#China
Major Wildlife Trafficking Busts In Hong Kong and Uganda

Major Wildlife Trafficking Busts In Hong Kong and Uganda

CNN reported last Friday that Hong Kong customs agents had taken into custody $8 million dollars worth of smuggled endangered species parts, including the largest single cache of pangolin scales.  This was one of the largest wildlife trafficking busts ever in Hong Kong, a gateway for smugglers to bring illegal good into China.  In a raid, authorities seized 8,300 kilograms (18,300 pounds) of suspected pangolin scales and 2,100 kilograms (4,600 pounds) of suspected ivory tusks from a 40-foot container ship that was supposed to be transporting frozen beef from Nigeria.

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Deep Blue shark doo doo doo doo doo doo

Deep Blue shark doo doo doo doo doo doo

While in the U.S. 12 states have so far banned the sale of shark fins (while 5 federal bills have died in the House and Senate in the past 2 years), according to the Animal Welfare Institute, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit that updates its list of restaurants that serve shark fin soup and notifies the relevant state enforcement agencies– the bans haven’t stopped restaurants in at least 10 of the 12 states. Then in a bit of happy shark news, USA Today reported that a strikingly massive great white shark, one of the largest ever documented, was spotted by divers in Hawaii on Sunday as the apex predator feasted on a sperm whale carcass. The sighting of “Deep Blue” off Oahu was remarkable because the handful of previous sightings were documented 2,600 miles away at Guadalupe Island off Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.

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Exploring Strange Worlds, Going Where No Craft Has Gone Before

Exploring Strange Worlds, Going Where No Craft Has Gone Before

The holiday break proved to be a big one for space exploration as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reached the outer edges of our universe and China’s Chang’e-4 rover landed on the far side of the moon, launching China’s space program into a new era of exploration

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