Marine Campaigners Make Waves at Island School

Martínez Tagüeña, Damián

Students from the middle years heard from two distinguished speakers on the issue of the destruction of the world’s oceans, on 12 June 2017

Martínez Tagüeña, Damián, the Consul General of Mexico talked about the rare Vaquita porpoise, only found in the Gulf of Mexico. The Vaquita is the most endangered marine mammal in the world and is being killed as an unwanted by-catch of the illegal Totoaba trade driven by the Chinese market for its swim bladder, also known as fish maw.

Students also heard from Dr George Woodman who is campaigning for an end to fish bombing, a destructive fishing practice in which typically homemade bombs are dropped into the ocean or onto the seabed. Fish from this highly illegal practice mixed with legally caught fish can end up in our supermarkets and restaurants.

These two speakers where invited to Island School to encourage students to start thinking about what action and campaign they would like to undertake as part of their Global Perspectives IGCSE course.

To find out more about these two issues please visit www.vaquitacpr.org and www.stopfishbombing.org.