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Shark Finning

  The Massacre of the World's Sharks for Soup BY EDWARD DORSON The world's sharks are quickly vanishing and it's primarily driven by the demand for shark fins as an ingredient of a status symbol soup devoured throughout Asia at weddings and banquets. Approximately 73 to 100 million sharks are killed annually worldwide just for their fins. Some shark populations are already functionally extinct, having declined by as much as 99%. The outcome of further inaction will soon create a vast jellyfish soup, formally known as the ocean. Sharks targeted by finners aren't taken whole; their valuable fins (up to $700 a kilo, at the time of this writing) are sliced off and the living mutilated shark is tossed back into the sea to sink and slowly die. It is despicably inhumane. The obliteration of 400 million years of evolution for some perceived social status with serving shark fin soup isn't just idiotic and cruel - it's tragic. A healthy ocean depends on sharks. Scientific...
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Plankton

  What is plankton? Plankton are marine drifters — organisms carried along by tides and currents Phytoplankton blooms in the Barents Sea, shown in natural color from NASA's Aqua satellite on July 10, 2014. The solid white area in the top right corner is cloud cover. Credit:  NASA's Earth Observatory The word “plankton” comes from the Greek for “drifter” or “wanderer.” An organism is considered plankton if it is carried by tides and currents, and cannot swim well enough to move against these forces. Some plankton drift this way for their entire life cycle. Others are only classified as plankton when they are young, but they eventually grow large enough to swim against the currents. Plankton are usually microscopic, often less than  one inch  in length, but they also include larger species like some crustaceans and jellyfish. Scientists classify plankton in several ways, including by size, type, and how long they spend drifting. But t...
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Ocean Current

 Ocean Current Skip to content ut Ocean Blue Project Donate Now Ocean Currents Map Why are Ocean Currents Important? Types of Ocean Currents So, what causes the ocean’s currents? Ocean currents are driven by tides, winds, or changes in the water’s density. There are two different types of ocean currents: surface currents and deep ocean currents. Together they create a complex system that affects our weather, marine travel, and oceanic ecosystems. 1 Surface Currents 2 Deep Ocean Currents 3 Tidal Currents Ocean Currents of The World The Great Pacific Garbage Patch This collection of litter (composed mostly of tiny pieces of plastic) is located in the North Pacific. The trash is collecting in the calm center of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. A gyre is a large system of swirling ocean currents. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is made of four separate currents: the California current, the North Equatorial current, the Kuroshio current, and the North Pacific current. These four c...
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