Quick Dips
Curated topical articles on the Blue Economy

‘Historic’ German ruling says climate goals not tough enough

• Kate Connolly, The Guardian • Energy Solutions

Germany’s supreme constitutional court has ruled that the government’s climate protection measures are insufficient to protect future generations, after a complaint brought by environmentalist groups.

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Is Your Fish Fake? Report Shows Rampant Global Seafood Fraud

• Tiffany Duong, EcoWatch • Fisheries & Aquaculture

How can you tell that the fish on your plate is the real thing? You can't — and that's the problem.

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Watching a coral reef die as climate change devastates one of the most pristine tropical island areas on Earth

• Sam Purkis, The Conversation

The Chagos Archipelago is one of the most remote, seemingly idyllic places on Earth. Coconut-covered sandy beaches with incredible bird life rim tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from any continent. Just below the waves, coral reefs stretch for miles along an underwater mountain chain.

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World Tuna Day: How sustainable are tuna fisheries?

• World Ocean Initiative, The Economist Group • Fisheries & Aquaculture

Intensive fisheries management is leading to a recovery in some tuna stocks, but improvements are not consistent across regions.

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Ocean Tech Innovation Needs a (Nonfinancial) Capital Injection

• David Hume, The Liquid Grid

The ocean tech startup community could certainly benefit from more financial capital, but for tech startups that build their businesses around disruptive innovation, more emphasis needs to be placed on two oft forgotten ingredients that fuel innovation: social and human capital.

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Seaweed Solutions

• Harrison Tasoff, The Current UCSB • Fisheries & Aquaculture

Researchers say cultivated seaweed can soak up excess nutrients plaguing human health and marine life.

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Regulators missing pollution’s effect on marine life, study finds

• Karen McVeigh, The Guardian • Fisheries & Aquaculture • Plastics & Pollution

Increasing chemical and plastic pollution are “significant” contributors to the decline of fish and other aquatic organisms, yet their impact is being missed by regulators, according to a report by environmentalists.

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U.S. Fishery Managers Are Failing to Protect Marine Habitats as Required by Law

• Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute • Fisheries & Aquaculture

How much is too much? The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has warned that more than a third of the world’s fish stocks are being overfished.

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My Octopus Teacher Oscar Win Raises Profile of Unique African Kelp Forest

• Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch • Fisheries & Aquaculture

My Octopus Teacher, the heartwarming story about a man's friendship with a common octopus, took home the Oscar for best documentary feature Sunday night.

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New sustainable advances help reimagine fish farming: "It's really the wave of the future"

• CBS News • Fisheries & Aquaculture

Fish farms haven't always had the best reputation, but that seems to be changing fast. Many scientists and chefs believe fish farms may be the future of food due to a combination of factors, including overfishing in our oceans and a global population that keeps rising.

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Number of ocean "dead zones" doubles

• TPN/Lusa, The Portugal News

The number of "dead zones" in the oceans has almost doubled in a decade, demonstrating the "widespread failure" to protect the seas and the need for new "ambitious" global targets, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said.

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Biden announces US will aim to cut carbon emissions by as much as 52% by 2030 at virtual climate summit

• Kate Sullivan & Kevin Liptak, CNN • Energy Solutions

President Joe Biden on Thursday kicked off a virtual climate summit attended by 40 other world leaders by announcing an ambitious cut in greenhouse gas emissions as he looks to put the US back at the center of the global effort to address the climate crisis and curb carbon emissions.

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Innovations in reusable packaging need a playbook. Here's why

• Tom Szaky & Erin Simon, World Economic Forum • Plastics & Pollution

We need cross-sector consensus to define the standards of reusable packaging so businesses can innovate and scale-up solutions.

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Changes to giant ocean eddies could have ‘devastating effects’ globally

• Graham Readfearn, The Guardian • Energy Solutions

Swirling and meandering ocean currents that help shape the world’s climate have gone through a “global-scale reorganisation” over the past three decades, according to new research.

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Better product design and recycling can curb plastic waste

• World Ocean Initiative, The Economist Group • Plastics & Pollution

World Ocean Summit session highlights benefits of designing products with end of life in mind, and improving waste management.

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How to scale up blue-carbon projects

• World Ocean Initiative, The Economist Group • Energy Solutions

On Earth Day we recap recent World Ocean Summit sessions highlighting the importance of investing in ocean ecosystems.

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Global CO2 Emissions Set to Surge in 2021 in Post-Covid Economic Rebound

• Yale Environment 360 • Energy Solutions

Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are projected to increase by 1.5 billion tons this year, the second-largest increase in history, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.

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Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions aims for bigger impact

• Ned Daly, SeafoodSource • Fisheries & Aquaculture

The Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions has announced a series of changes aimed at helping the seafood industry achieve greater adoption of sustainable practices and innovation.

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Blue Nature Alliance aims to restore 7 million square miles of ocean in five years

• Nell Lewis, CNN

The ocean covers more than 70% of our planet, a total of 139 million square miles. An initiative launched on Tuesday aims to protect 5% of it in the next five years.

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The Recycling Industry in America Is Broken

• Tiffany Duong, EcoWatch • Plastics & Pollution

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. According to The National Museum of American History, this popular slogan, with its iconic three arrows forming a triangle, embodied a national call to action to save the environment in the 1970s.

Read more → (9 minute read)