Michelia Wibowo

MegaMove uncovers where protection is needed for marine megafauna A new Science paper maps global hotspots for marine megafauna & finds that planned increased protection will be insufficient to cover most areas

📢A MegaMove milestone has just been published in @ScienceMagazine!
With ~380 collaborators from 50 countries, we mapped the movements of 12k+ marine megafauna to identify key habitats 🌊🐋🦈
@pewenvironment.bsky.social @uwaoceans.bsky.social
www.sequeiralab.com/news/megamov...

Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets The recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals but no clear pathway for how zero loss of important biodiversity areas and halting human-induced extinction of thre...

How migrating marine megafauna tracks with conservation | Science very proud to be a core @MegaMove_Org author of this very important paper lead by @AnaMMSequeira - we need a dynamic approach to marine conservation www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🦑🌎🌍🌏

Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets The recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals but no clear pathway for how zero loss of important biodiversity areas and halting human-induced extinction of thre...

NEW in @science.org Global tracking #MarineMegafauna shows <8% of areas used overlap w/ existing MPAs, while >75% of important areas overlapped by threats like #fishing #shipping & ocean warming - 30x30 goal will be insufficient for their conservation www.megamove.org @thembauk.bsky.social

All of this is a reminder that plastic pollution isn’t just about the trash we see.
It enters the bodies of marine predators like sharks 🦈 and moves through the food chain.

This World Environment Day, I hope we pay attention to what’s happening, even below the surface✨🌊

Microplastic footprints in sharks and rays: First assessment of microplastic pollution in two cartilaginous fishes, hardnose shark and whitespotted whipray Microplastic (MP) pollution is an emerging environmental problem worldwide and has caused widespread concern both in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem…

More recently, I found another study that showed microplastics not only in the digestive tracts of sharks, but also in their gills and skin.

So it’s not just about what they eat, they’re also absorbing it straight from the water they swim in

read: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What surprised me most wasn’t that sharks had plastic in them, but how it got there.
They weren’t eating plastic bags directly... They were eating fish and crabs that had already eaten microplastics.

It’s not just pollution, it’s the whole food chain being affected ‼️

Investigating the presence of microplastics in demersal sharks of the North-East Atlantic - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Investigating the presence of microplastics in demersal sharks of the North-East Atlantic

A few years ago, I read a study that stayed with me. Scientists looked at 4 shark species off the UK coast and found microplastics or fibres in 67% of them. Most were blue or black, likely from clothes.

That was when I realised how deep this problem goes.

read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Now, almost a year later, I’m packing again — this time for INC-5.2 in Geneva.
The talks continue, the urgency’s still real.

While prepping content for World Environment Day, I came back to something that’s been on my mind for years: microplastics in marine predators, sharks

📸: Abraham Sianipar

I remember the energy, the pressure, the hope.
So many of us «especially youth» really believed this would be the year

That we’d finally walk out with a global agreement to tackle plastic pollution, for real.

But… obviously, we didn’t ☹️

📷: UN media

I woke up this morning and my content calendar reminded me: it’s World Environment Day 🌏
This year’s theme? #BeatPlasticPollution — again.

Just like that, my memory was back in Busan 🇰🇷, where I stood last year as a youth observer at INC-5, watching the world try to negotiate a plastic treaty

🧵👇

Frontiers | A classification system for wounds and scars observed on white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) Introduction The study of large marine organisms is limited due to the difficulty of making field observations throughout the expansive, deep and relatively ...

Frontiers | A classification system for wounds and scars observed on white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)

Legally binding reduction targets for primary plastics production: A necessity to end plastic pollution Reducing primary plastics production (PPP) is crucial to mitigating environmental and health impacts. Setting effective reduction targets requires further research to avoid underestimating socio-econo...

Now that reducing #plastic production has moved to center stage in the #plasticstreaty negotiations, the next question is: how? We have some answers! Led by the amazing @taraolsen.bsky.social, here's a new paper on how to realistically reduce plastic production. www.cell.com/one-earth/fu... 🧵

Do you want to unravel the function of fluorescent cells in marine organisms?
Join the Annunziata lab @szn.it for a PhD project exploring embryonic origins, function and biotechnological potential of fluorescent cell type in sea cucumbers!

To apply: www.szn.it/.../ph-d-pro...

This #worldoceanday I’ll be by the sea in Margate hosted by the Margate Bookshop talking about the wonders and future of our seas with @rebeccadouglas.bsky.social
🌊
Join us:
8 June
5pm
Fort Hope Bar, Margate
Reserve free tickets here ⬇️

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/what-the-w...

Planet’s darkening oceans pose threat to marine life, scientists say Band of water where marine life can survive has reduced in more than a fifth of global ocean between 2003 and 2022

New update on our changing planet 🌊
the ocean is getting darker - and in some parts brighter

In darkening seas, sunlight reaches shallower depths than it used to with big implications for sea life

Possible causes are global heating and shifting ocean currents
🦑🧪
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Setting a baseline for marine plastic pollution in SE Pacific using citizen science. What a massive effort: 9 countries (Mexico to Chile), 700 volunteers, 130 beaches, 21360 items- 62.9% Plastic!  🦑🧪🌎
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...