stocks at its heart.

Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Spain and France have all welcomed the Arctic Sunrise into port. At each stop, Greenpeace supporters have been joining us quayside to meet fishermen, tour the ship, and take action by making paper boats to send to lawmakers in Brussels.

The Arctic Sunrise will be in the UK for the last leg of the tour. You can be a part of it by joining us quayside at:

Lyme Regis
Wednesday 29 May

Performance area, Jubilee Pavilions, Marine Parade
Join us qayside for a small information table and paper boat folding

Fowey
Friday May 31, Saturday June 1, Sunday June 2

Town Quay PL23 1AT
Join us for campaign information, paper boat folding and activities for children

Hastings

Outside the Jerwood Gallery TN34 3DW
Join us qayside for a small information table and paper boat folding

London

Saturday 8 June and Sunday 9 June
West India Docks

There will be a limited number of places for people to come on the ship in London. You can let us know you’re interested in getting one of these places by signing the petition.

Turtle recall

Willie — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:00:00 +0000

An Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) swims in the open blue ocean of the Pacific.

Image caption:

An Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) swims in the open blue ocean of the Pacific.

When I heard it was World Turtle Day, I hatched a plan. I know that to an international audience ‘turtle’ covers a multitude of reptile species, but rather than getting all Queens’ English-y over what is a tortoise, a terrapin or a turtle, I thought this was a good opportunity to focus in on the seven amazing species that roam our oceans – the sea turtles.

And there are three good reasons: they are awesome; no one will dispute calling them ‘turtles’, and six out of seven species are endangered, thanks to us – so they need some love.

So here is everything you needed to know about sea turtles, in a handy, shareable blog.

Sea turtles are ocean wanderers. Females return to the beach they were born on to lay their eggs, but males have no need to ever return to land.

Some turtles are not fussy with their food, but some species really are. Leatherback turtles love jellyfish and hawksbill turtles prefer to eat sponges. Both have adapted to be able to resist stings, spikes, and toxins to let them munch down on their preferred lunch.

Loggerhead turtles have big, strong heads. They need them for crushing and crunching shellfish. Back in Shakespeare’s time the word ‘loggerhead’ was a derogatory word meaning ‘blockhead’. Which isn’t very nice.

Green turtles are the only vegetarians in the sea turtle world. But when they are young they are less bothered and will eat anything. It’s only when they become fussy right-on teenagers that they decide meat is murder.

‘Turning turtle’ means to be upside down, or belly up. For a turtle on land this is a real problem. For a sea turtle it is merely the backstroke.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were probably terrapins. Yeah - Teenage Mutant Ninja Terrapins. Hmm.

Leatherback turtles are the undoubted record breakers. They can travel 10,000 miles each year foraging for food, dive more than 1200 metres deep into the ocean, and range all the way from Chile to Alaska. They are adapted for cold water, warm-blooded, with an insulating layer of fat.

And leatherbacks are HUUUUGE. The biggest one ever recorded washed up on a beach in Wales, was 2.2metres long – that’s roughly the size of a double bed. The smallest sea turtles are about 60cm long when adult.

Even the biggest leatherback starts life as a tiny ping-pong ball sized egg laid in a nest on a beach. Baby turtles must make the perilous journey to the sea, without being picked off by predators, which is pretty tough going for something so ridiculously adorable.

When coming onto land to lay eggs, female turtles can be vulnerable to unusual predators. In South America, jaguars are known to prowl beaches looking for a slow-moving meal.

Each interlocking segment on a turtle’s shell is known as a ‘scute’. Oddly, ‘’s cute!” is what people tend to say when they see a baby turtle too.

In the film One Million Years BC a giant prehistoric turtle terrorised Raquel Welch in a bikini. This awesome Ray Harryhausen monster was based on a real prehistoric turtle, Archelon, which wasn’t quite as big in real life. They do say the camera adds ten pounds though…

Sea turtles that graze algae keep coral reefs healthy (which is good news because coral reefs need all the help they can get), and turtles that eat jellyfish help make the beaches safer for humans who don’t want to get stung.

In the water, a plastic bag looks like a jellyfish. That’s bad news for turtles.

It’s not rocket science knowing how best to start protecting turtles - you would protect their nesting beaches and the seas around them – yet growing pressure from human development means turtles are losing out across the world.

Some places where turtles were traditionally hunted for meat and their shells are switching to ecotourism instead. Turtles, like whales, must be worth more alive than dead, right?

Turtles are fantastic ocean ambassadors, but also indicators of the many ways we humans are screwing those same oceans up. Protecting turtles means changing fishing methods, protecting areas needed for feeding & breeding, and for us to stop treating the ocean as a rubbish tip.

Greenpeace is working on all of those. But we need your help.

Top 10 weird wildlife: immortal jellyfish, gender-swapping fish and pink dolphins

Willie — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:09:42 +0000

Today is International Day for Biological Diversity. An opportunity to celebrate and wonder at the amazingly diverse variety of species we share the planet with. This year it has a water theme, so we’ve been having some fun over on Twitter, and here’s our pick of the weirdest and most wondrous watery wildlife you definitely need to know about.

1. Clownfish
It’s the untold story of Finding Nemo that clownfish change gender. When the dominant female in a group is removed, a male steps up to take charge. So in the film, Nemo’s dad should have had a more dramatic storyline!

2. Pink dolphins
Amazonian river dolphins are pink. But they don’t know that because they are blind. There’s not a lot of point being able to see when you live in murky water and echo-locate

3. Arctic worm
Worms that live in the ice and turn to goo when the temperature gets above freezing point. Who needs science fiction?

4. Spirit bear
The black bears that live in the Great Bear Rainforest are unusually coloured. Some are almost polar bear-white. These spirit bears gorge on salmon which brings nutrients all the way from the sea, up the river, into the forest, and fertilise the trees.

5. Narwhal
Turns out that that wacky tusk on these Arctic whales isn’t just for show: it’s a super-sized super-sensory organ. Make your own jokes...

6. Barnacles
Barnacles are stuck. They don’t get out much. So they have exceptionally long penises to reach other barnacles, so they can, you know, make baby barnacles.

7. Arctic tern
The only wild bird to be recorded on all the world’s continents, the Arctic tern migrates from the Arctic to the Antarctic to get two summers every year.

8. Mimic octopus
Is it a bird, is it a plane? Chances are it could be a mimic octopus. Changing shape, colour, size and movement to pretend to be all sorts of ocean critters. As if being an octopus wasn’t awesome enough already?

9. Immortal jellyfish
The never-ending story of this gelatinous wonder is that it doesn’t have to die. Able to convert back into larvae this jellyfish is immortal. In the right conditions, they may take over the world. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

10. Shrew portaloo
Perhaps the most awesome evolutionary solution in nature – the shrew whose loo is a carnivorous pitcher plant. As if it weren’t already amazing, the pitcher plant has evolved to devour the poo. Everyone’s a winner.

(The shrew loo made it through as ‘watery’ because of the plumbing element.)

Thank you for choosing your print

mollybrooks — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:13:47 +0000

Thank you for choosing your exclusive Greenpeace oceans print. We’ll pop it in the post to you as soon as we’ve received your 2nd donation.

Thanks again for all your support. We can’t do anything without you!

Deal or no deal on Europe's fishing laws?

Willie — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:47:55 +0000

Will politicians net a fair fishing deal?

Image caption:

Will politicians net a fair fishing deal?

While considering how to write a blog on the latest developments on Europe’s bumpy road to fisheries reform, I decided to take a step back in time. Eleven months ago I wrote this blog explaining where the discussions were at, what was still on the table, and outlining a number of areas of concern.

Fast forward to June 2013 and the (extended) process to reform the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is in a remarkably similar place after another crucial, but opaque, meeting of EU fisheries ministers last week.

The pessimist in me (who gets out quite often, as it happens) would say that this showed a lack of ambition, a lack of progress, failure of an ever-extended process, and ever more spin from the politicians involved.

But having been around for a number of year,s I know now that no EU legislative process is a fun-fest. EU law-making and Brussels politicking is rarely as upbeat as the average Eurovision song contest entry, and the outcome of votes and horse-trading is likely to be even more complicated and infuriating.

In physics they refer to the second law of thermodynamics, where things show a tendency to fall apart and get more chaotic over time (if you have 5 minutes you can listen to Professor Brian Cox explain that with sandcastles).

EU legislative processes are not much different. Left to their own devices, they will get weaker.

So I have to say that I am sceptically optimistic that so many crucial elements of the Common Fisheries Policy reform are still on the table, since it means the pressures and temptations to water down, block and obfuscate have been countered by pressure to deliver real reform.

That pressure has come from real people. Like you.

We saw evidence of that last week in the pressure our own minister, Richard Benyon, was under. We have seen environmental groups, celebrity chefs, coastal fishermen, retailers and others come together to demand that ministers stand firm and deliver what is needed. We have seen an unprecedented response to public pressure in February’s vote in the European parliament, on an issue that has become a political hot potato.

That potato has now been tossed back and forth between Europe’s parliamentarians, and Europe’s governments. It’s now well and truly in the air.

Last week’s meeting was supposed to give a ‘final’ negotiating position for Europe’s fisheries ministers collectively: the agreed line in the sand from them on what they will accept in CFP reform. From the perspective of most NGOs, that agreed position was weak.

It is now up to closed door three-way conversations between representatives of the EU parliament (who have a progressive position), the ministers, and the European Commission to see if an agreement can be reached. If it can, there will need to be compromise. How much from each side is yet to be seen, so it’s hard to predict what it could look like.

Yes, we should be wary that there are attempts to water down a discard ban, but we shouldn’t be surprised either. Perhaps we should be more surprised that the general concept of phasing out discards on commercially fished EU species is still in there at this stage.

We should also be encouraged that there is still an ambition in there to rebuild fish stocks, but rightly alarmed that there seems to be no agreed process on how to get there.

Deals, derogations and horse trading were always going to happen. We might not like it, but we can still strive for the best possible outcome in the laws drawn up, and then hold our governments to account in delivering them in the way they were intended.

It’s sometimes easy to hide behind the complexity and frustrations caused by Brussels, but we shouldn’t let that be an excuse. As we argued in court, there is much that can be done at a national level to make things better and start redressing the balance.

If we want to have healthy seas and coastal communities in the decades to come, then we need to decide what we value, and what we support. Then we need to make sure our ministers don’t just issue a press release from Brussels en route to the Eurostar, but they actually make a difference when they get home too.

Now is the time to keep up the pressure, because we need the best deal possible, for our seas, and those who depend on them. Show your support.

It’s crunch time (again) for Europe’s fish ministers

Willie — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:56:51 +0000

A full page ad calls for Benyon to support sustainable fishing

Image caption:

A full page ad calls for Benyon to support sustainable fishing

If you listen to Ronan Keating much (I don’t) – you’d be familiar with the concept that Life is a Rollercoaster.

But for some of us, it’s a bit more accurate to liken the process of reforming Europe’s failed fish laws to that particular fun-fair ride : full of twists and turns, highs and lows, moments of hopeful elation, followed by moments of abject panic and fear. And sometimes making us reach for a sick bag.

Okay, that may be a stretch. But if you’ve been following the process of reforming the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) you may well be a little confused. The timeline keeps changing, and you are repeatedly told that ‘this is it! Crunch time!’ or ‘Yay! Well done! Good News!’

Sadly this complicated process is the reality we European fisheries campaigners have to engage with, and if it’s confusing for us, imagine what it must look like to fishing communities across Europe scratching their head over the prolonged opaque process of fixing something we all know is broken.

Reform of the CFP is supposed to happen every decade. This one was supposed to be done and dusted in 2012, but it has dragged on. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the combination of public interest and pressure has meant that this reform process has been under the political spotlight like never before. Groups like Greenpeace and Hugh’s Fish Fight have been working together across Europe to make sure that politicians know what is on the line for our seas, and giving voice to the coastal fishing communities that depend on them. We’ve been making sure the people elected to represent us in faceless buildings in Brussels & Strasbourg know what we, and you care about. The most visible result of that was the astounding success in the European Parliament in February where MEPs voted 5 to 1 for a hugely ambitious package of reforms.

That though, was not the end of the process. Now it’s down to a tricky task of getting agreement between the Parliament’s progressive position, and the, er, slightly less-progressive position being taken by Europe’s fisheries ministers. This, folks, is the messy, but important, bit at the end.

This week, on Monday, Tuesday, and probably the early hours of Wednesday, the fisheries ministers will be meeting again. Steered by the EU presidency we are being told this will be the last-ditch attempt to agree their collective position.

So that’s why we now need our minister Richard Benyon to step up to the plate. Throughout the process he has championed the need for real reform, and now we need him and his like-minded colleagues to lead the charge for a progressive agreement on that reform. He needs to deliver on the fine words and promises.

Only if our ministers agree a good compromise does it look like a deal can be done with the Parliament for far-reaching reform – reform so desperately needed to ensure healthy seas and vibrant fishing communities in the future. Failure, or ever more delay surely cannot be a viable option at this stage.

That’s why, in conjunction with WWF, RSPB, Ocean2012, NEF and MCS, we placed a message to Richard Benyon in today’s Daily Telegraph.

Richard Benyon, your time is now. We’re counting on you to deliver.

If you want to tell Benyon you’re counting on him too, you can tweet @RichardBenyonMP #CFPreform

And if you want to show your support for Europe’s low-impact fishermen, you can sign up here. We’ll be sending on all your support for the small-scale fishing sector to Benyon and his European colleagues.

More information on the Arctic Sunrise Ship Tour

victoriah — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:04:22 +0000

The Arctic Sunrise is campaigning in Europe in support of sustainable fishermen. Here's some more information if you'd like to come along...

We cannot thank you enough for your kind support - we really hope you can make it and support our oceans campaign as we work for better European fish laws.

To be considered for a place you must have ticked the box saying you would like to enter the draw when signing up to support the campaign. The closing date is midnight on Thursday 30 May 2013.
We’ll notify you if you’ve got a place by email on Monday 3^rd June, we'll also ask you to confirm how many people you are bringing along at this point (up to a max of 5 people - if you require more than 5 places on the Arctic Sunrise Ship Tour please get in touch with our supporter services team - and we will accommodate you at our discretion).
The Arctic Sunrise Ship Tour dates are Saturday 8^th June and Sunday 9^th June 2013 in London.
If you win, your place is are non-transferrable – you & your guests need to use them yourself.
On arrival at the Arctic Sunrise you and your guests will need to present the email you received confirming your place.
You are responsible for arriving on time.
You need to sort out and pay for your own transport to and from the Arctic Sunrise Ship Tour.
You attend the ship tour at your own risk and Greenpeace does not accept any liability for you or for your guest's expenses, personal injury, damage, theft or loss in connection with the competition even if that loss is caused by Greenpeace's negligence. Etc.
Closer to the date we’ll email you your boarding pass that you should bring with you on the day either as a print out or on your mobile phone.
As this is a working ship there are some steep steps and narrow passageways so pushchairs, wheelchairs and dogs will unfortunately not be able to come on board. We apologise that people of limited mobility may not be able to complete a full tour, although there should still be opportunity to see the ship and talk to the crew.

If you need more information about the tour please call our Supporter Services team on 0800 269 065 (Mon-Fri 9am – 5.30pm).

Championing small-scale fishermen in court battle for fairer quotas

Arianadensham — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:28:51 +0000

Small-scale fishermen outside the Royal Courts of Justice

Image caption:

Small-scale fishermen outside the Royal Courts of Justice

Imagine if someone claimed ownership of a percentage of the sparrows in the sky or a share of the deer in our forests? Would this seem absurd to you? I agree.

Unbelievably, this is now set to be the heart of an unprecedented court battle – except that it’s over who ultimately controls the UK’s fishing quota, and therefore who 'owns' the fish in our seas.

The case is a judicial review, and it has been brought by the UK Association of Fish Producer Organisations (UKAPFO) against the government. They represent the heavyweights of the fishing industry, a club of about 15 fish producer organisations who currently control much of the right to fish in the UK.

They want the court to overturn a government decision to give a small amount of unused fishing quota to small boat fishermen, on the basis that it has become UKAFPO’s private property.

But wait, the right to fish is a public good, I hear you cry. It’s held by the government in trust for everybody, which means no-one can 'own' it.

And you're so right. Which is why we're in an unusual alliance with others - namely New Under Ten Fishermen’s Association (Nutfa) and the government itself - who agree.

Not only that, but the outcome of this landmark case could have huge consequences for the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen using vessels under 10m, many of whom fish in a low-impact way.

Despite making up 77% of the fleet, these small scale fishermen currently have access to just 4% of the UKs fishing quota. Many face the prospect of going bust, and the government’s decision to redistribute a bit of fishing quota to their sector would throw them a lifeline.

But the fishing heavyweights are committed to stop the government doing this. They want to split the industry. After hoarding almost the entire wealth of the UK fishing quota, they are now doing everything they can to stop the leftover scraps going to the small boats that desperately need them.

More than this though, they are arguing the principle that fishing quota has essentially been privatised (largely into their hands). With estimates that the value of such a resource might now be worth billions of pounds, the court has an epic case to hear. It may yet come to pass that ‘our seas are for sale’.

Worryingly, this will also ultimately determine how the UK government can manage our fisheries, and whether it can reward low-impact over destructive fishing. Ultimately, if the government loses the power to reallocate quota, then the EU’s new and much applauded proposals to help low-impact fishermen in the reformed Common Fisheries Policy won’t be worth the paper they’re written on.

The outcome of this case will have historic consequences. If the fishing giants get their own way, we might witness the privatisation by stealth of one of the UK’s greatest public goods - the right to fish in our seas - sanctioned by a court ruling.

This would sweep away a thousand years of fishing history in some places, to be replaced by fishing fleets frequently dominated by big vessels with no connection to the local area and often providing no benefit to the local or UK economy.

Or sense might prevail and fish will remain in public hands.

We will be there every step of the way to help ensure history remembers this case as a victory for the public interest. Greedy companies must not be privileged above small scale and sustainable fishermen, or allowed to manipulate the quota system. Low-impact fishermen, the lifeblood of their local communities, deserve a fair catch.

Battle over ‘ownership’ of Britain’s fish begins in High Court

Graham Thompson — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:12:50 +0000

1 May, 2013

LONDON – An unusual alliance of Greenpeace, the government, and small-boat fishermen is poised for an unprecedented court battle with Britain’s most powerful fishing groups which could decide the 30-year-old question of who ultimately controls the UK's fishing quota – a public resource estimated to be worth billions of pounds.

Environmental campaigners and small-scale fishermen will be demonstrating outside the High Court as the first day of hearings begins today, to draw attention to a landmark case which could have momentous consequences for the definition of fish as a public good and the government’s ability to ensure Britain's seas are fished sustainably.

At the heart of the dispute is the decision by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) to reallocate a small amount of consistently unused fishing quota from Fish Producer Organisations – consortia of vessel owners controlling over 95 per cent of the UK’s fishing rights – to small-scale fishermen, who have access to a tiny 4 per cent share of this resource, despite making up over three quarters of the UK’s fishing fleet. (1)

The industry heavyweights, represented by the UK Association of Fish Producer Organisations (UKAFPO), have taken Defra to court over the move arguing that reallocating part of their share of fishing quota is tantamount to ‘deprivation of possessions ’ – an argument implying that they regard quota as a private asset.

Greenpeace and the New Under Ten Fishermen’s Association (NUTFA), who have been given permission by the court to intervene in the case, will be arguing that fish is not a private commodity but a public good held in trust by the government on behalf of all citizens.

"This case is not just about shifting a bit of fishing quota from one sector of the fleet to another – it's a fight for the very soul of our seas,” says Greenpeace ocean campaigner Ariana Densham. “The industry heavyweights are effectively asking the court to rubberstamp the largest privatisation by stealth of a public good in centuries – a massive fish grab which is threatening the livelihoods of many small-scale fishermen, the largest and most sustainable part of our fleet. Greenpeace is here today to remind the fishing barons that our seas are not for sale."

Fishing quotas were introduced for the first time three decades ago by the then new EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in an attempt to regulate the exploitation of fish stocks. Each year, after EU fisheries ministers have negotiated the overall amount of fish their fleets are allowed to catch (Total Allowable Catch), member states parcel it out to their respective fleets in the form of fishing quotas.

Officially, fishing quotas have always been no more than temporary concessions to utilise a public resource, reallocated to fishermen every year. In practice, vessel owners have ended up treating quota as a private asset – buying it, selling it, renting it out to other fishermen, and even using it as collateral for bank loans (2).

"Producer organisations are a bit like quota squatters: they have been ‘occupying’ a public good for some time and now claim the government can't take it back because it’s their private property," says Densham. "But the public nature of fishing rights is enshrined in the Magna Carta itself, and the sell-off of this resource to private interests would represent a swing from public to private that would turn history on its head, ending centuries of established rights.”

Greenpeace has warned that if fishing giants were to win this case, this would severely hamper the government's ability to manage the UK's fisheries, including the implementation of key elements of the much anticipated new Common Fisheries Policy currently debated in Brussels.

"The people of this country have everything to lose from the privatisation of our seas," says Densham. "If the government can't allocate quota as it sees fit, then our minister will effectively lose the ability to manage our fisheries in the public’s interest, and our seas will be left at the mercy of unfettered market forces. The hard-won proposals to prioritise low-impact fishermen included in the new EU fisheries policy would be dead in the water."

The outcome of today’s case is bound to have a direct impact on Britain’s 4,000-plus small-scale fishermen (3), many of whom are struggling to scrape a living from the little fishing quota they have access to.

“It’s simply unacceptable that access to a public resource should be considered as just another commodity, to be bought and sold to the highest bidder, irrespective of its vital social, economic and cultural importance to fishermen and the hundreds of coastal communities they support,” says Jerry Percy, chief executive to NUTFA. "This is the last chance saloon for many small scale and sustainable fishermen who will not have a future if their birth right ends up in the hands of a few big players”.

The UK's fishing quota – estimated to be worth over one billion pounds back in 1999, and now likely to be a multi-billion pound asset (4) – has been the object of growing media and public scrutiny over the last few years.

At present there is no publically available information on who holds fishing quota besides the amount which is allocated to producer organisations every year. Following media reports suggesting banks and even football clubs may have bought quota as a financial investment (5), Defra has been under pressure to publish a register of quota holders, and has indicated it intends to do so by the end of the year (6).

Findings from a Greenpeace investigation published earlier this year also revealed that a large amount of fishing quota held by members of the UK's most influential lobby body for the fishing sector – the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) – is in the hands of Spanish, Dutch, and Icelandic interests, which a damning 2009 report by Defra found to be contributing little or nothing to the UK economy (7).

Greenpeace and NUTFA are represented by Harrison Grant Solicitors instructing Kassie Smith QC of Monckton Chambers.

ENDS

A group of small-scale fishermen will hold a brief demonstration in front of the High Court building on the Strand from 9-10am today.

Notes to editors

http://www.nutfa.org/#/fisheries-management/4543399029
Agriculture Select Committee ‘Eight Report – Sea Fishing’ 1999 UK Parliament, para 85 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmselect/cmagric/141/14108.htm
MMO vessel list, 1st April 2013: http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/fisheries/statistics/vessel.htm
Agriculture Select Committee ‘Eight Report – Sea Fishing’ 1999 UK Parliament, para 83.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13682451 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/05/fishing-quotas-privatised
Defra’s spokesperson quoted in http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/anger_over_fish_quota_of_foreign_fleet_linked_to_lowestoft_1_1867622
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/reports/wolf-shrimps-clothing

How are you celebrating World Penguin Day?

Willie — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:39:14 +0000

This Gentoo penguin is celebrating - are you?

Image caption:

This Gentoo penguin is celebrating - are you?

It’s World Penguin Day today, April 25^th, and I simply can’t imagine a world that didn’t have penguins in it. So in order to celebrate our funny fine-flippered friends I thought it would be good to pull together some fun facts about penguins. Some are fun, some are facts, and some are both at once.

There are currently 18 species of penguins. Populations of 13 species are thought to be in decline and 5 species are endangered. Climate change, habitat & food loss, and pollution are the major threats to the world’s penguins

All wild penguins live in the Southern Hempishere, and although they are synonymous with the ice, only two species live on the continent of Antarctica. The Galapagos penguin is the only penguin that ever naturally ventures into the Northern Hemisphere on especially long feeding trips

The first bird actually called a ‘penguin’ was the now-extinct Great Auk found in the North Atlantic. Bizarrely all the birds we know now as ‘penguins’ were named after those birds that were familiar to explorers, on account of us having killed them all…

Fossil evidence shows that penguins evolved before the dinosaurs died out, and there are remains of giant, people-sized, prehistoric penguins

In comparison, the world’s smallest penguins are the Little Blue penguins. They are just over 30cm high on their flippers. (Yes, you’re thinking you could fit one in your bag, and keep it in your bath, aren’t you…?)

Despite having brands of books and biscuits named after them, penguins show little interest in literature and are confounded by biscuit wrappers because they lack opposable thumbs.

To move fast through the water, penguins use a technique called ‘porpoising’. To move quickly over the ice, they switch to ‘tobogganning’. Curiously, porpoises neither use toboggans nor do they use the word ‘penguin’ as a verb.

Scientists have discovered that emperor penguins, the largest species, use a special bubble-power go-faster technology to increase their speed under water.

Penguins have been immortalised on the big and small screens: singing with Mary Poppins, stealing the Muppet Show’s show, protecting the oceans with the Octonauts, and being a criminal mastermind in Wallace & Gromit. However it is the Happy Feet penguins who have the best fictitious claim to fame having used the medium of dance to get the United Nations to protect the entire Southern Ocean*.

Penguins at London and Edinburgh Zoos only eat sustainably-sourced fish. They’re very picky and eco-conscious, you know.

Adelie penguins love rocks. They use them to make nests and they are in short supply – so what to do to get more rocks? Well the shocking truth is that female Adelie penguins think nothing of offering sex to neighbouring males in exchange for a pebble. Pebble promiscuity is just the tip of the iceberg though. Early scientists in Antarctica deemed the sexual shenanigans of these cute birds too shocking for the public to know about.

Penguin poo can be incredibly useful. Not only is it sometimes visible from space, but projectile pooing can be a handy way of deterring predators, or making a social comment. Penguins who had been the star attractions at Edinburgh Zoo for over a century had their beaks put out of joint when pandas arrived there recently. Some of them resorted to a dirty protest aimed at the queues of panda visitors

*Despite the best efforts of the Happy Feet penguins, the Southern Ocean is not yet protected. That’s why we are working with the Antarctic Oceans Alliance, and lobbying governments to come together to protect areas like the Ross Sea, which are vital for many penguins. You can help us, and the penguins, by joining the watch to protect the Antarctic Ocean.

Check out #PenguinDay on Twitter. Penguins don’t tweet, but you can.