Written by Claire Lacey . If you’ve never come across it, the idea of “Plastic Free July” originated in Western Australia in 2011 as an initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation. It was created as a challenge encouraging individuals to reduce the use of plastics during the month of July. This year participants can sign up and pledge to either avoid single-use plastic packaging, try and reduce their use of takeaway items (plastic bottles, take-away cups and so on), or go compl

Written by Martin van Aswegen Following disrupted fieldwork in 2020, this year was a great opportunity for MMRP PhD student Martin van Aswegen and Director Dr. Lars Bejder to make up for lost time and data. Representing our third consecutive year of data collection on humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) body condition across Hawaii and Alaska, 2021 was shaping up to be an important year for the project. The humpback whale energetics project aims to quantify the ene

Written by Fabien Vivier . Did you know that three species of monk seals have been identified in the world? The three species arthe Mediterranean monk seal ( Monachus monachus ); the Hawaiian monk seal ( Neomonachus schauinslandi ); and the Caribbean monk seal ( Neomonachus tropicalis ), unfortunately extinct since the middle of the 20th century. With only ~700 Mediterranean monk seals and ~1400 Hawaiian monk seals left in the world, both species, listed as Endangered in th