Ocean Sentry
Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the United States, with the average resident consuming 4.1 pounds per year. But this food comes at a serious cost for the planet and for human health, warns Jill Richardson, author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What …
September, 2010
July, 2010
-
30 July
Oceans in Peril: Primed for Mass Extinction?
One hundred days ago Thursday, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon began spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. As profoundly as the leak of millions of barrels of oil is injuring the Gulf ecosystem, it is only one of many threats to the Earth”s oceans that, many experts say, could …
-
16 July
Whales and dolphins are born to be wild, not to be captives for life
Prior to 1996, there was a pathetic zoo in Stanley Park, with a collection of over 50 animals, including snakes, emus, wolves, monkeys, kangaroos, and polar bears. Among the pathetic-looking animals, many of which were clearly suffering from the stress of confinement, were a few Humboldt penguins. Spectators would stand …
April, 2010
-
13 April
George Muller: Whaling deal holds grave risks
Scientist George Muller says the whaling compromise is not based on conservation. Recent discussions have focused on seeking a diplomatic solution to whaling, as though a cosy face-saving “win-win” scenario would somehow leave all sides happy. Unfortunately, science does not merge well with politics. Compromises seldom work for safeguarding endangered …
-
7 April
History repeats itself: the path to extinction is still paved with greed and waste
As a child I read about the near-extinction of the American bison. Once the dominant species on America”s Great Plains, I remember books illustrating how train-travelers would set their guns on open windows and shoot down bison by the hundreds as the locomotive sped through what was left of the …
March, 2010
-
26 March
Fish deserve as much protection as rhinos and tigers
When is an endangered species not an endangered species? When it lives in the sea, apparently. Despite continuing carnage in the ocean, marine creatures were refused any protection at the United Nations conference on trade in wildlife that ended yesterday in Doha, Qatar…
-
24 March
Whaling: the great betrayal
The moratorium on commercial whaling, one of the environmental movement”s greatest achievements, looks likely to be swept away this summer by a new international deal being negotiated behind closed doors. The new arrangement would legitimise the whaling activities of the three countries which have continued to hunt whales in defiance …
-
23 March
Comments on IWC/62/7
1. This Document is purported to be a proposal “to develop a decision by the IWC to Improve the Conservation of Whales”. It is nothing of the kind; it is a proposal for the destruction of the International Whaling Commission as a serious inter-governmental body for both the conservation of …
-
21 March
Japan lands a death sentence for the bluefin
It was a desperate defeat. The European Union and the United States had come to Doha to save the bluefin tuna, a fish so delicious as sushi and sashimi that large specimens fetch $100,000 on the Japanese market. As a consequence the species is as endangered as the white rhino. …
-
8 March
10 Reasons for Concern about the IWC Chair’s suggestions
Ten Reasons for Concern about the IWC Chair’s suggestions regarding the future of the IWC (the “Plan”)And for vigorously opposing its adoption at the forthcoming meeting of the IWC in Morocco. 1. It envisages continued whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary; 2. It rejects the Precautionary Principle that was …
-
3 March
Captured dolphins aren’t smiling
Fisher Stevens is an actor, director and producer. He is a producer of “The Cove,” an Oscar-nominated film that won the best documentary award from the National Board of Review in 2009. He co-founded Naked Angels theater company in 1986 and co-founded GreeneStreet films in 1996. Before I started working …
February, 2010
-
24 February
The truth about fish farming
Factory-farmed chickens, turkeys and cattle all suffer in fundamentally similar ways. So, it turns out, do fish. We tend not to think of fish and land animals in the same way, but “aquaculture” – the intensive rearing of sea animals in confinement – is essentially under- water factory farming. The …