Category Archives: Seals

Animals, Kindness, Leadership, Seals

Happy Seals

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Marine Mammals of Maine

I sometimes feature a nonprofit organization which is doing important work to save some of the precious wildlife on our planet.  So, today, I am sharing some news from Marine Mammals of Maine.  As you know, I love seals.  I am happy to report the group has admitted 48 animals into its facility.  Some seals needed critical care and others had been stranded because their mother could not care for them.

Here are two highlights – the organization responded to 100 stranded marine mammals in southern and mid Maine and it admitted 48 seals into its triage facility, including gray, harp and harbor seals.  In the past, it admitted an average of 40 seals over the entire year.

I am very happy to know many people are working to make a positive difference for these precious animals and I applaud them for their efforts.  Please consider making a donation of your money or time to your favorite animal shelter or animal welfare organization.  I also include a link below for Marine Mammals of Maine.  Thank you.

https://mmome.org/

Carbon Footprint Reduction, Dolphins, Oceans, Seals

An Ocean Full of Plastic?

plasticoceans.net
plasticoceans.net

Plastics, they are everywhere –we type on keyboards made from them , we drink and eat out of bottles and plates made from them and we use them for cars and all sorts of things. Gone are the days where people like my grandparents used glass bottles and plates, and where cars were composed mostly of metal.

The use of plastic has increased by twenty times in the last 50 years and is expected to double again in the next 20 years. That is staggering. What saddens me the most is that our oceans, by 2050, will contain more plastic in terms of weight, than fish. Whales, dolphins, seals, and sea-birds end up eating the plastic and then die from intestinal blockages, choking or starvation. I once met a beautiful seal at an animal hospital. Her stomach was so full of plastic things that 22 days went by before all of it was out. Fortunately, she was one of the lucky seals, she was saved before it was too late.

Is there any good news? We can work together to produce less waste and slow climate change. Plus, we can make sure we recycle our plastics. Almost one-third of all plastic never gets collected and ends up in our oceans. We can also change how we manufacture things. Instead of plastic we can use hemp. It can be used to make containers and in car production. As I wrote in an earlier blog, hemp is also biodegradable.

Let’s get together and stop using plastics. Our oceans will thank you and so will the animals in them.

Dolphins, Oceans, Seals

The beach report –what did you find?

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Plastic Beach Garbage

I had the chance to spend some time in Canada recently and am always amazed by its beauty and the friendliness of its inhabitants. I was also impressed by the lack of population density. It felt like there was room to breathe and open space all around me. In fact, Canada has 27.5% more wooded and forested land than the United States. And it has a lot more land per head.

One of my favorite things to do in Canada is watch the seals. They swim north in the summer months, fatten up on fish, and get ready for the winter months yet to come. Yet, I was saddened by all of the garbage that had washed up on the shores. I spent a lot of time picking up Pepsi soda cans, plastic water bottles, Clorox bleach bottles, plastic fishing rope, rubber bands, plastic garbage bags, candy wrappers and huge plastic fishing bins. I found garbage all over beautiful beaches which are normally free of litter. I found garbage in places that I adore. I picked up crates full of garbage, hauled them off the beach, and disposed of the items in trash cans. I even reported my findings to the appropriate authorities. And I suggested community groups be organized to do volunteer beach clean-ups.

I thought about a lot of things in Canada. My grandparents did not live with all of the plastic that we do. They had glass containers and maybe a few paper cartons. They never bought water in plastic bottles. They lived in a different time but they knew how to conserve and recycle. It is time for us to be more like our grandparents. Can you imagine swimming in an ocean filled with plastic? That is what we oblige the seals and dolphins to do. It is time to stop using so much plastic. Write me and tell me about your beach finds.

Oceans, Seals

Oceans, Seals & Garbage

Did you ever stop and wonder, like I have, what happens to the tons of garbage we produce every day? Sure, some of it gets recycled. And some of it gets burned. And some of it ends up in a landfill. But a lot of it ends up in the ocean. In fact, more than a million pounds of plastic is dumped into the ocean every hour. Yes, read that again, over one million pounds of plastic goes into the ocean every hour.

Right now there is a great Pacific Ocean garbage patch that is believed to contain more than 3 million tons of plastic. And there is another patch in the Atlantic Ocean and one in the Indian Ocean.

What does this mean for the seals, dolphins, fish, whales and other animals? It means a lot of these animals are eating plastic. That plastic ends up in their stomachs. And we all know plastic is not a nutritious food source. I met a beautiful seal who survived a bad diet of plastic because she was rescued in time. Her photo and the garbage which came out of her stomach is above. Sadly, many other seals and animals are not as lucky. They die.

So, what can you do? What can I do? Our garbage goes away somewhere. When you think about it, garbage never really goes away. It just gets transported to another location. I look at my own consumption patterns. I even read about someone who carried his garbage around with him everywhere he went for several weeks. You can bet that he bought less and had a re-usable water bottle. What if we all did that? What if we stopped buying so many things? What if we stopped using and producing plastic? What if we changed our ways? Each one of us makes a difference. Each and every one of our actions counts.