Hey everyone. I hope everything is going well with you all. Operation Kibou has been going on for a little while now and so far, I think it has been pretty successful. There is a respectable number of people who seem to be reading this blog on a regular basis which I am extremely happy about. So far this operation has consisted of 9 blogs. 3 of which focused on sharks, 2 focused on the issue of whaling, 3 focused on dolphins, and one was split between dolphins and sharks. Those blogs can all be easily viewed by using the little sidebar on the right hand side of your page (if you are on a computer, I don't know if it's the same for mobile devices). Also, the Facebook group that I was hoping to get up and running is up. It is not quite finished yet, but it is there and I have started posting some news articles and whatnot. Feel free to join the group here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/678989278795747/. I'm hoping that the group will eventually be a good place for people who read this blog or have an interest in conserving marine life to get together, chat, and discuss real world issues regarding ocean conservation.
Now then... Where is the rest of this campaign going? I am going to continue to focus on dolphins, whales, and sharks. After some serious thought I have decided to add orcas into the dolphin category. Normally I would just focus on the smaller dolphins, but I figure there is no harm in discussing the larger ones, especially when there is a bit of a lull in shark news. When talking about orcas though, I will not be discussing the film Blackfish. I will be discussing what is going on with wild orcas and wild orcas alone. This does include them being taken out of the wild, but will not focus on ones already in captivity. For my views on that, please read my blog on Blackfish. Not going to sit here and beat a dead horse sort to speak. As was the plan at the launch of the campaign, once Sea Shepherd's Antarctic Whale Campaign kicks off, expect to see an influx of whale blogs as I follow their mission.
Now for a quick manta ray story that recently came out that I found to be really interesting. I figured I'd share it with you guys cause well, even though mantas are not at the forefront of this campaign, I did say at the start that if something happened with them I'd discuss it! News has come out over the last few days that back in 2012, a research trip that comprised of several organizations had discovered a hybrid species of manta ray! This is a very, very interesting find for a couple reasons. Until recently, scientists believed that there was just one species of manta ray. Recently they split the species into two, the giant manta and the reef manta ray. In the Red Sea, both of these species of manta ray exist. Interestingly enough scientists thought that these two species kept their distance from each other by utilizing different areas of their habitat. There are other areas of the world where these two species also seem to coexist, so it will be interesting to see if more hybrid mantas start to show up.
