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spencer roberts 🦈

@unpopularscience.bsky.social
6.1K followers 497 following 737 posts

marine ecologist 🤿 investigative journalist 🎥 environmental activist 🐠🐟🐡 diver, musician, coder, engineer words in Science, Wired, The Intercept… Blue Marble lab at U Miami RSMAES 🌴 fishdefender.org ⓥ

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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The goliath grouper was nearly driven to extinction by fishing. A full ban in 1990 brought them back from the brink, but now their numbers are falling again — and Florida is raffling tickets to kill them. Join us in intervening against FWC’s twisted grouper hunt. fishdefender.org/GrouperGuardian
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It took me three years diving in Florida to see a tiger shark. Yet the Trump admin believes there are too many and they need to be killed off.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
another legendary fish for the life list #MarineLife
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Fishing injuries spotted on one wreck dive in Florida Keys National “Marine Sanctuary” We managed to remove the line off one of the black groupers. #MarineLife
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Ginger is a young red grouper. She is extremely curious and friendly. I worry about her being speared. Reds are wiped out on most nearshore reefs and commercially hunted in deeper waters. When you see “grouper” on a menu, that’s an animal like Ginger. Please don’t eat them. #MarineLife
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
With a team of nearly 300 divers, we removed: • >500 pounds of lead • hundreds of feet of line • multiple hooks from the mouth of this young nurse shark accumulated in one year under a *single fishing pier*. You don’t hate fishing enough.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Demand for shark fishing bait has slammed Florida’s cownose rays. Fishing effort and landings have multiplied by 3-4X over the past 10 years and recoveries that took decades are reversing. Tomorrow, FWC votes on whether to intervene. Submit a comment today: fishdefender.org/FWCcomments
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Fishermen all over the internet, media, and even congressional hearings are spreading the myth that sharks have become “overpopulated” in the US and should be culled. I charted the NOAA data to show how insane that is. #MarineLife 🧪
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
NOAA Fisheries is poised to bring back commercial shark longlining in the US. The sport fishing lobby bitched so much about sharks biting fish off hooks that they convinced NOAA to review a critical shark protection. We need public comments! sedarweb.org/assessments/sedar-101-hms-sandbar-sharks
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
I had the incredible privilege to see four baby sawfish in the Everglades. These are the only elasmobranchs fully protected under the Endangered Species Act, despite the loss of over half the world’s shark and ray abundance in the past 50 years. #MarineLife
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
This is not a shark rescue. This is a prohibited species in Florida. These fishermen intentionally target them by chopping up rays and small sharks and flying chunks of bait offshore with drones. They illegally drag protected species onto the beach for social media content. Many of them die.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
The official vote is in from West Pacific Fishery Council. Every single Pacific National Monument will be opened to commercial fishing. Longlines in Papahānaumokuākea All fishing gear in Rose Atoll The entire Marianas Trench reserve gone 1M+ square miles, >80% of US protected waters abolished
Marianas Press
For the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, the Council recommended removing commercial fishing prohibitions to allow commercial fishing within the monument waters from 50 to 200 nautical miles seaward of Jarvis and Wake Islands, and Johnston Atoll. Waters 0 to 50 nm would remain unchanged. The Council also asked the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop a research plan for prioritized electronic monitoring review and observer coverage for trips or sets operating in the area as EM is fully phased into the Hawaii and American Samoa longline fleets.MP Marianas Press
The Council also took final action to restore commercial fishing in other Pacific marine national monuments. Recommended fishing areas to open are 12 to 50 nm at Muliava (Rose Atoll), O to 50 nm in the Marianas Trench Islands Unit, and 3 to 200 nm in Papahanaumokuakea for bottomfish and pelagic fisheries only. In Papahanaumokuakea, the 0 to 3 nm closure for all commercial fisheries and longline fishing shoreward of 50 nm would remain prohibited.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Following our success in Miami Beach, Fish Defender is launching a campaign to ban shark fishing on Marco Island, where fishermen have made a mockery of shark protection laws and gotten away with it for years. Please sign the petition in thread & send an email to city_council@cityofmarcoisland.com.
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Shark Geek @sharkgeek.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Land based #shark #fishing is banned in Miami Beach! Join me Thursday night for an interview with @unpopularscience.bsky.social to learn how he and his nonprofit Fish Defender helped make it possible! www.twitch.tv/sharkg33k
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Jan Dutkiewicz @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
"[Feed the People! and Meat] bring a passion to the affluent society’s intractable modern dilemma of what to eat. As Rosenberg and Dutkiewicz say, it is a dilemma probably most effectively addressed without preaching." A wonderful review in @financialtimes.com. www.ft.com/content/403a...
ft.com
‘Not all ultra-processed foods are the same’ — what next for the food industry?
Two books offer refreshing arguments in favour of industrial innovations and appetising alternatives to meat — without the unpalatable moralising
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Fishermen are posting revenge killings of sharks on social media to retaliate against our ban on shark fishing in Miami Beach. Miss me with the sustainable fishing coexistence bullshit.
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SeaAroundUs @seaaroundus.org · 19/01/2026
Fish welfare isn’t just about space or food—it’s about oxygen. A new essay urges a rethink of animal-welfare models 🐟💧 bit.ly/essayoxygen
bit.ly
Animal-welfare models fail to account for fish’s need for oxygen | Sea Around Us
A new essay argues that current animal welfare science and policy frameworks overlook a fundamental aspect of the lives of fish.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
VICTORY: SHARK FISHING BANNED ON MIAMI BEACH!!! 🦈🦈🦈 This makes it the biggest city in the US to ban land-based shark fishing gear — and it won’t be the last, we are just getting started. If you want to protect your local beach, check out our toolkit. #MarineLife fishdefender.org/LBSFtoolkit
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
It cannot be sufficiently stressed that this is exactly what they are trained to do. They are explicitly taught to immediately draw and fire upon suspicion of a gun and continue to shoot until their victim is dead. One of the world’s top police trainers: slate.com/news-and-pol...
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
The massive and elusive orange filefish exhibiting cryptic behavior: -camouflage display -vertical posture -chest flare incredibly strange and cool animal #Fishwatching #MarineLife
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
I don’t typically share this type of ‘animal passes benchmark of intelligence’ stuff because it’s an evolutionary fallacy to use the human intellect as a standard of cognitive capacity, but sometimes a video just speaks for itself and also how fucking cute is this come on
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
The government tried to censor these photos. Wildfires have ripped across the Australian state of Victoria, amid record drought and heatwaves. Renowned wildlife photographer Paul Hilton went to document the aftermath. State troopers accosted and ejected him. His statement below. ⬇️
koala burned to deathaerial view of brush fireaerial view of burned Eucalyptus forestinjured kangaroo drags herself across the ash
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Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
A damning investigation into ranching on public lands in the US West: huge & growing subsidies, with much going to some of the richest Americans, like Rupert Murdoch; lax rules currently being further weakened; widespread environmental harm - but an industry protected by friends in high places.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
It was always a whole milk campaign. RFK publicly announced promoting whole milk in the new dietary guidelines in *July*. They are reintroducing whole milk to the school lunch program, which forces a milk carton into every child’s meal. Food is political, people!
MJTruthUltra
KABOOM! *
@MJTruthUltra • 7/14/25
X
RFK Jr. Announces the FDA will be releasing New Dietary Guidelines that will emphasize on adding more protein and healthy fats into the American Diet
"I grew up in a world where milk was the healthiest thing that you could consume...
There's been an attack on whole milk, cheese, and yogurt over the past couple of decades....
There's tremendous amount of emerging science that talks about the need for more protein in our diet and more fats in our diet."
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Nick Young @nickofnz.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
The world’s single most successful zero-deforestation policy is hanging by a thread. The Amazon’s best shield is cracking: Why the Soy Moratorium must be defended www.greenpeace.org/internationa...
greenpeace.org
The Amazon’s Best Shield is Cracking: Why the Soy Moratorium Must Be Defended - Greenpeace International
2026 has got off to a terrible start for the Amazon rainforest: the industry group representing the largest soybean traders in Brazil, announced plans to withdraw from the Amazon Soy Moratorium.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
GOOD NEWS: There’s a bill in the Florida legislature to protect endangered wildlife from aquarium capture. BAD NEWS: They’re trying to water it down. We’re calling on people to send comments and letters. 🧵
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Andrew B. Watkins @windjunky.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average. climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Abundance agenda: -millions of grunts -fuck ICE #MarineLife
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Matthew Hayek @matthewhayek.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
We got the upside-down dietary guidelines from political maneuvering, not a science-based process. It has a scientific committee, touted as backing this report, but it likely installed to justify pre-held beliefs of RFK Jr & MAHA, who love animal products 1/ www.businessinsider.com/rfk-new-diet...
businessinsider.com
No sugar, more fat: RFK Jr's 5 big changes to the American food pyramid
Kennedy said his new guidelines undo previous advice. Full fat dairy is back, sugar is out, and highly processed foods come under fire.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
A masked ICE agent murdered a woman in Minneapolis. DHS released a statement saying he was defending himself. He shot her in the face at point blank through the side window.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
mantas in Miami #MarineLife
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New Scientist @newscientist.com · 24/12/2025
A new explanation for the solar system's radioactive elements suggests Earth-like planets might be found orbiting up to 50 per cent of sun-like stars
newscientist.com
Earth and solar system may have been shaped by nearby exploding star
A new explanation for the solar system's radioactive elements suggests Earth-like planets might be found orbiting up to 50 per cent of sun-like stars
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
new study on environmental impacts of AI data centers: -power demand nearing that of the UK -carbon pollution equivalent to NYC -water consumption comparable to all bottled water corporations combined www.cell.com/patterns/ful...
cell.com
The carbon and water footprints of data centers and what this could mean for artificial intelligence
Company-wide metrics from the environmental disclosure of data center operators suggest that AI systems may have a carbon footprint equivalent to that of New York City in 2025, while their water footp...
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
NEW: Public records show Florida licenses capture of thousands of wild sharks and rays to major aquarium corporations around the world. >2/3 of animals permitted for capture were IUCN-redlisted. 95% of licenses list one contractor — remember this name — Dynasty Marine 🧵
Sharks and rays permitted by Florida for capture into aquarium exhibition
(FWC, 2015-2025)

total: 15549
top facilities (not in order):
Marineland Dolphin Adventure
SeaWorld Orlando
Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters
Georgia Aquarium
Frost Museum of Science
Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Miami Seaquarium
St. Augustine Aquarium
Gumbo Limbo
Walt Disney - The Seas
Volusia County
Daytona Aquarium
Zoo Tampa / Lowry Park
Florida Aquarium (Tampa)
Mote Aquarium
Florida Oceanographic Society
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
TOMORROW: Dropping a huge public record investigation into Florida’s massive legal pipeline of sharks and rays to captivity in aquaria around the world — even the most accredited aquarium corporations are stocking their tanks with wild-captured endangered species. Stay tuned.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Remember the video of the endangered manta ray captured from the wild for SeaWorld UAE under a special license from Florida Fish & Wildlife? We pulled every FWC aquarium capture permit for sharks and rays in the last 10 years. Here’s what we found: (investigation ongoing)
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La DraculessaⓋ🦘🦈#🟦 @ladraculessa.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Still 6018 signatures.💔 Please sign-share the petition of @unpopularscience.bsky.social ✍️ www.change.org/p/stop-socia... "These sharks are not hooked by accident, as the process of catching/reeling them requires specific bait such as stingrays and expensive equipment such as massive reels, ..."🦈
change.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Social Media Shark Poaching
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Sentient @sentientmedia.org · 11/12/2025
Sentient’s analysis of 940 climate news stories across 11 outlets found that 96.2 percent made no mention of meat or livestock production as a cause of climate change. This makes animal agriculture the least covered theme in climate reporting.
Pie graphs showing how animal agriculture is the least covered theme in climate reporting, compared to regenerative agriculture, consumerism, land use changes, residential, general agriculture, transportation, fossil fuels, mining, manufacturing and energy production and emissions.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Monsanto scientists ghostwrote this paper claiming the company’s proprietary glyphosate & roundup herbicides had no risk to human health. 25 years & 1300 citations later, it has finally been retracted — 8 years after the collusion was exposed. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Ridley is a young male manta. Last weekend, he was hooked by a fisherman after divers watched them cast lines in his path. An aerial survey yesterday found 3 of 4 mantas off South FL dragging fishing line. We’re fighting for a no-take protected area for Ridley and the other mantas. #MarineLife
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
On any given night, millions of nets and lines are cast off bridges in Florida, often illegally. Any time they get snagged, it becomes ghost gear, killing wildlife on the seafloor until someone goes down there and removes it.
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Rising Tide Australia @risingtideaus.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Greens leader @larissawaters.bsky.social has the joined the #RisingTide blockade of the world's biggest coal port 💚 "We don't need anymore coal and gas"‼️
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
EAGLE RAY CITY obsessed with this underwater overgrown brutalism aesthetic #MarineLife
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Emily R. Trunnell, Ph.D. @ertrunnell.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Nice perspective by @unpopularscience.bsky.social in @currentaffairs.bsky.social. Debates on AI consciousness persist, yet the scientific consensus on animal consciousness is robust & necessitates a change in assumptions. #bioethics #animalrights
Screenshot from the September 29, 2025 article by Spencer Roberts, "Why All Animals Are Sentient, and Machines Never Will Be," showing the following excerpt: "Mirror tests are inherently biased toward visual species with appendages to gesture or facial musculature to convey reactions. Even still, animals from red ants to cleaner wrasses are now considered to have passed, challenging us to examine our default assumption, or null hypothesis, that other animals are unconscious or unfeeling until proven otherwise. Instead, considering that no animal has ever been proven to lack consciousness, evidence is far more robust for a new paradigm: assuming that all other animals are self-aware."
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Pack hunting is a social behavior that demonstrates cooperation between predators. Once thought a uniquely mammalian capability, we now acknowledge pack hunting behavior across the animal kingdom, including many fish species. This interspecific jack pack is especially impressive. #MarineLife
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h3m3 @h3m3.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
“Sentience is ill-defined. Many confuse it with consciousness or self-awareness, but its etymology stems from the Latin word sentire: to feel.” @unpopularscience.bsky.social from @currentaffairs.bsky.social
currentaffairs.org
Why All Animals Are Sentient, and Machines Will Never Be
Even the smallest sea slug feels pain. That means we have a responsibility not to inflict it.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
fish farming industry is really pissed off about this lol
From our collective perspective, several pernicious critiques of aquaculture continue to resurface (e.g., Science Advances "Aquaculture" special issue) that we address here in hopes of refocusing future research in more constructive directions.Conflicts of Interest

H.E.F.: sits on the scientific board of Actea, currently a member of the US Aquaculture Society of America Strategic Planning Committee and sits on the editorial board of Reviews in Aquaculture. J.A.G.: science advisor for Oceana. G.C.: Australian Research Council grant which includes Biomar Global as an industry partner. J.L.B.: Australian Research Council grant which includes Biomar Global as an industry partner. C.D.G.: science advisor for Oceana. B.S.H.: Australian Research
Council grant which includes Biomar Global as an industry partner. R.W.H.: past Director of the Aquaculture Research Institute at the University of Idaho, USA. R.L.N.: sits on the Supervisory Board of Aqua-Spark and founded the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University. In addition, there is forthcoming World Economic Forum consultancy work. M.T.: lead scientist in SeaBOS (Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship). The other author…
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
New paper finds rampant illegal shark fin trafficking, despite >100 threatened sharks and rays being listed on CITES in the past 20 years. Evidence is becoming very strong that the only effective way to protect sharks is to stop the fisheries catching them. 🦑🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
International trade regulations take a limited bite out of the shark fin trade
Survey uncovers widespread illegal shark fin trade despite nearly a decade of international regulation.
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Fishwatching was unbelievably lit today. #MarineLife
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spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
world vegan day In the past few years, corporations have turned their backs on vegans and, more importantly, animals. They want us to believe one person can’t make a difference. But that’s why we act collectively. The truth is that our economic choices matter more than ever.
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