jjacquet

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Jennifer Jacquet

I am an American post-doc based at the University of British Columbia, where I also completed my Ph.D.

Posts by this author

July 19, 2009
"It was marine algae." This is the test result of the arctic goo spotted last week off the Alaska coast. According to an updated article in the Anchorage Daily News, the miles-long swath of goo has been identified as marine algae, although experts still don't understand why there is so much of it.
July 19, 2009
The blue-haired head south to La Jolla shores in the winter while the summertime is prone to a different migration. Jumbo Humboldt squid now make their way north. This weekend, San Diego's coast has been swarmed by schools of the 5-foot squid, which have upset divers and local beach goers. There…
July 16, 2009
The End of the Line, a documentary on global overfishing sparked by Charles Clover's book by the same title, has sparked many public conversations about global overfishing. The latest discussion takes place today at SEED magazine, where several fisheries experts (many of them make appearances in…
July 15, 2009
Well, it may not be as hip and fresh as Kid Cudi's track Dat New New (pardon the unusual digression, but he is from Ohio...), but a 12-mile slick of arctic goo has hit the streets -- or at least the oceans -- around arctic Alaska. According to The Anchorage Daily News, the goo is organic (not oil…
July 13, 2009
As a way of counteracting some of the work by Environmental Working Group, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, and Oceana to inform consumers about the health risks of consuming too much seafood, a new website was just launched called HowMuchFish.com, which tells you how much mercury-laden tuna,…
July 8, 2009
With the shortages and environmental impacts of global meat (including ocean meat, aka seafood), perhaps we should be turning to introduced rodents and insects for future meals. We might be forced to turn to jellyfish, too. Check out the jellyfish burger that artist Dave Beck and I created -- now…
July 1, 2009
A neighborhood in Leicester, England had an entire YouTube channel dedicated to neighborhood issues, including catching "litter louts". As BoingBoing point out, this is a fine example of citizen surveillance. This case study also fits very nicely into our discussion of soft enforcement and…
June 30, 2009
Social-norms campaigns are intended to mitigate problem behaviors by conveying the message that problem behavior occurs with far less frequency than people think (e.g. teenage drinking). But for individuals who already abstain from the undesirable behavior, this can actually produce a boomerang…
June 25, 2009
McDonald's launched this ad for for their Filet-O-Fish sandwich this year (just in time for Lent). Their marketing strategy is an interesting one: a rare reminder that the fish you're eating comes from an animal that was once alive. What if it were you hanging up on this wall? If it were you in…
June 23, 2009
As part of the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign, "The Crying Indian" spot first aired in 1971 and was shown throughout the 1970s and 80s. It won two Clio Awards and was named one of the top 100 advertising campaigns of the 20th Century by Ad Age Magazine: But research in psychology shows that…
June 20, 2009
So, I have been thinking about the brainy echidna since its debut a couple weeks ago in the NYTimes. Bestowed upon it, was probably one of the nicest descriptions about an animal ever written: ...an immaculately private nocturnalist with a surprisingly well-endowed brain. It seems to me that…
June 19, 2009
Not to beat a dead horse (although that horse could possibly help alleviate the demand for tuna) but I wanted to clarify some of the arguments against eating seafood or, rather, in favor of marine life. Here I address some specific (and broader) questions in response to my recent posts. Isn't…
June 16, 2009
Because food issues are "one of the most interesting social movements afoot right now", I thought I would continue the discussion over whether we should give up eating seafood just a bit longer and point out the recent post at Animal Planet asking if we should boycott seafood altogether? Why is…
June 11, 2009
Whether we should continue eating seafood is a hot topic this week. While I was arguing (again) that we should give up eating seafood, Mark Bittman at the New York Times had a nice piece on how seafood has changed through his lifetime and how the days of "see it/eat it" are over. However, he…
June 8, 2009
Today (which, as happenstance would have it, also happens to be World Ocean Day) the environmental and conservation news site Mongabay.com ran an interview with me on why we should stop eating seafood. I think that if we can get people to feel about fish the way they feel about birds it should be…
June 8, 2009
Remember our old friend surimi? I am looking for people who love surimi or hate it. Those who can remember their first time eating it (knowingly or not). Those who think it's delicious. Those who find it revolting. It would be useful for an article I am working on... Molded surimi lobsters:
June 6, 2009
There are obvious hazards associated with forgetting, such as angry women (think birthdays and anniversaries) and the shifting baselines syndrome, where we come to accept degraded environments as 'natural'. Forgetting about the past is particularly dangerous when it comes to making decisions about…
June 3, 2009
A blogpost over at GOOD magazine* reviews a new book on veganism, applauds the book for its flexible approach, and says we should "give up trying to guilt people into not eating any meat." The post mentions the environmental impacts of meat, which are indeed significant (according the the UN,…
June 2, 2009
We know jellyfish are on the rise in the world's oceans but who knew jellies would make it into a field in Oxfordshire? At 600ft., this jellyfish is the world's biggest...
May 31, 2009
Euthanizing beached whales. This has to be one of the worst jobs ever.
May 31, 2009
I wanted to share renowned fisheries biologist (and my supervisor*) Daniel Pauly's lecture at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum last week, which kicked off the International Marine Conservation Congress. I particularly enjoyed his ending, which discussed the potential operating systems for…
May 25, 2009
I remember back in my teenage years unpacking the car during a vacation and singing a little tune I made up and envisioned turning into an entire Broadway musical (unfortunately, you cannot hear the catchy tune that went along with it): Stuff. We have too much of it: stuff. We still want more of it…
May 23, 2009
I am currently attending the International Marine Conservation Congress (so please pardon my long absence) and wanted to quickly share some new ideas on how technology could contributions to conservation. Erwin Brunio from Japan's Graduate School of Marine Science and Technology (itself an…
May 14, 2009
President Obama gives an inspiring commencement speech at Arizona State University fitting for anyone feeling guilty about privilege, the poverty of ambition, and the insufficiency of material culture... Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:
May 12, 2009
The New York Times ran a great little profile on a great little video released in 2007 called The Story of Stuff. This 20-minute film created by former Greenpeace employee Annie Leonard has made its way around the globe and into many classrooms, where its animation and succinctness encourages…
May 11, 2009
This is a headline I can easily imagine will appear in the next decade or so. As skyscrapers replace skylines and concrete replaces trees, I believe art is going to play an ever-greater role in society. We know that nature has psychological benefits. Studies show that spending time in natural…
May 8, 2009
I think animal sounds are sorely underutilized in music. I have thought that ever since first hearing the lovely introductory sounds in Lemon Jelly's A Tune for Jack (2001): I wondered: why don't more bands do this? The sounds of animals are good for the soul and, as animals become less and less…
May 8, 2009
Check out my new blog Guilty Planet and please join in with your thoughts on conservation...
May 6, 2009
Check out this work by Chris Jordan that helps us visualize quantitative information using photography. His series, called Running the Numbers II, is a commentary on global mass culture, is now showing at the Winsor Gallery in Vancouver. This new series looks at mass phenomena that occur on a…
May 3, 2009
Just as we have renamed fish to make them more marketable, there is a push in conservation (and science in general) to change certain uncommunicative terms to more lucid or dramatic ones. As an article in the NYTimes titled Seeking to Save the Earth, with a Thesaurus points out, it might be…