The Fishing Industry! 🎣

At school, in geography, we've been learning about different industries. However, last week we learnt about specifically the fishing industry. I found it really interesting and so I thought I could use my knowledge to explain it to you.

People usually think of fishing as sitting around in the sun, waiting patiently for a fish to bite your bait. However, it's not as easy as that. There are four types of fishing: trapping, trawling and dredging, hook and line and using a net. I have explained them here:

Trapping 
This is where the fish are lured by the smell of bait into a trap, going through a cone shaped front. The size of the trap depends on the size of the fish you are wanting to catch. The traps are left underwater until a fish swims into it, and can't get out, meaning they are efficient for the people fishing because they don't need to wait around.

Trawling and Dredging
This is where nets are towed at various levels of the sea to catch things like shellfish and fish. Bottom trawling is where a heavy frame with a mesh bag in it is dragged across the bed of the sea to catch things living in or on it. This type is very bad because it wrecks the coral reefs and could result in high levels of by-catch (fishing unwanted fish while looking for a different type. This usually means the fish they don't want are thrown back into the sea dead😥).

Hook and Line
I think this is probably what people think of most when thinking of fishing. Bait (natural or artificial) are placed on the hook which is fixed on the line and catches the fish as they pass by. There are many different types of hooks, and overall there are three different types; the lure hooks, bait hooks and fly hooks.

Nets
Personally, I think these are the worst types because they catch many things like porpoises and turtles. These types of nets can also be lost in a storm and 'ghost fish', where they trap fish when unattended. It is estimated that around 300,000 small whales, dolphins and other porpoises are caught every year due to this fishing.

Click here to watch the video I watched in school. It was really interesting and I found it really, I don't know how to say it, quite moving I guess.

This post wasn't actually a tip, it was more facts. I'm a pescetarian (a vegetarian but I eat fish) and I love fish. My geography teacher said that you can look on tuna for a label that says 'I am dolphin friendly' so that you know that when they are caught, dolphins don't get hurt or even killed with them. It explains about it in the video, but we have also been over-fishing and some fish don't reproduce quick enough before we catch them, causing them to become endangered.
Anyway, I hoped you learnt something from this post (sorry if you learnt this in school already😂) and found it interesting. See you next week then!

Violet
         xxx

Being an eco-friendly book worm! 📚

I am such a big bookworm. I love books. So does my sister, and many of my friends. I have no idea how many books I have. However I was wondering, since paper is made out of trees, and books usually have around 200-300 pages inside, you'd be wasting a lot of trees if you only read a book once.

I used to go to the library a lot, when I lived in London. I stopped going for a few years, from when I was about six to about nine/ten years old. Then, in June 2018, I went with my best friend to collect some books. I hadn't been in quite a while, and I loved it. I kept track of how often I went and what books I got from there, and I continued to go there until I moved up to Manchester in September, 2019.

The reason why I love libraries are because you can see a book that looks good, and you take it out. It's not yours, but it feels like it. If you think it's not your type of book or you didn't really like it, you can just return it, and let someone else try it. It's also good for researching things because you can use it and send it back and not buy an expensive fact book. The only bad thing is that if you love a book that was taken out the library, you have to send it back and just remember it (if you want to be eco friendly).

Another way you can be eco-friendly bookworm, is to buy books at a second hand bookshop (charity shop). These shops are cheap, and you are re-using books someone has liked or not liked to try again. You also can do that, when you are finished a book or having a clear out on your bookshelf, just send all of that to a charity shop. First of all, you're helping save the environment and, second of all, you're helping a charity.

There's probably more I need to write but that seems like all the important things, so I think I'll end it here.

Thank you for reading this post and if you are a book worm, or even if you aren't, I hope you use these tips a lot. I'll see you again next Sunday then!

Violet
         xxx

Electricity! 💡

When I was smaller, I wasn't very good at turning off lights when I left rooms. Meaning I sometimes had my bedroom light on for the whole day while I was at school. And everyone knows that's very bad. I still do it sometimes nowadays, but not as much. Also, instead of having your artificial lights on all day, just open your curtains!! I don't know why, but I love having natural light in my room, it sort of feels more airy and actually lighter than having a white, off-white, or yellow colour flooding your room.

 I am also guilty of turning on most of the lights when I'm home alone. I guess it makes me feel safer?🤷‍♂️ Do you think you're good at turning off the light when you leave a room? If you are, that's a good thing. But you could be doing more...

When you charge an electronic device, you usually unplug it when it reaches 100% (or somewhere around there). But here's a question: do you turn the switch next to the socket off after you've finished using it? For me, it depends. If it's the socket in my room, and it's only being used to charge my laptop or my phone, I try to turn it off when finished. However, if it's the socket downstairs, which everybody in the house uses, I don't turn it off. Obviously, if a lamp or something is plugged in, you won't be wanting to turn it off every time you switch off the lamp (I mean, you can if you want!😃), but you can try the turning it off when you've finished charging something.

Now, of course, using electricity in your house isn't just leaving on a light bulb or charger. For example, this is what Infographic says uses the most electricity in your home:
Cooling and heating: 47%
Water heater: 14%
Washing machine: 13%
Lighting: 12%
Fridge: 4%
Electric oven: 3-4%
TV and DVD player: 3%
Dishwasher: 2%

I don't know whether you knew that or not, whether it made you think or whether you disagree with it. I mean, I would have thought the dishwasher was higher up on the list, nearer the washing machine, but I guess not.

Thank you for reading! I know the long picture is a bit hard to read, but it's just the percentages I wrote, but in a picture. I hope you enjoyed this post! See you next week!

Violet
         xxx

Take shorter showers! 🚿

In this post, I'm going to be writing about showers. Not what you should shower with, yet, because that's a whole different story. So, back to what we were talking about.

Some time ago, my mum bought the family a timer, it was a - what do you call it?? - err, an hourglass? Anyway, she bought us one for a reason: to keep track of how long we should be in the shower for. I found it very efficient and fun, especially when I got out of the shower before the timer finished. Basically, it was a four minute countdown, and you flipped it upside down to start it (like every hourglass). This meant you were using a good amount of water while showering.

You should take shorter showers because the average shower head produces 2.5 gallons of water a minute, or; at least 20 gallons every 10 minutes. Therefore, having a four minute shower only uses around 10 gallons of water which, on its own, sounds like a lot, but it's half of what you could be using (this also saves a lot of money each year, but that's not what we're talking about😉).

I've completely forgotten how long my showers used to be before timing myself, and now that I take four to five minute showers, a 10 minute - or more - shower sort of makes me feel horrified.

If you want to go even further than that, what I do is: turn off the shower as I wash. If that doesn't make sense, every time I wash my hair or body, I turn off the shower head and scrub, then turn it on again to clean the bubbles off. Although it can get a bit cold, it saves even more water, but really only if you're having a short shower.

Each person in the UK uses an average of 142 litres of clean water everyday, and a quarter of that - the biggest single chunk - goes to showers, say the people in 'This Book Is Not Rubbish'.

I learned a lot of new things while writing about this, for example: I didn't know that an average shower head releases 2.5 gallons a minute😮! Did you know that? Anyway, thanks for reading this post and hope you all had a lovely start to 2020!

Violet
          xxx