How sustainable dive tourism can protect sharks
Protecting sharks through diving tourism sounds paradoxical at first. But it is a sustainable solution that can make a significant contribution to shark conservation. Dive into the world of sustainable shark tourism together with freediver and marine biologist Lennart Voßgätter.
Aquariums and zoos – places of pseudo-knowledge?
Who doesn’t like going to the zoo or tropical aquarium? Is it true that zoos contribute to species conservation and that animals live longer in zoos than in the wild? Let’s take a close look at what we really support and learn during a visit.
Dolly Ropes – Material protection instead of environmental protection?
If you like to spend time along Germany’s North Sea coast, you will likely be well acquainted with weather, wind and waves. You’ll also be familiar with another sight: Small threads of plastic, mostly orange or blue, that have been washed ashore. These are so-called “dolly ropes”. They are used to protect fishing nets, but they endanger the environment. What can we do about it?
10 sustainable gift ideas for Christmas to protect our oceans
Christmas is getting closer and closer! Since it is a well-known fact that giving presents to others makes you even happier than receiving them, we have collected gift inspirations for you. These small gifts create long-lasting joy and at the same time contribute to marine conservation.
Homosexuality among marine animals – Queer life underwater
Homosexual marine animals? Exactly! Aristotle reported about homosexual couples in the animal kingdom as early as 2300 years ago, and until today, homosexual behavior has been observed in about 1500 animal species. To celebrate Pride Month in June, we further researched the topic of homosexuality in marine animals.
Ocean acidification and its consequences
The oceans cover ⅔ of our planet – they are so vast that they seem invulnerable. But through our work we know that they struggle with many problems, for instance ocean acidification. In this article, we tell you what this is and what it means for our oceans.
Enaleia: The First Sustainable Fishing School in Greece – Interview with Lefteris Arapakis
Sustainable Fishing? This topic is very controversial and widely discussed, especially after the documentary „Seaspiracy“. Enaleia is the first school for professional and sustainable fishing in Greece. They offer jobs to unemployed young people and teach them about sustainable fisheries and fishing tourism.
Underwater Noise – Invisible Ocean Pollution
Ocean noise pollution comes from human activity like commercial shipping, seismic surveys, oil exploration, and military sonar. All of these noises cause serious threats to marine life. Learn more about underwater noise!
Beyond Turning Off the Lights: 5 Ways to Live Sustainably Everyday
You’ll find hundreds of articles, TV commercials, and documentaries that ask you to cut out everything that is not sustainable, but even doing some of these steps is beneficial. Helping save our fragile ecosystem is not an all-or-nothing pursuit — you can cut out some meat without needing to be 100% vegan.
The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier – Interview with Ian Urbina
Two-thirds of our world’s oceans fall outside any country’s jurisdiction: the High Seas. For his investigations of crime and abuse in this area of lawlessness, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist and author Ian Urbina travelled across the seas from the Southern Ocean to Somalia, resulting in five long years of dangerous endeavours. His book “The Outlaw Ocean” is a collection of stories from his investigations, personal experiences and interviews with people involved.
As Bracenet is endlessly working to protect the oceans from ghost nets and all of these problems at the High Seas are interconnected, we were eager to learn more. We were lucky to have the chance to talk with Ian Urbina.
Veganuary: Start 2021 with a vegan diet
New Year’s resolutions: First we love them, then we hate them! Many people view the new year as a time for new beginnings and intend to start it as healthily as possible. A conscious diet and a reduction in meat consumption are popular resolutions. However, far too often they fall to the back of the […]
Social Sustainability needs Gender Equality
Team Bracenet – that’s who we are. Steadily growing since 2016, we are now 34 people. Consisting of 29 women and 5 men. Our founding team has also a good women’s quota with 50% – unfortunately, that’s not the typical case. In 2018, ⅔ of all founders were male. In 2019, this trend declined slightly […]
Sustainable Christmas: 24 Gift Ideas
Outside it is getting colder and inside it is getting more and more cosy. Punch, gingerbread & co. find their way back into our shopping baskets and Last Christmas does surprisingly not sound as annoying as last year. What does that mean? Right, Christmas is just around the corner! Like every year, this pre-Christmas season […]
Black Friday? We celebrate Circular Monday!
Every year on Black Friday, shops entice with discounts to spur your purchases. Yet, we witness the consequences of mass consumption daily in the news: the impacts of the climate crisis, exploitation of labor, the plastic flood in our oceans. The Circular Monday counters this by shifting the focus to borrowing, repairing, and upcycling. Learn more!
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Imagine the size of France – the largest country in Western Europe – and triple it. No, this is not the size of the Sahara or the Caribbean, but the estimated size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is a huge trash swirl full of plastic in the North Pacific, which consists largely of […]
We are taking away from our future: Earth Overshoot Day 2020
The global Overshoot Day 2020 falls on August 22nd. Alarming? Yes – but the situation is even more dramatic in Germany, as our country Overshoot Day was already on May 3rd! It’s just that hardly anybody noticed it, since there were no activities on the day due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But what is Overshoot Day anyway?
Sharks – the guardians of our oceans are in danger
Sharks – they are the guardians of our oceans and at the top of the food chain at sea. They are vital to our ocean ecosystems but they are in danger. That’s why we partnered up with Shark Allies to protect sharks!
9 fish labels at a glance: Are they trustworthy?
Recently, we showed you why all our Bracenets look so different and explained the many types of fishing nets and fishing methods. This has left a few questions unanswered, which we now want to address: Can fishing be sustainable at all and are the various sustainability certification schemes credible?
4 Reasons why a Bracenet is better than no Bracenet
Have you been thinking about buying a (or another) Bracenet for a while? We too thoroughly consider everything before we buy a product, as we want to be confident about our decisions. Sustainability is not always straightforward and it is definitely worth asking questions.
9 reasons why bioplastics are not a sustainable alternative
Überall wird sogenanntes “Bioplastik” als die umweltfreundliche Alternative zu Plastik beworben. Doch stellt Bioplastik wirklich eine nachhaltige Alternative zu herkömmlichem Kunststoff dar? Wir haben uns das Ganze mal genauer angesehen.
Plastic Free July: 31 tips on how to avoid plastic
It’s Plastic Free July! But you aren’t sure how you can (further) reduce your plastic consumption? We’ll help you with 31 tips on how to say “no” to plastic and develop a positive mindset at the same time. Let’s sea! Why Plastic Free July? It is currently assumed that the amount of plastic waste in […]
THE 101 OF FISHING NETS
When you browse through our shop, you will quickly notice that our products all look different: They come in varying colours, are thicker or thinner and sometimes have one, two, or even three knots. We are often asked whether we can offer additional colours, too. The answer – it depends! In this article we will explain you more about this.
Sustainability: nobody is perfect
Once you step into the “eco-bubble”, you will soon be confronted with this sort of “eco-perfectionism”. But be assured: you don’t have to do everything at once to change something!
Recycling and Upcycling: An overview
Our products such as Bracenets, dog leashes and keychains are completely new – and yet they are made of used material. How does that fit together? The answer is simple: we upcycle recovered ghost nets that were originally intended for many years of fishing in harsh environments and are thus still suitable for daily use. In this article, we will take a closer look at upcycling, what the differences are to recycling, and why we choose to upcycle.
7 OCEAN DOCUMENTARIES YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY WATCH
In this article, we introduce you to 7 great documentaries about our oceans. We assure you: after watching these films, you will look at the world with different eyes.
5 Facts you should know about Ghost Nets
Our products like the Bracenets and dog leashes are made out of ghost nets, as you have probably noticed. But what are ghost nets, why are they a problem and why do we use them to create new products? In this article, we will answer these questions in five points.