Articles by Andrew Sharpless
Andrew Sharpless is the CEO of Oceana, the world's largest international nonprofit dedicated to ocean conservation. Visit www.oceana.org.
All Articles
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New report cites impacts of biodiversity loss
For those of you that would rather get a root canal the read "Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services," consider this your Cliff's Notes.
This new report in Science shows that marine biodiversity loss is increasingly impairing the ocean's ability to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations. If these trends continue, pretty much all the fish will be gone by 2048. In fact, according to the report, a whopping 30% of the world's commercial fisheries are already collapsed.
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Two Florida icons facing extinction
The sad news out of Florida is that the iconic pink plastic flamingo, resident of many Florida front lawns since the 1950s, is about to become extinct. The last flamingo was produced in June, and the parent company is going out of business today -- a mere seven months before the icons were to celebrate their 50th birthday.
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No demand for Iceland’s whale meat
Two weeks ago, Iceland announced it would defy the 20-year-old worldwide whaling ban and resume its commercial whale hunt. They sure didn't waste any time! Two whales have already been caught, leaving 37 more kills to go.
Iceland claims this decision is all about business, so let's take a look at the business side of what they actually are doing. For those of you who slept through this lesson in high school, I'd like to tell you about a little thing I like to call "economics."
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Halloween inspires ocean supporter contest
I've always been a fan of Halloween. Not so much for the costumes, but for the social acceptance of eating massive amounts of sugar for 24 hours and "fright night" marathons. In honor of this freaky holiday, the folks at my organization put together a freaky fish contest. Check it out. One of my personal favorites is the fangtooth. Believe it or not, this fish is all bark and no bite. Despite its impressive set of choppers, the fangtooth is actually quite small and harmless to humans. But it sure isn't about to win any beauty contests ...
