If the word of 2020 was ‘unprecedented’, and here we are in Lockdown again, does that mean the word of 2021 is precedented? Still, I’d rather be here than anywhere else, and that was the case before Covid 19. It sure is the case after it. But it’s not just Covid 19 that’s on my mind this week. Because I get a sense of déjà vu and business as usual when it comes to – well, business as usual, at the edge, and the end, of the world.
Climate change bites, we’re in a mass extinction event, the pandemic changes the way the world works but the maxim of capitalism to socialise costs and privatise profits continues to hold true. We’re in the stage of the macroeconomic cycle where state intervention follows, sustains and mitigates the effects of neoliberalism.
New Zealand to use AI-enabled drones to track endangered dolphins
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SunLive - Drone project to aid protection of Maui dolphin
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Another serious threat is the disease toxoplasmosis, spread through cat faeces and washed into the ocean. MĀUI63 believes that by identifying and locating individual dolphins, decisions can be made to protect them. Co-founder Dr Rochelle Constantine, who has been studying marine mammals for 25 years, says the dolphins are “our most urgent conservation problem”.
UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND
MÄui are the world s rarest and smallest dolphin. “We currently don’t have a robust understanding about Māui dolphin distribution, particularly during winter months and at different times of the day and night,” she said. “Of critical importance for conservation, we don’t know how often dolphins use some areas that fishers are operating in, which is where there could be remaining risk of entanglement.”