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“I’d always liked rays, but it wasn’t until my first time scuba diving that I really fell in love with them,” Bluedot contributor Teresa Bergen says. “A swimming ray is one of the most graceful creatures, and they didn’t seem to mind me skimming along in tandem above.” She’s not alone; most divers she knows love both rays and sharks. But the general public? Not so much — and as one-third of shark and ray species face increased risk of extinction, they don’t have as many advocates as they need. That’s why the Professional Association of Diving Instructors recently launched a course for scuba divers focusing on the conservation of sharks and rays, as well as a global census to help document shark and ray populations. Teresa took the course and reported back to us about what she learned — like, for instance, that there’s a type of shark that can live up to 400 years. Read on. 

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“Conservation is a discipline with a deadline.” 

– E.O. Wilson, naturalist and environmentalist

• Can People and Seals Learn to Coexist Happily?

• Swimming With Sharks, Sustainably

• What Else Goes Missing When Appalachian Brook Trout Vanish

• What’s So Bad About Zoos?

• Climate Quick Tip: Help the Monarchs Reign

• Recipe: Honey-Brûléed Brie

• Saving Wild Parrots in Belize

• Podcast: How to Make Kids’ Clothes Last

• Daily Dot: Green Sea Turtles Are Thriving

• What You Can Do: Purchase Sustainable Souvenirs

• Create a Monarch Waystation

FEATURED STORIES

BIG IDEAS AND LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS

Bluedot Kitchen

Nikki Buxton never set out to save birds. She stumbled into it soon after she moved to Belize, in 2004, when a young boy thrust a plastic bucket with two featherless baby parrots at her. They’d fallen out of a nest, he said, and though she knew nothing about rehabilitating birds, she was determined to help. Over the next few months, through trial and error, she did just that, and the parrots were eventually released back into the wild. Word of her success spread, and soon, people were showing up at her door with parrots, and in 2006, she established the Belize Bird Rescue. Today, Nikki’s home and the surrounding property are devoted to the rescue, which includes six parrot aviaries, a veterinary clinic, and raptor nurseries. The survival rate of birds at her facility is 97%, and 70% of the birds she’s taken in and rehabilitated have been successfully released. She’s also spearheaded efforts to crack down on wildlife trafficking, a major issue in Belize. Read on.

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Illustration by Elissa Turnbull

In a recent Feel-Good Friday, Dot shared this incredible jaw-dropping Feel-Good news for green sea turtles: “For more than 40 years, the green sea turtle appeared on the IUCN Red List as Endangered,” reports the UK sustainable menswear company Rolf Skeldon. “In October 2025, the IUCN formally reclassified the green sea turtle as Least Concern. It did not move one category. It did not inch forward gradually. It skipped two classifications entirely, jumping straight from Endangered to Least Concern without pausing at Vulnerable or Near Threatened. In the history of the Red List, that kind of movement is rare. It represents one of the most significant conservation recoveries ever recorded.” You won’t want to miss this account of how it happened.

What You Can Do: Buy Sustainable Souvenirs

Plenty of what’s on offer in souvenir shops around the world is actually made with materials harvested from endangered species, such as tortoiseshell, coral, or ivory. To ensure you’re not inadvertently participating in illegal (or unethical) trade, follow World Wildlife Fund’s advice on sustainable souvenirs.

Join a community creating real change, one everyday action at a time. Bluedot Living equips readers with practical resources, inspiring stories, and solutions that work — 98% say we have helped them make planet-positive changes. Become a member for as little as $5/month to support hopeful climate journalism and enjoy exclusive member benefits.

The Keep-This Handbook

With much of their habitat gone or disappearing, migrating monarch butterflies can use all the help we can offer. Bluedot’s gardening expert Laura McLean guides us on how to create a monarch waystation. 

A World of Vanishing Species

We were inspired to focus this week’s newsletter on the tireless work being done to protect endangered species following news that the Trump administration is working hard to remove protections. Though a federal court struck down Trump’s attempts in his first term (the Sierra Club reported that “the ruling reaffirms that federal agencies must use the best available science when assessing harm to species, they cannot ignore incremental harm to critical habitat, and the agencies must firmly commit to any measures relied upon to reduce harm to imperiled plants and animals”), his administration is back at it. This time, they're creating new regulations that, as the Sierra Club again reports, end “the practice of automatically extending key ESA [Endangered Species Act] protections from killing, injury, and harassment to newly listed ‘threatened’ species.” 

What’s more, they say, “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service repealed their regulatory definitions of ‘harm’ under the Endangered Species Act, paving the way for the modification or degradation of habitat by extractive industries, even if doing so kills or injures imperiled wildlife.” 

The Endangered Species Act, enacted in 1973, is bedrock legislation, and any weakening of it immediately threatens such species as grizzlies, manatees, and salmon, the Sierra Club says. Which is why they, along with a number of other conservation groups, are suing the government to protect wildlife. It’s hard to believe that protecting endangered species is controversial. Surely we can acknowledge that we all benefit from a healthy, robust ecosystem. Alas, it seems that not all of us recognize that.

If you want to help, contribute to your favorite conservation group (we love the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and Center for Biological Diversity, among others), contact your reps, and let friends and family know what’s happening so we can all push back.

Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you next week.

– Jamie Kageleiry, Leslie Garrett, Emily Cain, and Robin Jones

Editors

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

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