Aviation Fuel Production From Tomato Residues

 December 27, 2025  

By Eurasia Review

Waste from tomato processing will serve to power aircraft. Under the leadership of Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), the EU project ToFuel is developing a new biorefinery concept that will convert tomato residues into sustainable aviation fuel as well as into fertiliser, animal feed and nutritional oil. The research team is aiming for a waste-free and climate-neutral process that is also economically competitive and thus makes an important contribution to the defossilization of air transport.

Residual material as a valuable resource

Tomatoes are the second most consumed vegetable in the world after potatoes. The EU is the third largest producer with around 17 megatonnes of tomatoes harvested. However, tomato production produces large quantities of residual biomass – plant material such as flowers, leaves and stems, peel, seeds and tomatoes of inadequate quality. Most of these residues are incinerated as agricultural waste or disposed of at high cost. At the same time, the goal of European climate neutrality and the associated reduction of CO₂ emissions in the aviation sector is largely dependent on the production of competitive and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) from renewable raw materials.

“According to estimates, around three per cent of the sustainable aviation fuels required in Europe by 2030 could be covered from the amount of tomato pomace produced throughout the EU, i.e. the residues from tomato processing,” explains project manager Marlene Kienberger from the Institute of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology at TU Graz.

From plant to oil to aviation fuel

In order to turn tomato waste into a high-quality fuel, the biomass must first be processed so that microorganisms can utilise it efficiently. ToFuel is investigating two modern fractionation technologies. During extrusion, the biomass is treated under heat and pressure and then broken down into its cellular components by an abrupt drop in pressure. This creates an optimally digested biomass for the subsequent fermentation process, in which microorganisms produce lipids that are later processed into aviation fuel. In the second fractionation technology, hydrothermal liquefaction, the biomass is converted into bio-oil and biochar under high pressure and at high temperatures. Before the extracted bio-oil can be refined into aviation fuel, it must be purified of mainly nitrogen-containing interfering ions. These unwanted ions would otherwise have a negative impact on the subsequent conversion into a sustainable aviation fuel. The corresponding fractionation, biotechnological and purification processes are being developed by the Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG) in Lisbon, TU Graz and the University of Zagreb in close cooperation.

The lipids and bio-oil are then converted into a fuel that fulfils the international quality standards for sustainable aviation fuel using the HEFA process at the University of Leoben. HEFA stands for “hydrogenated esters and fatty acids” and is a process for producing sustainable aviation fuel from vegetable, animal or recycled fats and oils. The processes developed in the project are gradually being scaled up to a pre-industrial scale and comprehensively tested. Consortium leader Marlene Kienberger emphasises: “Our clear goal is to produce sustainable aviation fuel based on tomato waste at a competitive sales price. Ultimately, sustainable aviation fuels simply have to be economically viable.” The project team is also analysing the ecological, economic and social impact of the technologies. The utilisation of tomato residues also creates new sources of income for food processing companies.

Strong European consortium

The official project start date for “ToFuel: An integrated biorefinery for sustainable aviation fuel production from tomato residues” is 1 January 2026. A total of eleven partners from seven European countries are working on ToFuel. In addition to TU Graz, these include the Portuguese research institute LNEG, the University of Zagreb, Vienna University of Technology, Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland, University of Leoben and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Industry partners Mutti and Podravka will provide tomato residues and contribute their many years of expertise in processing plant-based raw materials. The research will be accompanied by a comprehensive commercialisation and publication strategy, which will be developed by the project partners ESEIA and EEIP. At least six PhDs, twelve master’s and 15 bachelor’s students are to be trained as part of the project. The project budget amounts to 3.5 million euros over four years, one million of which will go to the consortium leader TU Graz.

 

Shortcut To Zaporizhzhya: Russian Forces Creep Across Drained Reservoir After Dam Breach – Analysis

Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine. Photo Credit: armyinform.com.ua

 December 27, 2025  

By RFE RL

By Yevhenia Nazarova

Before a massive dam on the Dnieper River burst in what Ukraine says was an act of sabotage by Russian forces, the Kakhovka Reservoir was big and broad and reached a depth of up 26 meters — a body of water so large that people living on its shores sometimes called it a “sea.”

The breach in June 2023, about 16 months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sent water levels plunging and drained much of the reservoir, which is part of the Dnieper and the front line in the war, exposing its bed in many areas and leaving it covered by shallow water in others.

Downstream from the ruined dam, the breach caused catastrophic flooding. Upstream, it abruptly exposed remnants of the past – a skull in a Nazi helmet, a boat believed to be 500 years old — and gave rise to a riot of vegetation in soil that had been underwater for decades or more.

Now, Ukraine’s military says, Russian forces are using the thickening natural cover – fast-growing trees, tangled bushes, and tall reeds – to try to advance into Ukrainian-held territory south of Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine’s sixth-largest city and the capital of one of five regions that Russian baselessly claims as its own.

Natural Cover

“In the area of the Prymorske settlement, the occupiers are trying to penetrate our flank through the former Kakhovka Reservoir, where there is lush vegetation and reeds several meters high,” Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces said in statement on November 6. It said Ukrainian troops were “destroying them.”

Prymorske is on the western shore of the former reservoir, about 30 kilometers southeast of the center of the city of Zaporizhzhya.

Two days earlier, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency, HUR, reported that special forces had “discovered and eliminated” an unspecified number of Russian troops near a group of former islands about 7 kilometers offshore. It said the clash took place in the “gray zone” — a term for areas whether the front line is blurred.

On the overgrown reservoir bed, discovering enemy movement can be difficult.

“Thickets and complex terrain on the bed, such as ravines and berms, provide natural cover, which complicates visual observation and the use of drones to monitor the entire territory. Russian troops are quite actively using landscape changes to conduct reconnaissance and sabotage operations,” said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Volunteer Army.

“Their tactics are primarily to use the bed to bypass positions. In the ‘gray zones,’ combat clashes and artillery shelling regularly occur on islands and in coastal areas, which have now become more accessible,” he said, adding that “both sides are actively mining drained areas, which creates additional dangers.”

Strategic Importance

Russian forces turned to the reservoir bed after failing to push toward Zaporizhzhya along a route further east, Oleh Tyahnybok, a battalion commander with Ukraine’s 128th Separate Heavy Mechanized Brigade, told RFE/RL in August. He was describing the situation near Kamyanske, which lies south of Prymorske at the edge of the reservoir and is held by Russian forces.

“For the [Russians], this area is important even strategically, because it’s the shortest route to Zaporizhzhya. They tried to get to Zaporizhzhya through Orekhiv — they did not succeed. Our troops stopped them,” Tyahnybok said. “Accordingly, they have accumulated a serious amount of forces in the Kamyanske direction and are now trying to break through.”

Russian forces “sometimes manage to crawl very effectively, imperceptibly, especially through the territory that was the Kakhovka reservoir, and now it has actually turned into impassable thickets,” he said.

While the thickening vegetation shields soldiers from the sight of opposing forces on the ground, “nothing can hide you from drones,” Vladyslav Voloshyn, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces, said in a video clip from November that showed him standing amid reeds that towered over him, with taller but sparsely leaved treetops above.

The burgeoning plant life can make for tough going for soldiers on either side, Mykhaylo Mulenko, acting head of the nature protection sector of the Khortytsia National Reserve, which is on a lush river island north of the reservoir, suggested.

“If you enter these thickets — willows, poplars — a person becomes very disoriented, because in fact the forest is very dense and it is very difficult to imagine the sides of the world,” he told RFE/RL. “And if you go deep into this vegetation, you lose track of where you are going, and it is very difficult to orient yourself.”

While statements from both Russian and Ukrainian authorities about battlefield developments are difficult to verify, Roman Pohoriliy, co-founder of DeepState, an open-source analyst group with ties to Ukraine’s military, suggested that Russian forces have made little headway on the reservoir bed.

“They are trying to crawl through but they’re not very successful,” Pohoriliy said, adding that the reservoir bed was “not their main route to Prymorske.”

“Accordingly, it is impossible to say that this section poses a huge threat. It is a normal section where they have tried and where they are trying, but they are not succeeding — they are advancing more through Plavni,” he added, referring to a settlement that lies between Prymorske and Kamyanske.

A Threat That ‘Exists Everywhere’

Still, similar dangers exist further southwest, according to Bratchuk.

“Potentially vulnerable are the riverside areas of the Kherson and Mykolayiv regions, where the [Dnieper] and its floodplains have also undergone significant changes. The possibility of hidden crossing of water arteries and the use of complex terrain increases the risks of enemy penetration into rear areas,” he said. “Ukrainian military units are constantly conducting sweeps of these ‘gray zones’ and islands to minimize such threats.”

Pohoriliy said the threat of Russian advances “exists everywhere, at any point” along the more than 1,000-kilometer front line, which stretches from the northeast through the Donbas and down to the Dnieper Delta in the Kherson region.

“It’s necessary to monitor this and react accordingly: to know that they can sneak through and prepare to repel them — or do nothing and fail to defend” the country, he said.

Russian forces hold a substantial part of the Zaporizhzhya region and have been trying to push westward and northward toward the regional capital, which is the target of frequent Russian air attacks. A guided bomb attack badly damaged residential buildings and injured at least 26 people in the city and nearby areas, regional authorities said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin groundlessly declared in September 2022 that Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson regions are Russian, and he has vowed that Russia will take the land it considers its own by force if it is unable to do so through diplomacy.

Adapted from the original Ukrainian article by Steve Gutterman.

• Yevhenia Nazarova is a freelance correspondent for RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service

RFE RL

RFE/RL journalists report the news in 21 countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.

California Sea Otters Face New Threats As An Ecosystem Shifts – Analysis

A raft of sea otters (Enhydra nereis) congregates off the back deck of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in kelp. CREDIT: Monterey Bay Aquarium / Tyson V. Rininger

December 27, 2025 
 Mongabay
By Christine Heinrichs

The sea otter pup was tiny, probably less than 2 weeks old, alone in Morro Bay on an October morning earlier this year. A kayaker scooped it out of the water after listening to it endlessly crying for its mother. It was in growing danger, starting to float out toward the mouth of the bay. Back onshore, the rescuer wrapped the pup in a cloth, nestled it in a box and called the Marine Mammal Center to report it.

A 10-person rescue team arrived, led by Shayla Zink, the center’s operations coordinator. They hoped to reunite this young pup with its mother: Raising a southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) pup is a long, difficult process.

The team quickly unwrapped the pup, as otter pups are at risk of over-heating. Morro Bay is cold, generally 15-18°C (59-64°F), so the team brought ice along in case they needed to cool the animal down.

“We kept a close eye on its temperature,” Zink said. “Pups may not have good thermoregulation. We could have dunked it to cool it down.”

They put the pup in an animal carrier and boarded a Harbor Patrol boat to begin their search. Along the way, Zink recorded the pup’s cries and then played the audio through a Bluetooth speaker. If its mother was nearby, she’d come looking for her baby. “The vocalization between each mother and pup is unique,” Zink said.

But the tape was also a way to let the baby rest. Orphaned or abandoned pups are super delicate, and crying uses up valuable energy, Zink said. “In these situations we don’t want to stress the pup.”

They worked their way around the bay. Occasionally an otter looked interested, but none was serious. “We were looking for typical signs; an otter frantic, vocalizing, approaching the boat,” Zink said.

After about two hours, they’d offered the pup’s cries to just about every otter in the bay. As the boat rounded a corner into the marina, an otter looked up and followed the vessel.

She approached the boat repeatedly, looking upset, but didn’t vocalize. She then followed them as they motored back into the cove. Zink took the pup out of the carrier, held it out to the prospective mother and placed the pup in the water. The female dove. Within seconds, she reemerged beside the pup, rolled over, placed it on her belly and began grooming it. She swam away with her baby clutched to her.

The team followed them for about an hour. The mother settled toward the mouth of the bay, where a raft of otters typically hangs out in the kelp, and then they left her to it. They named the pup Caterpillar.

This was a rare successful reunification for sea otters. “It was a huge win for the otters, for the population as well as the individuals,” Zink said. “They are a threatened species. Anything we can do to help the individual helps.”

All three otter subspecies are classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Perhaps 3,000 southern sea otters remain, and only 60% of otter pups survive until they’re weaned at six months. The otters are at risk from shark attacks, ecosystem changes that shift prey species, oil spills — and human disturbance.

A threatened species

Southern sea otters — also known as California sea otters — are among the smallest marine mammals and no one knows exactly how many remain.

Sea otters once flourished along the entire Pacific coast. When European hunters arrived in the 17thcentury, they found abundant populations — between 150,000 and 300,000 — from Oregon to Baja California. They hunted the otters for their lush fur, which has as many as a million hairs per square inch.

Populations were decimated. Only a few thousand otters remained, surviving in small pockets by the time hunting was outlawed in 1911.

The small population struggled along, and southern sea otters were listed as threatened in 1977 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and then protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act the next year. They remain vulnerable to environmental pollution and disruption.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted an otter recovery plan in 1982, which it updated in 2003. The population has hovered around 3,000 for the last decade, but reliable numbers are difficult to pin down. An updated census is due soon. Southern sea otters could be delisted if the average population exceeds 3,090 otters.

But some aspects of recovery are difficult, particularly rehabilitating injured sea otters, which requires specialized housing and care. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s otter program began in 1981, three years before the aquarium opened, with the only veterinarian with any knowledge of otter care on staff. Raising orphaned pups is a delicate process, involving so many issues that the aquarium began using surrogate otter mothers to nurture abandoned pups.

Initially, rehabilitated pups couldn’t be safely released back into the sea. Instead, they served to educate the staff and the public on exhibit. With the success of the surrogacy program, otter pups now are returned to the wild population. Rehabilitated pups now account for 55% of the otters in Elkhorn Slough, a coastal wetland area in Monterey Bay where the pups are released.

Otter range and population

Otters now inhabit about 13% of their original territory, living along the central California coastline from San Mateo county to Santa Barbara county and in the waters surrounding San Nicolas Island in Ventura county. Expanding their range could be the next step toward increasing the population.

However, southern sea otters have steadily declined from 2016’s high of 3,272 to 2,962 in 2019.

The most recent estimates relied on a three-year average, but that produced a minimum count — not a true estimate. Yearly surveys require consistent methods from year to year to produce reliable numbers, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) biologist Joe Tomoleoni wrote in an email.

Due to a series of unfortunate events, the USGS hasn’t produced a new assessment in six years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, staff couldn’t share an enclosed cockpit for aerial surveys; then the plane was no longer available and mudslides in Big Sur made the beach inaccessible. As of publication, 2024 numbers haven’t been released.

USGS is now building a statistical model that can be used going forward, developed with ecologists using numbers from recent partial surveys and data from as far back as the 1980s.

Mike Harris, a sea otter biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), said that despite the dearth of data, “We aren’t flying blind here. We are still keeping a pretty good watch on what’s going on.” He noted that they are “recovering every stranded otter and monitoring sources of mortality.”

A changing ecosystem

Now, climate change is altering sea otters’ marine habitat. In 2013, Pacific Ocean waters warmed dramatically, beginning a three-year marine heat wave dubbed “the Blob” that decimated much of Northern California’s kelp forests. That same year, sea star wasting disease began killing off the large, many-armed sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) — the pathogen aided by tepid temperatures in what is normally a chilly ocean.

Sea stars died en masse. Their collapse allowed purple sea urchins to take over, and they subsequently consumed the northern coast’s kelp forests.

The southern sea otter is a keystone species that keeps habitat healthy by eating purple sea urchins, but there was no way they could control this onslaught. Researchers estimated that the urchin population grew by 10,000% in Northern California since 2014. The otters did, however, protect patches along the Central Coast by consuming urchins at the edges of kelp forests — which are critical habitat for more than 1,000 species of fish, mammals and invertebrates.

As the ecosystem changed, southern sea otters have adapted their diet. A study led by Monterey Bay Aquarium biologists showed a ripple effect in coastal ecosystems: The collapse of one marine predator has often benefitted another. Their findings were published in the journal Science Advances.

“We were really interested in understanding the role of sea otters in this whole landscape of ecosystem change,” said Joshua Smith, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor at University of California Santa Cruz. “Otters are really important in protecting remnant kelp patches, by choosing [to eat] these healthy urchins, but in ‘urchin barrens’ they tend to forage on mussels, snails and crabs.”

Smith views the kelp forest ecosystem as “still very much in transition.” He and his team are pursuing research on the role sea otters play in kelp forest recovery. Some small patches of kelp have reappeared in Monterey Bay and Carmel Bay. The researchers wonder: As kelp grows, will the urchins devour it? Or will the otters keep the urchins in balance, helping the ecosystem to recover?

“For these incipient forests — that are showing signs of recovery — to persist, sea otter foraging is a big deal,” Smith said. “As those remaining urchins in the kelp forest become healthier … those patches become more attractive to foraging sea otters, because now they are worth their time. They continue to reduce the number of urchins so that you get not only recovery, but persistence.”

Smith and his team are currently analyzing two years of data for a paper that will be submitted for publication soon.

Otters gained another food source with the massive sea star die-off, which opened an ecological niche for California mussels. They became a sea otter banquet, helping otter populations to increase along the Monterey Peninsula for a time.

Meanwhile, the European green crab (Carcinus maenas), considered one of the most invasive marine species, is destroying seagrass beds along the eastern Pacific coast and devouring small prey that are important to migratory shorebirds. Otters are eating these crabs.

“We’re grateful for this native predator to be controlling a non-native prey item,” Kerstin Wasson wrote in an email. She serves as research coordinator at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, an area hard-hit by green crabs.

However, some experts, including Keith Rootsaert, who founded the Giant Kelp Restoration Project, fear that otter populations in Monterey Bay and Carmel are collapsing in tandem with kelp forests that have now shrunk to just 4% and 6.3%, respectively, of baseline.

His observations from regular dives in Monterey Bay indicate that most of what remain are sponges and mussel shells that litter the sandy bottom, detritus from sea otter foraging. Though it hasn’t been confirmed by the long-overdue survey, he suspects that “the otter population there may have dropped from 250 to as low as 28,” numbers he shared with USGS biologist Tomoleoni.

“We are very concerned that the sea otter population is dying off and the continued narrative that there are 3,000 individuals is no longer valid,” he wrote.
A unique physiology

Even in the best of circumstances, sea otters’ biology makes survival challenging. Instead of blubber to keep them warm like other marine mammals, they have dense fur and an extremely high-burning metabolism. To stoke that furnace, they must consume the equivalent of 20-30% of their body weight each day. And in order to conserve energy, uninterrupted rest is crucial.

That makes human disturbance a serious threat. But sea otters, iconically cute animals, are a major tourist attraction in Morro Bay, Monterey Bay, Elkhorn Slough and other locations along California’s coast. The allure of seeing, photographing or kayaking up to an otter is strong, the experience almost magical. But these interactions disrupt the otters’ already precarious lives.

While disturbance isn’t good for male otters, it’s tougher on females, which are pregnant or nursing most of their adult lives. When otters are nursing, their resting metabolic rate soars by more than 50%.

Some sea otter mothers literally starve to death caring for their pups. So-called end lactation syndromeoccurs over the five-to-six months that pups are nursing. It’s characterized by severe, sometimes fatal, weight loss. As a mother gets progressively thinner, her immunity wanes and she’s more prone to disease. Some mothers abandon their pups for their own survival; others die, their bodies washed up on the shore, thin and wasted.

“When a sea otter is forced to interrupt resting or foraging due to an eager human wanting to observe too close, it must expend additional energy to relocate,” said Heather Barrett, who heads communications at the nonprofit Sea Otter Savvy (SOS).

An animal that is disturbed from its routine loses valuable foraging time. For mother otters, any disturbance cuts into her thin margin of survival. No single disturbance kills an otter mother, but the cumulative effect of frequent interruptions, every day, takes a toll.

SOS was created in 2015 by experts from Monterey Bay Aquarium, CDFW, Friends of the Sea Otter and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Its goal is to minimize disturbance — anything that makes the otter alter its activity and swim off, dive or hide. They’ve created guidelines for healthy viewing distances: 30 meters (100 feet) is generally safe, 18 m (60 ft) is probably okay, and 15 m (50 ft) is too close. SOS also certifies local businesses, such as kayak rentals.

Shark attacks

The worst threat state biologist Harris has observed is a sharp increase in shark attacks. “Shark bites remain the most significant impact on otter population recovery,” he said. “Otters are taken out of the population. No mitigation is possible.”

During a recent otter necropsy, he noted that its fur generally appeared unruffled, but torn skin showed evidence of a shark bite and the animal was riddled with infection. This otter was doomed as soon as the shark’s teeth bit into her.

In a peer-reviewed study published in Marine Mammal Science, Harris and his colleagues examined 1,870 dead otters from 1985 to 2015. They reported that more than half were killed by shark bites — and incidents have increased sharply since the Blob. Today, waters are generally warmer in what has become a new normal. These tepid waters have expanded shark season beyond summer and fall when most shark bites occurred.

Juvenile white sharks, less than 2.5 m (8 ft) long, need waters between 15.1°C and 22°C (59°F and 71°F): Great white sharks are endothermic, maintaining their own internal body temperature, but juveniles may struggle to thermoregulate in chilly water. They stay where it’s warmer.

When ocean temperatures soared to record highs, 6.2°C (7°F) above historic temperatures in 2014, the cold water edge that kept sharks south of Point Conception moved north. This land mass marks a marine biogeographic boundary, separating the warmer waters of the Southern California bight from the cooler California Current Ecosystem.

Juvenile sharks now live in Monterey Bay, and with that change, otters began washing up dead on the shoreline.

“The emergence of juvenile white sharks in Monterey Bay was unexpected, sudden and outpaced established scientific monitoring programs,” Harris and colleagues reported in a study published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

However, Harris noted that “In the Monterey Bay area, as the presence of juvenile white sharks suddenly increased after the heat wave, the number of otters in the same area dropped significantly.”

Since it’s impossible to change shark behavior, biologists are trying to mitigate other threats. “It often falls to factors surrounding pathogens, pollution and human-caused disturbance, areas where we can make some changes to help sea otters,” Harris said.

Otters power forward

Sea otters have a strong human community working to support them. The 2024 census will quantify the effects on their population from the Blob’s disastrous ecosystem impacts, continuing marine heat waves, sharks moving in and the disturbance of visitors who over-love them.

Sea otters remain a coastline icon, fighting to survive within the slim margins of their demanding physiology in an ecosystem under pressure. Meanwhile, they continue to adapt to the changes in their habitat.

Saving the habitat is the make-or-break for the species.

“There are some aspects of a bright future,” Harris said. “There are strong collaborations and innovative ideas on how to expand populations and how to pay for it. A lot of players are coming to the table, finding creative ways to address sea otter conservation goals in the not-too-distant future.”

Scientists are determined to better understand otter physiology and range, collecting data to inform conservation decisions. Nonprofits are leading public education at the interface between humans and otters. This human team is trying to conserve otters for the public that loves them and ecosystems that need them, working against the backdrop of environmental change and ecological challenge.

The otters soldier on.

Chritine Heinrichs has written about California coastal issues for more than a decade. She is currently at work on a book about northern elephant seals.Source: This article was published by Mongabay

Citations:

Smith, J. et al. (2025) Keystone interdependence: Sea otter responses to a prey surplus following the collapse of a rocky intertidal predator. Science Advances 11, Issue 18. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adu1028

Thometz, N. M., Tinker, M. T., Staedler, M. M., Mayer, K. A., & Williams, T. M. (2014). Energetic demands of immature sea otters from birth to weaning: Implications for maternal costs, reproductive behavior and population-level trends. Journal of Experimental Biology, 217(12), 2053-2061. doi:10.1242/jeb.099739

Tinker, M. T., Hatfield, B. B., Harris, M. D. and Ames, J. A., (2016), Dramatic increase in sea otter mortality from white sharks in California. Marine Mammal Science, 32, 1, 309-326, doi:10.1111/mms.12261

Chinn, S. M., Miller, M.A., et al. 2016, The high cost of motherhood: end-lactation syndrome in southern sea otters (Enhydta luttris nereis) on the California coast, USA. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 52 (2): 307–318. doi:10.7589/2015-06-158

Mongabay
Mongabay is a U.S.-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform. Rhett A. Butler founded Mongabay.com in 1999 out of his passion for tropical forests. He called the site Mongabay after an island in Madagascar.

Wildlife Trafficking Thrives Online

 December 27, 2025

By Africa Defense Forum

On a recent Wednesday at a pet crematory on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South African authorities destroyed nearly a metric ton of lion bones.

The destruction of the confiscated remains was part of South Africa’s effort to end the captive breeding of lions and the trafficking of their bones to be used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

South Africa effectively banned the export of lion bones this year by setting the export quota for them at zero. South Africa has an estimated 12,000 lions raised on farms to be hunted compared to a wild population of about 3,000. Lions killed during the hunts are butchered and their parts trafficked, often in place of tiger bones used in TCM formulations.

South Africa has long been a hub for the illicit trade in lion bones, rhino horn, elephant ivory, and other animal parts and products, many of them shipped to Asian markets for use in TCM.

The South African government banned the export of lion bones in 2019 and announced in 2024 that it was shutting down the country’s lion farms, citing the unsanitary conditions in which most animals live. However, no firm deadline was set for farms to close. Authorities said at the time that trophy hunts would continue for an undetermined period.

In a new report, researchers with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) worked with wildlife monitoring organizations around the world to examine ways in which the illicit wildlife trade moves animals and animal parts around the globe, with much of that traffic centered on China.

The study covered the period from April 2024 to August 2025 and included three African countries: Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa.

Much of the illicit wildlife trade is happening in plain sight online with Facebook carrying most of the advertising that promotes live animals (typically birds) and parts (typically from mammals).

The GI-TOC study found that Facebook accounted for nearly 84% of more than 13,200 advertisements reviewed worldwide. That was down from 95% a few years ago. Two-thirds of those advertisements promoted animal parts, 84% of which were from animals protected under the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

“This highlights the continuing centrality of Facebook in monitoring efforts and enforcement of regulatory interventions,” GI-TOC researchers wrote.

In some cases, advertisers use coded emojis to secretly identify the wildlife products they are offering.

GI-TOC researchers recommend that Facebook and other social media or e-commerce sites tighten their own rules for advertising wildlife products by requiring documentation that shows that the products are exempt from trade bans.

In August, South Africa indicted six people on charges of trafficking nearly 1,000 rhino horns to Asian markets using falsified documents. Authorities said the traffickers claimed to be selling the horns domestically when they actually were shipping them abroad.

Illicit wildlife traffic frequently involves transnational criminal organizations. Escalating profits at each step of the trafficking process makes the activity attractive to those involved. The study uses the case of North Korea, which sells TCM products with miniscule amounts of rhino horn in order to evade international sanctions and generate hard currency income.

GI-TOC researchers note that North Korea has used illegal wildlife trafficking to generate income for many years. A United Nations investigation suggests that North Korean diplomats are at the center of smuggling rhino horn and other illicit wildlife materials. One diplomat is accused of attempting to traffic $65 million in rhino horn to China via Mozambique.

Rhino horn bought from traffickers is sold as Angong Niuhuang Wan (ANW) with a markup 30 to 40 times the value of the horn that went into it.

A single illicit kilogram of trafficked rhino horn bought for $22,300 in Vietnam ultimately can bring the country up to $830,000 in revenue in Chinese and other Asian markets.

“This makes ANW highly profitable for traffickers and strengthens the incentive to continue sourcing rhino horn,” GI-TOC researchers wrote. “North Korea’s role in rhino horn trafficking elevates the situation from a conservation challenge to an international security concern.”

Europe’s ‘Destructive Moral Ideas’ Could Jeopardize Nuclear Powers, JD Vance Says

December 27, 2025
 EurActiv
By Magnus Lund Nielsen

(EurActiv) — Vice-President JD Vance warned on Friday that France and the United Kingdom could pose a future security risk to the US if what he called “Islamist-adjacent” ideas were to gain political influence.

Speaking in an interview with UK-based online outlet UnHerd, Vance argued that the backlash over immigration has left Europe without “a very good sense of itself”.

There are “Islamist-aligned or Islamist-adjacent people who hold office in European countries right now,” he added, without specifying who exactly he referred to.

For this reason, it is “absolutely” possible to see Islamist-adjacent views rise to power in a European nuclear power, like Paris or London, in 15 years.

Vance said the issue was of direct concern to Washington because France and the UK are nuclear powers. “If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with very destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the US.”

Washington will have “to have certain moral conversations with Europe”.

Vance, notably, did not mention Pakistan, another nuclear power and a majority-Muslim country, with which the US enjoys some bilateral relations.

Earlier this month, the US Trump administration released its new security strategy, painting a dire picture of Europe’s political and economic trajectory.

The document emphasised a US ambition to restore “European greatness” to a continent Washington said is facing economic decline and the “stark prospect of civilisational erasure”, sparking wide pushback from European capitals.

Cambodia and Thailand agree ceasefire, return of Cambodian troops

Government officials from both countries agree to a ceasefire / Ministry of National Defence - Cambodia

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By bno - Ho Chi Minh Office December 27, 2025

Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to an immediate ceasefire following weeks of deadly clashes along their shared border, raising hopes of a gradual easing of tensions and the return of displaced civilians, KIRIPOST reports.

The agreement was reached early on December 27 during a special meeting of the General Border Committee, bringing together senior military and defence officials from both sides. Under the 16-point arrangement, hostilities were to stop from midday local time, with the release of 18 Cambodian soldiers expected after 72 hours, provided the truce holds. The soldiers have been detained since fighting first flared in July.

While both governments committed to halting military operations, existing troop deployments will remain in place for now, KIRIPOST added. However, neither side will advance forces, conduct patrols into contested areas or undertake actions that could be seen as provocative. Air operations, unprovoked firing and any movement that risks escalation have been explicitly ruled out under the agreement.

The ceasefire applies across all areas and covers the use of all types of weapon. According to the report, both sides have also agreed to avoid actions that could further endanger civilians or damage civilian infrastructure, including homes, schools and public facilities. Any construction or reinforcement of military positions beyond existing lines has been suspended.

Attention has now turned to humanitarian concerns reports from the region say. Civilians displaced by the fighting will be allowed to return to their homes as soon as conditions permit, with assurances of safety and dignity. More than 1mn people on both sides of the border are estimated to have been forced to flee since the conflict erupted earlier this month.

The latest fighting, which began on December 7 following landmine explosions that injured Thai patrols, has exacted a heavy toll. Cambodian authorities report dozens of civilian deaths and scores of injuries, while Thailand has confirmed significant military and civilian casualties of its own.

The agreement, however, leaves unresolved the long-running dispute over border demarcation. Both governments have nonetheless committed to resuming the work of the Joint Boundary Commission, including survey and demarcation activities under existing bilateral frameworks and measures to ensure the safety of survey teams, particularly in areas affected by landmines, will form part of this effort.