Keep it a secret: Nicaragua is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and nobody knows about it… I just spent 4 days in Granada, enjoying the amazing colonial buildings, the nearby majestic lake of Nicaragua, volcanoes and the abundant wildlife. Although people are poor, they look very happy. In Nicaragua you can still enjoy clean air, quietness and peacefulness: like many countries used to be 50 years ago. You can see some of my pictures here. This is definitely a must-go destination and has a lot more to offer than Costa Rica.

Google Earth is a great tool and makes our world feel smaller than it already is. UNEP has released a great new tool that can be used in combination Google Earth. It allows you to go back into time and see the real consequences of economic development. Take a look at the changes being caused by humans in the Amazone rainforest.

Global by-catch – unintended destruction caused by the use of non-selective fishing gear, such as trawl nets, longlines and gillnets – amounts to 20 million metric tons a year (20.000.000.000 kilo). This would be more than enough to feed the entire 3rd world for a while (although this would also have a negative effect on the ocean of course, since other fishes and mammals are living on the thrown back by-catch).

This excellent animation gives you a better idea what by-catch really is.

Each year, about 100 million sharks are brutally massacred (that is 3 sharks per second). Mostly for their fins. The demand for shark fins from Asia, used for the prestigious shark fin soup, is enormous. However, while Western media point a blaming finger to Taiwanese long-liners, European (Italian, Spanish, French) and American are also catching a significant proportion (estimates go up to 70 percent).

The far most profitable parts of a shark’s body are the fins, which only determine a small part (< 5%) of the sharks total body weight. For this reason, the fins are often brutally cut off the sharks while they are still alive. The stripped bodies then are thrown back into the sea where they die a slow and cruel dead. Scientific research has proven that because of this, worldwide, over the last 8-15 years the number of sharks, have been declined with up to 90%. Sharks reproduce very slowly. Some species reach sexual maturity at an age of 13-15 years, with long reproductive cycles. Because of this, they have hardly a chance to recover from such massacres. Here in the America's these outcomes can easily be seen: La Paz, Mexico, which used to be the number 1 place in the world to dive with Hammerheads, now has almost no Hammerheads left and places like Galapagos and Cocos Island are under immense pressure from (il)legal fishing practices.

For more than 400 million years, sharks managed to survive on this planet. We are now driving shark species to the brink of extinction if we continue to slaughter them this way.

What you can do? Get informed: read more about it, go to the cinema to see Sharkwater and spread the awareness. And please, DO NOT buy these kind of toys for your kid.