Jennifer Jacquet
I am an American post-doc based at the University of British Columbia, where I also completed my Ph.D.
jjacquet
Posts by this author
May 14, 2008
After doing podcasts with Genie Scott, PZ Myers, and Richard Dawkins regarding the movie, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," Skepticality decided to bring back Randy Olson (they did a first podcast with him last October) to let him have the last word on the debut of "Expelled." In his discussion…
May 13, 2008
Over the weekend, the Observer's Alex Renton gave it to us straight on how the world's oceans are running out of fish. Here's just a taste:
Unlike global warming, the science of fish stock collapse is old and its practitioners have been pretty much in agreement since the 1950s. Yet Roberts can…
May 12, 2008
On any given day, the world's fleet of ships are carrying billions of tons of ballast water with up to 7,000 different invasive species as stowaways. About one in every ten of these is likely to be a problem if it's introduced into a new ecosystem, which is why the United Nations has listed "…
May 9, 2008
Check it out! A researcher at the New England Aquarium was the first human known to witness a right whale birth. Read all about her experience and some of the conservation efforts to save this endangered species here.
May 9, 2008
Fishermen off of Oregon's coast could go broke sitting, or could go broke working, which is why they're trading in their salmon fishing gear and began outfitting their boats for prawns. This is a classic case of overfishing (as well as other factors that play into the salmon shortage, such as…
May 7, 2008
We know fishmeal has problems. After posting an article back in January on the potential for bugmeal to replace fishmeal in farmed fish production, several readers asked some hard questions and wanted more information. I like readers to get what they want, so I spoke with Dr. Lou D'Abramo, who…
May 5, 2008
That's all there is to it. Check out the 60 Minutes profile on him that aired last night:
May 5, 2008
If the seal and penguin weren't enough, there is another sexually curious story from the aquatic environment. According to a colleague, this story out of Japan details a male frog's obsession with a female char, seen swimming together for over a week. Unfortunately, they were found dead last week…
May 3, 2008
What a rogue. An Antarctic fur seal was caught in the act trying to have sex with a king penguin. The incident wasn't too unlike a Paris Hilton escapade--the act lasted for 45 minutes, was caught on camera, and then sleazy still photos were strewn about by the press (but rather than US Weekly it…
May 2, 2008
Where would shifting baselines be without Daniel Pauly? It'd be something altogether different, since he is the one who coined the term back in 1995. Today he turned 62 and we here at the Fisheries Centre celebrated. And yes, Rick, you can drink to that!
May 1, 2008
For a baseline to shift, there must be an element of amnesia. To be forgotten, you must first be acknowledged as existing. What of the unlucky mollusks then? Few people know much about these slimy, slow movers. A new article discusses the vertebrate bias in conservation and the grim future for…
April 30, 2008
There is evidence of hominids collecting seafood for at least 164,000 years. And then there is evidence (fishing spears found during a dig in the Congo) to suggest that humans began fishing at least 90,000 years ago. This week, there is new evidence to suggest orangutans are joining us in this…
April 28, 2008
Greenpeace isn't only busy busting up the Brussels Seafood Expo. They also explore the world's deepest underwater canyons in search of new life. And they found some!
The newly discovered sponge from Alaska's Pribilof Canyon will be named Aaptos kanuux. This discovery will assist in Greenpeace's…
April 27, 2008
For those of you wondering what happened to the terrestrial and re-wilding side of Shifting Baselines, Josh Donlan is off trekking in Nepal until the end of May when he will rejoin with new insights and hopefully no frostbitten fingertips.
April 25, 2008
Check out this 4-minute clip of Dr. Rashid Sumaila, head of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit here at the UBC Fisheries Centre (and also one of my committee members), as he discusses overfishing, subsidies, and what we can do about it. The clip is an out-take from the PBS series Strange Days…
April 24, 2008
I used to love scratch-n-sniff when I was little. I remember one about a little bear at Christmas and I could smell his hot chocolate, oranges, and pine trees. Well, that was then and this is now. My book about the little bear was really delightful. This new scratch-n-sniff book will not be…
April 23, 2008
We didn't have time to review the film "Expelled" here at Shifting Baselines but here are a handful of reviews by a handful of interesting characters:
Is I.D. Ready for Its Close-up? by Peter Manseau, Editor of Science & Spirit
Hearts and Minds by Chris Mooney, science writer and Intersection…
April 23, 2008
There are some great campaigns around the world right now. For instance, just this morning at the Brussels Seafood Expo, 80 Greenpeace activists from 15 countries covered the stands with fishing nets, chained themselves to the stands and put up banners in 13 languages saying 'Time and Tuna are…
April 22, 2008
Is it just me or was Earth Day nothing special? Judging from this article, Earth Day Goes Political and Corporate, I'm right (unless you think planting an elm tree is going green). Maybe it's precisely beacuse Earth Day went political and corporate it no longer means anything...or maybe every day…
April 22, 2008
I always say that the shifting baselines syndrome, the tendency for each new generation to accept a degraded environment as normal/natural, is partially a result of the short human lifespan. If we would only live 1000 years, we would do a much better job at taking care of the planet. With the…
April 21, 2008
In The Seattle Times yesterday, there is an excellent article that talks a lot about shifting baselines in Puget Sound, including issues with population growth, the loss of a healthy marine ecosystem, and the formation of the Puget Sound Partnership. The article is an excellent complement to Randy…
April 18, 2008
Let's just go back to the basics for a second. My minor advisor from Cornell University was Dr. David Pimentel, a stalwart advocate against the production of ethanol . From a recent debate Dr. Pimentel did on the subject of biofuels, I gleaned the following:
Consider that 20 percent of the U.S.…
April 16, 2008
Today the Shifting Baselines blog is proud to host a guest post from Dr. Jeremy Jackson, marine paleoecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and long-term scientific proponent and communicator of the shifting baselines syndrome. He finds similarity in Shifting Baselines Ocean Media…
April 15, 2008
Plastic bags have some desirable traits. They require less energy and water to make than paper bags. Their impermeability means that they won't become a gooey, soggy mess over a little rotten egg. But the very thing that makes plastic bags so attractive must also make them an environmental…
April 10, 2008
Just in time for the one year anniversary: Check out this sweet new hoodie designed by Sarika Cullis-Suzuki, another graduate student of Daniel Pauly's here at the UBC Fisheries Centre. She insists she made the gyotaku (fishprint) and THEN shrank it--so her hook-and-line caught rockfish was not…
April 8, 2008
Retirees in Florida are rockin' to the beat of a different drum...and they're not too thrilled about it.
Black drum mating calls travel at a low enough frequency and long enough wavelength to carry through sea walls, into the ground and through the construction of waterfront homes like the…
April 8, 2008
Last fall I was contacted by the folks at the newly created Puget Sound Partnership regarding the "shifting baselines" predicament they face with Puget Sound. Their phone polling showed that over 90% of the people of Seattle are in favor of protecting Puget Sound, but over 70% think the Sound, as…
April 7, 2008
Holy Macaroni (and I don't mean tuna noodle casserole)--this blog is one year old today! On April 8th last year, Randy Olson moved the Shifting Baselines blog to Scienceblogs and, for its launch, we staged a debate on whether or not to eat seafood. One year later, our seafood debate is still…
April 7, 2008
This is the title of a new song out from Chris Brown. Just kidding. But it is the topic of an article in Science this week. Harmful algae blooms, as the name suggests, are harmful. They can kill fish and produce toxins, which can cause serious and occasionally fatal human diseases. Nutrient…
April 7, 2008
The Economist published an article last week on jellyfish, which featured a fellow graduate student at the Fisheries Centre, Lucas Brotz. Can jellyfish really be the future of seafood? Jellyfish only provide about 4 calories per 100 g but, beyond that, there is a real danger of encouraging demand…