These days its rare to find humans living far from other animals, even those that spend a large portion of their lives in the sea.  Sometimes, like with the Galapagos sea lions on San Cristobal island, they are very close neighbours.

Surely if a species becomes too rare, it will eventually become uneconomical to hunt - even if they are worth a lot of money....so exploitation will stop?  Not so!

So my lovely readers living out in the USA, just how much of the marine ecosystem in your state waters is afforded strong protection? Probably not that much.

A number of wealthy folk are ploughing some of their money into scientific research.

Cuteness is part of the reason why the public got behind the campaign for 'dolphin friendly tuna' back in the 80's and 90's.

The Ocean Health Index has been broadened to take into account social and ecological pressures that reduce biodiversity – including looking at the social and governance factors.

So you know when you're tucking into something tasty in a sushi bar and you turn to your friend and say "I wonder what this actually is....is it even sustainable?".

36 sunken vessels are deemed to be a potential threat of oil along the coast of the USA, with 17 being recommended for further assessment and potential removal of both fuel oil and oil cargo.

Putting all our (fisheries) eggs in (the bottom of) one basket isn't necessarily the wisest choice.