Op-Eds & Blogs

(December 29, 2018)   -   Iconic species and less charismatic ones are over-harvested and illegally traded. The exponential growth of wildlife trade (both legal and illegal), when combined with climate change impacts, has intensified the pressures on the rich natural heritage of Indonesia. As a result, the nation has experienced growing challenges in managing terrestrial and marine wildlife.

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(November 15, 2018)   -   Sharks and their cartilaginous relatives are one of the oldest and most diverse species groups in the world. There are more than 1,000 described species, ranging from the tiny deep-water dwarf lanternshark, to the world’s biggest fish, the whale shark.

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(July 28, 2018)   -   We frequently hear, in scientific publications and emotive news articles, about the dire state of the world’s shark populations. And rightly so. With an estimated 100 million individuals killed in targeted and by-catch fisheries every year and one quarter of all known species threatened with extinction, sharks and their relatives (Class Chondrichthyes) are one of the world’s most imperilled species groups.

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(July 26, 2018)   -   This Shark Week, take a moment to consider the manta ray. This much-loved gentle giant of the shark and ray (elasmobranch) family is a large, slow-growing and long-lived species, which makes it particularly vulnerable to overfishing.

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(February 26, 2018)   -   Indonesia is a megadiversity country, but even by its exceptionally high levels of biodiversity, Sulawesi stands out for its bewilderingly rich, charismatic and, at times, quirky species. The island, whose shape resembles a hyper-extended letter K, is the 11th largest in the world.

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(September 30, 2014)   -   Writing this from a hotel room in Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya, I realize that I am filled with trepidation as I wait for the phone next to me to ring.  When it does, the voice on the other end will tell me it’s go time; the culmination of many years of work towards ending the global trade in manta ray gills.

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