TONIGHT 8PM on ABC - Please watch :) PROGRAM: Foreign Correspondent - Take A Long Line The beautiful Palau, a tiny country off the coast of the Phillipines, with a population of only about 18,000 people (!!!!!), is a world leader in Marine Conservation. Island countries rely heavily on fish and other marine life for survival, yet this tiny country is at the top of the list in terms of taking action to ensure the long term health and sustainability of the marine environment and all the species that live within it. Please watch FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT tonight at 8pm on ABC to learn more about sustainable fishing, the future of our oceans and the necessary conservation methods the world needs to implement, now. READ MORE: This program takes a look at the decline of the Pacific Bluefin Tuna - a species that is estimated to be as low as 3% of its peak population. Along with the other Bluefin Tuna species, they are still in high demand around the world and numbers are continuing to decline rapidly. Palau is now recognised internationally as a world leader in Marine Conservation. In 2009, the country announced that they would create the worlds first shark sanctuary, the Palau Shark Sanctuary. The Sanctuary protects over 600,000sq/km of ocean (roughly the size of France!!!) from ALL shark fishing. Palau itself is only about 460sq/km - so thats an area of ocean nearly 1,300 times bigger than the country! A GREAT EFFORT! The importance of healthy oceans (including high levels of biodiversity, and healthy populations of apex predators such as sharks and large tuna species), is unfortunately overlooked or not even understood by most people. The ocean helps drive this planet and maintains ALL life upon it. Its importance is possibly second only to the Sun (and we all understand that if that were to go, wed all be ______!!!). It is undoubtably the same situation for our oceans. As they become unhealthy, they slowly impact on all life on earth, and as we continue to pollute them and empty them of essential life (on a truly epic scale), we are in turn damaging our very own lifeline. I urge you all to take the time to watch this program (and others), learn a little more, and consider some small changes that you can all make, that will help reduce the impact that we ALL have on our ocean. Thanks heaps for reading :) abc.net.au/foreign/
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 08:41:59 +0000