The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.

ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Jobs, Fish and doing the right thing

But some things are just wrong, however many jobs they provide and however much money they make for their stakeholders. There’s a reason the whaling industry was shut down in Australia in the 1970’s. The same applies to the tobacco industry in the 2000’s (which at its height employed about the same amount of people as the Salmon industry does today.) Values change with time.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

A Happy Rat Story

“We’re very excited to see more native species now rats are no longer eating them. Seedlings of tamanu and puka are increasing and we’re seeing and hearing more birds. Wood pigeons and red-tailed tropic birds have returned to Home Islet. Crabs and lizards appear to be more abundant.”

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Robbing A Bank When No One’s Looking

Why should anyone care about the disappearance of sharks in the Saya de Malha Bank?  Ernest Hemingway once described going bankrupt as something that happens gradually… and then suddenly. The extinction of species is like bankruptcy, and when it finally occurs, there’s no going back. If we keep draining the Bank of one of its most previous riches, a “sudden” reckoning may be soon.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

An Interruption

In the realm of environmental activism, innovation often springs from the simplest ideas. Samuel McLennan, the founder of Project Interrupt, epitomises this ethos. His ambitious project involves sailing a raft up the coast of Australia, constructed entirely from waste materials collected from Tasmania's shores.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

When Boats and Mammals collide.

According to the most recent data from the Marine strike log maintained by the MMAG, over 50% of all collisions reported result in damage to either the vessel and/or its crew, as well as possible injury or death to marine life.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Haida Sails: The Breath of Cedar

At the heart of a Haida sail is the cedar tree. The cedar provides not only the material for the sail and the canoe but also a deeper, spiritual connection to our land. The act of weaving a cedar sail is an offering to the cedar tree and to the ocean, an expression of respect and gratitude for the sustenance it has provided the Haida for thousands of years.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Echos of Assange

A court has ordered anti-whaling activist and environmentalist Paul Watson to remain in detention in Greenland, as authorities consider a request from Japan to extradite him on charges dating back more than a decade.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Dispatch from the Land of Throwaway Boats 

As responsible, environmentally aware marine professionals, we should be fostering the value of maintaining and rejuvenating more of the fine vessels that have already seen yeoman service rather than taking part in their ignoble demise in the rush to connect our customers with new models of dubious virtue or reliability.  

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Counter Catastro-phising

The agreement was groundbreaking in its ambition. It led to the near-total cessation of whaling activities, with a few notable exceptions , and has contributed to the resurgence of many whale species, including the largest animal on Earth, the blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Child’s Play

For four years now, orcas have been ramming and sinking yachts in European waters, and scientists have struggled to work out just why these smart, social animals had learnt this destructive new trick. But it's not due to some anticapitalist 'eat the rich' agenda, nor is it to do with territory and aggression. The truth is, well, it's child's play.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Going Green, Gone Wrong

Preliminary information from the Blue Schooner Company suggests the vessel was hit by a “sudden and violent” storm, causing it to capsize and sink. Survivors reported donning survival suits and boarding life rafts as the vessel began to sink.

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ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew ENVIRONMENT Mark Chew

Whales and (good news) Tales

There is a growing awareness that focusing on tragedy and despair in our daily news cycle is not only an empirically unbalanced representation of the truth, but it is also harmful to the prospects of solving the problems we do actually face by creating despondency and a sense of zero agency.

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