Maritime traffic hits rock bottom –n°2
Here we are for the Morning Midas, 5,000 metres below sea level, 830 km from Adak Island, one of the 302 Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Morning Midas, which had been on fire since June 3, was operated by the London-based company Zodiac Maritime. The wreck contains 3,048 vehicles, including 70 electric and 681 hybrid, 350 tonnes of diesel and 1,530 tonnes of fuel oil, plus fuel for combustion engine and hybrid cars.
“On the Trail” n°45, the defaunation bulletin
“On the Trail”, English version
“A la Trace”, French version
Quarterly information and analysis report on endangered animals poaching and smuggling
No. 45
1,022 events between April 1 and May 31, 2024
261 illustrations and 4 maps
809 sources, 172 pages, 6.6 MB
White flag on nuclear sites – 2
4:45 p.m
A few days after Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine, the NGO Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) was the first, or among the first, to stress the urgent need to impose the inviolability of nuclear sites in war zones that international diplomacy has been unable to prevent (1).
Peace for whales
The President of the French Republic will pay a formal visit to Greenland on Sunday June 15, 2025, more than a year after the inauguration of the European Union office in Nuuk by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission. He will hold talks with the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Prime Minister of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Maritime traffic hits rock bottom
On May 25, 2025, the dilapidated container ship MSC Elsa 3, which was certified as suitable for sea transport by the French group Veritas, sunk south of Kochi, State of Kerala, India. Fifteen days later, a white tide of plastic pellets is invading ports and beaches. Twenty-five kilogram (plastic) bags of pellets wash up on the shore as well. Fishing is banned in a large area. This means desolation for the coastline and thousands of fishermen who live there. The government of the Indian Union is trying to reassure them. Currently 100 meters below sea-level, the wreck of the Elsa 3 should be raised from the seafloor to recover all of the containers in her hold. All the containers that were on the bridge are already adrift. Initial findings suggest that a malfunction in the ballast water tank filling system caused the sudden and uncontrollable list.
Vultures: the other pet peeve
A preview of the “On the Trail” bulletin
European Union
Vultures are on their way to becoming as abhorred by agricultural France as wolves. Local press titles are unleashed, boosted by testimonials of farmers who claim to have seen (or almost seen) 50, 100, 200 vultures or more dive down on a newborn calf and his mother and eat both of them as easily as the average person would eat a hamburger.
