jjacquet | August 15, 2007Two whacky stories in one day: a Rhode Island man was arrested and accused of throwing liquid into a whale tank (where three beluga whales reside) at the Mystic Aquarium. The police said Mr. Watkins told them he threw the liquid into the tank "to keep the fish warm and protect them from Agent Orange." Read more here.
A Mystic Aquarium beluga spyhopping--on behalf of the Viet Cong?
jjacquet | August 15, 2007A few buddhists bought $7000 worth of live eels, frogs, and turtles for sale in New York City's Chinatown today and set them free in the polluted Passaic River of New Jersey (not exactly seafood heaven). Read the full story here.
jjacquet | August 15, 2007Fish aren't caught how they used to be, but some say they should be. Of the many gear types to choose from, there is general concensus that family-owned hook and line is one of the best, especially when compared to other gears.
In 2000, hook and line fisherman Paul Parker gave a testimony before the U.S. Senate where he criticized trawling due to its high amounts of bycatch--fish caught incidentally and then discarded overboard: Our current management systems ignores bycatch and fails to perform full cost accounting of the bycatch impacts of fishing...A dead fish is a dead fish, whether it s…
jjacquet | August 14, 2007Posted by David Wilmot, dave@oceanchampions.org
Turd Blossom quit! Amazingly, instead of jail he's going back to Texas (please, no Texas jokes). August is typically a quiet month in Washington DC. Karl Rove, President Bush's most trusted advisor, among other things, shattered the calm with his surprise announcement that he will leave Bush's side later this month (and make millions of dollars telling his story). I can't think of any specific impact his departure will have on our oceans. Yet, to my disappointment, I believe Rove's legacy may well include a shifted baseline.
Partisan politics…
jjacquet | August 13, 2007No, this doesn't have anything to do with shifting baselines, but I watched all ten episodes of HBO's "John from Cincinnati," which culminated last night and ... all I can say is pretty much, "whaaaaaaat?" I was a fan of the show because of the surf setting and because it was shot in Imperial Beach with our friends at Wildcoast playing a major role as advisors on the local conservation issues (none of which seemed to make it into the film).
My opinion of the show started low (couldn't follow the first episode), then went up when I re-watched the first episode (a surf buddy explained the…
jjacquet | August 12, 2007In today's New York Times, Paul Greenberg has a marvelous article with a marvelous lede about a sportfishing trip he took to Kona, HI: A few months ago I took the most expensive nap of my life, and when it was over I decided it was all Hemingway's fault. Hemingway was an avid sportfisher and Greenberg loosely calculates that Hemingway's personal kills have resulted in the absence of 78,000 blue marlin and 18,000 bluefin tuna today.
The essay is playful in tone but does not quite let Hemingway off the hook--delving into not only the author's fishing records, but his tendency to overstate his…
jjacquet | August 9, 2007One-fifth of the advice on how to save our oceans in the current issue of Conservation Magazine came from two-thirds of my graduate committee. Check out the ocean advice of Daniel Pauly and Rashid Sumaila and the other eight ideas in 10 Solutions to Save the Oceans. Any favorites?
jjacquet | August 9, 2007After making his documentary Flock of Dodos, Randy Olson (Head Dodo) stepped out of the spotlight and kicked back with some books--one of which was The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything by Gordy Slack. Slack's book explores that Dodorific subject of religion in the science classroom and how the citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania came together to defend the separation of Church and State, a subject dear to Olson's heart. Olson calls Slack's book an "uplifting tale" and, for those of you who have a NewScientist subscription, you'll find a full review here.
jjacquet | August 9, 2007In 2002, when Randy Olson wrote an Op-Ed for the L.A. Times one of the ways he described the shifting baselines phenomenon was in terms of weight: If your ideal weight used to be 150 pounds and now it's 160, your baseline -- as well as your waistline -- has shifted. And indeed it has.
One-third of American women over 20 are now classified as obese--the only thing is, most of them don't know it. Rueters has the article Americans see fat as normal as weights rise, which briefly describes how obesity and our perception of obesity has changed over the last three decades. Shifting waistlines,…
jjacquet | August 9, 2007For five years I've been trying to tell everyone that someday Dr. Jeremy Jackson needs to give a talk about the oceans in which he is dressed up as the grim reaper, complete with black hood and scythe. Well, my dream almost came true last night at the premiere of Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie The 11th Hour as the good Doctor Jackson pretty much stole the show (in my biased opinion) with the grimmest pronouncement of the entire movie.
The Grim Reaper, Dr. Jeremy Jackson, brings the voice of doom to the green carpet at The 11th Hour premiere
It's actually an excellent sequence. The film has…
jjacquet | August 8, 2007Tonight the environmental documentary film The 11th Hour starring Leonardo DiCaprio (I'll resist comparing our planet to the Titanic) premieres in Hollywood--and two Shifting Baselines co-founders, Randy Olson and Jeremy Jackson, are turning out for the event. The film, which explores our environmental crisis, how it might affect humanity, and some innovative solutions, opens across America this Friday.
Jeremy Jackson, a marine ecologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in southern California, is actually in the film and late tonight I'll speak with him to find out what he thought…
jjacquet | August 7, 2007Posted by Jack Sterne, jack@oceanchampions.org
With Congress in recess, there's not a lot going on in DC, so I'd like to talk a little more about the red tide funding authorization pushed through the House by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fl.) two weeks ago. One of the great things about Castor's amendment is that it is the result of a bipartisan collaboration between Castor and Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fl.). These two got together earlier this year to introduce the Save Our Shores Act (HR 1091), whose purpose is to fund and streamline HAB research.
Mack and Castor are both from Florida's Gulf Coast and…
jjacquet | August 5, 2007The Galapagos Marine Reserve has trouble with illegal shark finning and a couple solutions--namely decent laws and several individuals fighting the daily Galapagos grind to keep those laws intact and sometimes enforced. One of these individuals is Sean O'Hearn of Sea Shepherd International. And he was just thrown in jail for his efforts.
In 2000, Sean came to Galapagos onbaord a Sea Shepherd boat and decided not to leave. He had grown up in Puerto Rico and settled snuggly into the island life of Galapagos with his perfect Spanish and easy attitude. He was quickly nicknamed 'leche en funda…
jjacquet | August 2, 2007Big, predatory fishes such as tuna and swordfish used to decorate the kitchen whisk. Today, scrambling eggs is only possible with those creatures lower on the marine food web, such as cephalopods. This mysterious creature from the deep (aka squid whisk) is a belated birthday present from my sister and my latest addition to ocean paraphernalia (PZ, famous for his cephalopod fetish is indubitably envious). Given their rank in the marine food web, there are enough squid whisks for everyone.
jjacquet | August 1, 2007Daniel Pauly just pointed me toward a story that will compete with Deer Meat Sushi as the Shifting Baselines story of the year. The Sunday Times ran A Trimmer Gun to Spear Smaller Fry about how there is finally a speargun sold in the U.S. to hunt smaller fish. Americans are known for hunting big fish (because we had some) with bulky spearguns. But lately there seems to be a growing vogue among American speardivers for smaller fish like croakers and snappers (decide for yourself whether it's because the fish are getting smaller).
The new line of spearguns--called the Euro Series-- is…
jjacquet | July 31, 2007Posted by Jack Sterne, jack@oceanchampions.org
Well how about some good news for a change? Last week Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fl) pushed through the House an amendment to authorize $90 million over three years for research into the causes of red tide and other harmful algal blooms (HAB). Here's our press release.
Red tide is a huge problem in coastal areas, causing everything from fish kills to severe allergic reactions in some people. These impacts can have pretty negative economic repercussions, especially for tourist-dependent economies.
The most disturbing consequences though, are what…
jjacquet | July 31, 2007The New York Times ran a nice article yesterday on the northward expansion of the hefty (up to 100 lbs.) Humboldt squid. Scientists are queried why the Humboldt squid has, over the last ten years, made a home in Monterey, California (it wasn't because of low taxes). A study of squid stomachs (not quite published) shows one of this this fierce-looking cephalopod's favorite food is hake, one of lead roles in a favorite act: surimi.
The squid have also been migrating south into Chile. Scientists in the article postulate overfishing and climate changes have influenced the Humboldt squid's new…
jjacquet | July 30, 2007Though the paper Shifting gears: Assessing collateral impacts of fishing methods in U.S. waters is geriatric (2003) in blogosphere terms, I thought it might be worthwhile to post a couple of the paper's visual highlights. Below are the different types of fishing gears that scour U.S. waters (and beyond).
The article rates each gear according to habitat impacts and bycatch (amount of fish caught incidentallly and often wasted by being thrown overboard). Worst offenders: dredges, midwater gillnets, pelagic longlines, and the ever-indiscriminate bottom trawls. Best bets: hook and line,…
jjacquet | July 25, 2007Who: Surimi
Here Spanish surimi poses as baby eels, which have been overfished (photo courtesy of M. Hirshfield).
What: A pulverized fish product that has been shaped, texturized, and flavored to resemble some other fish product. Gobal surimi production is estimated to be between 550,000 and 600,000 tonnes, with approximately half of all surimi made with Alaska pollock. Other species used for surimi include mackerels, hoki, blue whiting and cod.
When: According to Wikipedia, surimi was developed in East Asia 900 years ago. Japan industrialized the surimi process in the 1960s. Over the…