spencer roberts 🦈

Sign the Petition End Shark Fishing and Blood Baiting Practices in Marco Island

www.change.org/p/end-shark-...

Following our success in Miami Beach, Fish Defender is launching a campaign to ban shark fishing on Marco Island, where fishermen have made a mockery of shark protection laws and gotten away with it for years.

Please sign the petition in thread & send an email to city_council@cityofmarcoisland.com.

This is not a new result either, it’s a follow-up study but the headline is the same.

Land based #shark #fishing is banned in Miami Beach! Join me Thursday night for an interview with @unpopularscience.bsky.social to learn how he and his nonprofit Fish Defender helped make it possible!

www.twitch.tv/sharkg33k

‘Not all ultra-processed foods are the same’ — what next for the food industry? Two books offer refreshing arguments in favour of industrial innovations and appetising alternatives to meat — without the unpalatable moralising

"[Feed the People! and Meat] bring a passion to the affluent society’s intractable modern dilemma of what to eat. As Rosenberg and Dutkiewicz say, it is a dilemma probably most effectively addressed without preaching." A wonderful review in @financialtimes.com.

www.ft.com/content/403a...

Everyone is aware of the progress narrative, it was promoted in the NYT.

The only insult in this matter is this sloppy response paper.

The litany of financial conflicts of interest with industry institutions damages the credibility of this research and their influence on its framing is apparent.

No original analysis, not a word about “byproduct” markets incentivizing bycatch, ignoring our generous reduction efficiency calculations, & misrepresenting our methods & findings, the most egregious example being this graph. We gave you an entire table & figure to make this comparison accurately.

I hate when they put wetlands and natural vegetation in the graph like it’s water extraction.

This is why I can’t stand when other scientists try to take the “work with fishermen”/“local ecological knowledge” social science frameworks designed for impoverished communities who fish to survive and apply them to white people.

Conservation has enemies. Call them out.

Fishermen are posting revenge killings of sharks on social media to retaliate against our ban on shark fishing in Miami Beach.

Miss me with the sustainable fishing coexistence bullshit.

Animal-welfare models fail to account for fish’s need for oxygen | Sea Around Us A new essay argues that current animal welfare science and policy frameworks overlook a fundamental aspect of the lives of fish.

Fish welfare isn’t just about space or food—it’s about oxygen. A new essay urges a rethink of animal-welfare models 🐟💧
bit.ly/essayoxygen

VICTORY: Shark fishing banned on Miami Beach - fishdefender.org PRESS RELEASE: February 6, 2026 CONTACT: Spencer Roberts(719)-291-2298 info@fishdefender.org VICTORY: Shark fishing banned on Miami Beach Yesterday, the Miami Beach city commission voted unanimously t...

Find more details in our press release:

fishdefender.org/news/miami-b...

VICTORY:

SHARK FISHING BANNED ON MIAMI BEACH!!! 🦈🦈🦈

This makes it the biggest city in the US to ban land-based shark fishing gear — and it won’t be the last, we are just getting started.

If you want to protect your local beach, check out our toolkit.
#MarineLife
fishdefender.org/LBSFtoolkit

It cannot be sufficiently stressed that this is exactly what they are trained to do.

They are explicitly taught to immediately draw and fire upon suspicion of a gun and continue to shoot until their victim is dead.

One of the world’s top police trainers:

slate.com/news-and-pol...

Yep. We should steal her.

The massive and elusive orange filefish exhibiting cryptic behavior:

-camouflage display
-vertical posture
-chest flare

incredibly strange and cool animal

#Fishwatching #MarineLife

I don’t typically share this type of ‘animal passes benchmark of intelligence’ stuff because it’s an evolutionary fallacy to use the human intellect as a standard of cognitive capacity, but sometimes a video just speaks for itself and also how fucking cute is this

come on

paulhiltonphoto Last week I spent several days in Victoria documenting the aftermath of the fires. What I witnessed was not only devastation, but silence. Victoria has just suffered some of its worst bushfires since the Black Summer of 2019-20. More than 400,000 hectares are estimated to have burned so far. An area over five times the size of Singapore. Entire landscapes have been reduced to ash. For the wildlife that survived the flames, the suffering is far from over. I travelled to the region as a conservationist photojournalist hoping to document the aftermath for my ongoing work of documenting our relationship with our native forests and to help raise funds for animal shelters, Instead, I was ordered to leave. When I attempted to photograph a dead koala one of countless animals killed by the fires officials from the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) arrived and told us to leave immediately. "It was basically a press blackout," I later said…

I was told there had been multiple complaints about me. The officer pulled me over aggressively, demanded my licence, and stood with his hand on his gun. I felt like a criminal for documenting the consequences of a natural disaster. Once again, I was warned not to take photos or video and urged to leave the area. What disturbed me most was not being silenced, it was what that silence was hiding. Wildlife rescuers were being turned away. Injured animals were being left without help. In a country that prides itself on conservation, animals were suffering and dying out of sight, with no accountability and no public record. "They're letting our wildlife die for no reason," ! said. "Why are they stopping wildlife rescuers from saving animals that are suffering?" Fires are not just a moment of destruction they are the beginning of a long, brutal aftermath for wildlife. Without transparency, documentation, and public scrutiny, that suffering continues unseen. And that, perhaps, is the most confronting truth of all.

The Victorian Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action prevented not just photographers, but also wildlife rescuers from accessing the burn sites.

Why?

koala burned to death

aerial view of brush fire

aerial view of burned Eucalyptus forest

injured kangaroo drags herself across the ash

The government tried to censor these photos.

Wildfires have ripped across the Australian state of Victoria, amid record drought and heatwaves.

Renowned wildlife photographer Paul Hilton went to document the aftermath. State troopers accosted and ejected him.

His statement below. ⬇️

I am aware of the well-financed campaign to deny the association between saturated fat and heart disease.

A damning investigation into ranching on public lands in the US West: huge & growing subsidies, with much going to some of the richest Americans, like Rupert Murdoch; lax rules currently being further weakened; widespread environmental harm - but an industry protected by friends in high places.

RFK Jr’s New Food Pyramid Is Industry-Approved The report behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s updated dietary guidelines didn’t eliminate food and pharmaceutical industry influence over Health and Human Services decisions. It did the exact opposite.

I just read their piece in Jacobin the other day. Glad to see some sound takes because people seem completely baffled by this milk thing. It’s like they don’t recognize advertising or connect it to corporate lobbying when it involves animal products.

jacobin.com/2026/01/rfk-...

Dairy Council clearly paid their way to the top of the food guidelines and is now rewriting school lunch. It’s their biggest market.

Whole milk cuts out huge production costs associated with centrifugal milk fat separation. It has 50X more fat than 2% — another example of stupidity of UPF hysteria.

It was always a whole milk campaign.

RFK publicly announced promoting whole milk in the new dietary guidelines in *July*.

They are reintroducing whole milk to the school lunch program, which forces a milk carton into every child’s meal.

Food is political, people!

The Amazon’s Best Shield is Cracking: Why the Soy Moratorium Must Be Defended - Greenpeace International 2026 has got off to a terrible start for the Amazon rainforest: the industry group representing the largest soybean traders in Brazil, announced plans to withdraw from the Amazon Soy Moratorium.

The world’s single most successful zero-deforestation policy is hanging by a thread.

The Amazon’s best shield is cracking: Why the Soy Moratorium must be defended www.greenpeace.org/internationa...

🙏🙏🙏

I wouldn’t say that. It definitely has tradeoffs, but tourism is basically the number one method to stop fishing, development, etc.

I don’t hesitate to call out harmful tourism, but I often feel like we misplace priorities by focusing on it so much.

Anyone else:

Send an email to the Florida House sponsor Lindsay Cross:
lindsay@lindsaycrossfl.com

Or leave a comment on our instagram post, where all the sponsors are tagged and will be notified:
www.instagram.com/p/DTkseeJFflk/

Thanks for your speaking up! Let’s take this across the finish line!

Close the MANTA Act loopholes: End the aquarium trade for Florida megafauna Last summer, millions watched an endangered manta pulled from Florida waters to be sold into captivity in SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, sparking outcry across the state and around the world. The MANTA Act propo...

Fortunately, the version introduced to the FL Senate ties the bill to the IUCN Redlist, which is more objective and less political.

How you can help:

Florida residents: Use our letter template:

actionnetwork.org/letters/close-the-manta-act-loopholes-end-the-aquarium-trade-for-florida-megafauna

The details are a bit wonky, but basically they’re trying to tie the protections to the Endangered Species Act, which wouldn’t affect 99% of shark & ray capture permits. Marine fish don’t get a fair shot at listing.

Here’s our press release with a full explanation:

fishdefender.org/news-mantaact/