Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Sea Life Aquarium Melbourne’s nine-month-old king penguin eats 25 to 32 fish a day and outweighs both foster parents combined Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Pesto the penguin has broken the internet – and the scales – but its fans only have a few weeks left to see the chick at its heaviest. The king penguin, which is less than 9 months old and weighs 22.5kg, is the largest chick the Sea Life aquarium in Melbourne has ever seen. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

I killed a great white when I was 18 to feed my family in Madagascar. But now I’m documenting the threat to these beautiful creatures from overfishing The first time I came face to face with a great white shark, it was dead. I had caught it in my net. And I was so happy. I thought: I can bring a fortune back to my village. I can feed my family. I’m Malagasy – I come from Andavadoaka, a small fishing village on the south-west coast of Madagascar. It is a very dry place where no crops can grow. The name of my tribe, Vezo, means people who live off the ocean, but also people who survive it. Because we rely on it. I became a shark fisher when I was 16 years old. I dropped out of school because my parents couldn’t afford to support me any more, and followed my uncle into fishing so I could bring some money back to my family. I didn’t see a shark as a magnificent creature. My mindset was: make money, kill, make money, kill. Support my family. Continue reading...

From flooding to drought, extreme weather is devastating our communities. It is time for the world’s heaviest emitters to help mitigate the impacts of climatic breakdown on the countries most affected Millions of people in my country, Malawi, face unprecedented existential crises driven by climate breakdown. The frequency of extreme weather events and the massive impact they have on communities have left government officials like me with a huge dilemma of how to act fast enough to save lives. In the past three years, we have gone from facing the worst flooding in recent times to the most severe drought in a decade. The impact has been devastating to communities across the country. When Cyclone Freddy hit us in March 2023, it killed more than 600 people. The cyclone injured many more, tore families apart, destroyed livelihoods, and the long-term effects from diseases were even worse. A little over a year later, we were in the middle of a raging drought, which the president, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, declared a national disaster in March. Millions of people are facing acute food insecurity, leading to malnutrition and health issues that are putting lives at risk, not least for people on long-term treatment for conditions such as tuberculosis and HIV. Continue reading...

Ombudsman concerned about overzealous fining of people for leaving items outside their home to be given away Local authorities in England will be issued with fresh guidance on how to handle “middle-class fly-tipping” after councils were found to have taken an overzealous approach to fining people who leave items outside their home for neighbours to collect for free. The local government and social care ombudsman (LGO) said she was concerned about an increasing number of incidents over recent months where councils had acted disproportionately. Continue reading...