What will you remember from the inauguration of a national park in your own neighbourhood? A sunny autumn day? Absolutely. Some more or less pertinent phrases from your Minister of Climate and the Environment? Maybe, but mostly the fact that she wasn’t even born when the park was first discussed. A trumpeter and two slightly wayward sheep? Yes, the unexpected will always stick to your memory.
On Christmas Day 2004, our reporter and underwater film-maker Tobias Dahlin was with his family in Khao Lak, Thailand. This is his personal account of what happened then.
I write this as COP 16, the UN summit meeting on biodiversity, has just ended in the Colombian coastal city of Cali. On a human level there is progress: indigenous people are promised a stronger voice in the fight to protect threatened species on planet Earth. Many of these nations live near the oceans, some on islands that are also threatened with extinction because of climate change. Their voices will be important for the protection of those who inhabit the oceans.
I am now forbidden to fish for cod and the pike has disappeared from my bay. I'm looking for scapegoats. Who is responsible for the condition below the surface in the Baltic Sea? Small-scale professional fishermen along the east coast have been raising the alarm for several years that the herring has declined sharply. At the same time, the large-scale trawling in the open sea has continued to catch large quantities, which have gone directly to the fishmeal factories in Denmark.
Biomass and biodiversity. Two rather dull and stiff words. But words often associated with Raja Ampat. Raja Ampat is situated west of Papua Guinea, right in the heart of what's known as the "Coral Triangle."
The ocean's resources belong to all citizens. We want healthy seas, full of fish and shellfish. So - how could fishing for cod in the Baltic Sea be allowed to continue despite all the warning signs? How can herring fishing get the green light even though EU law prohibits continued fishing? For a long time, I lived under the delusion that the European seas were managed democratically. That it is only in dictatorships that predatory behavior is deliberately allowed to destroy life below the surface and destroy the living space of all living things.
The EU's and Sweden's marine policy has for several decades led to overfished seas. Several ocean areas are on the brink of an ecological disaster. Climate change, warming and eutrophication are the result of human activities, which are dramatically changing our oceans.
I sit in the boat and jig. It rhythmically jerks with the same reel as last year, and the year before that. Every weekend before Midsummer, we have been catching herring at sunset in the bay outside Vätö in Roslagen. We have been doing this for 22 years now.
I have had many pets in my life. First I had budgies. I particularly liked my first one - Mimi. I once took her to school in the outer compartment of my backpack. In the summer I fished. I pulled up roaches and perch on the jetty. Digged a pit and had my own fish pond. Then there were mice. Rats. Turtles. Rabbits. Chickens and horses. I knew that stuff with animals.
Tvättsvampar kan rädda mänskligheten. Säger jag till grannen som tvättar bilen. Hon bara stirrar på mig.
I don’t usually go around picking fights with market traders. But the other day, a stall holder managed to ruin the Christmas mood. He was selling endangered animals wrapped in plastic, with Jingle Bells playing in the background.
I have just finished a film about the depletion of our oceans. It is frightening to see how people are affected, everywhere, when the fish disappear. How people both lose jobs and their source of protein. But how overfishing has affected the ecosystem, in the ocean, can be a far more serious consequence – long-term.
I grew up by the sea and spend every summer in the archipelago. For me, catching fish is natural, on a hook or in a net. Although I like the fight during the drill, I have always fished for food. But I have never thought about what the fish feels or by what right I fish for my own pleasure. Until a year ago
World leaders seem to have too much imagination when it comes to the effects of the climate crisis
The Deep Sea Reporter comes to You in the Time of the Apocalypse. Reports of the threats to humanity follow each other
One third of all fish caught is thrown overboard or rots before it reaches the consumer - one in three fish is killed unnecessarily
