jjacquet | August 14, 2008A British trawler was caught on film dumping tons of cod and other white fish overboard. This wasteful practice of discarding 'bycatch' is the result of catching fish that are too small (according to regulations) or unmarketable. The film caused quite the uproar, though it should be noted that this absurdity occurs frequently in waters all around the world and is most common in shrimp fisheries. The Sea Around Us Project's Dirk Zeller and Daniel Pauly published a paper in 2005 on how discards are declining globally but that this decrease is not exactly a grand accomplishment given that…
josh donlan | August 9, 2008In this month's issue of High Country News, journalist Kim Todd writes about northern spotted and barred owls. A new arrival to the Pacific Northwest, barred owls appear to be outcompeting the spotted owl. Managers are in a conundrum and are considering lethal control of barred owls in order to halt a decline of spotted owls. Killing one native species to save another? With on-coming climate change, such complex ecological situations were certainly be more common. In the same issue, Todd writes about a similar situation with golden eagles on the California Channel Islands.
jjacquet | August 6, 2008Many of you will recall my passion and compassion for the illustrious sea cow (and for those of you who haven't watched it, the exploding manatee heart is a must). A few weeks ago, after I attended the International Coral Reefs Symposium I went back to my old stomping ground (water?) of Crystal River, Florida, to visit these gentle giants. I have been traveling to Crystal River off and on for 10 years and, even over this brief time, I have witnessed a shifting baseline...
Crystal River is a beautiful area, particularly in the early morning when the fog clings to the water and air is filled…
josh donlan | August 2, 2008"Part of being on the road means the ability to live a little more luxuriously than at home, and that means not having to turn off the lights and the TV." Now, that is a good ole American quote. But, I wonder how many Americans live "a little more luxuriously" at home all the time as well.
Here's another one that in my experience is quintessentially American: "People say they want to be green, but they don't want to compromise."
Those quotes come from a NYT article on American hotels going "green", which could also be summed up as American hotels catching up with the rest of the developed…
josh donlan | July 31, 2008Here is recent article about beavers in the UK newspaper - The Guardian. This is a classic example of how a lack of appreciation for ecological history leads to ignorance. The journalist tries to compare the ecological consequences of North American beaver that have been introduced to southern South America some 50 years ago with the reintroduction plans of European beaver to the UK - where they were present just a couple of hundred years ago! Beavers were an important ecosystem driver in Europe for millennia; we should be reintroducing them when and where we can. North American beaver are…
rolson | July 29, 2008Here we have it now, pretty much formalized. We spotted the pattern last November in our first test screenings of non-science friends in Hollywood vs. scientist friends. As the Sizzle Tuesday reviews popped up, Chad Orzel noted it among the Science Bloggers. Then Chris Mooney identified the pattern and editorialized on it. Now we can look at the reviews of the most authoritative voice in the science world, Nature, versus the most authoritative voice in the entertainment world, Variety. The divide is almost exactly the same. The former says the "comedy falls flat," the latter raves about…
josh donlan | July 27, 2008Will Stolzenburg is one of the better science journalists I have crossed paths with. His new book is bound to make big impacts. Where the wild things were came out last week and people are talking alot about it (including in my inbox). Will takes us around the world answering the "So what?" to the fact that we now live in a world without predators. Required reading for every citizen in my view. Below is a book summary, and visit the book's website for more information.
It wasn't so long ago that wolves and great cats, monstrous fish and flying raptors ruled the peak of nature's food pyramid…
jjacquet | July 24, 2008Check out some research that was presented (that I unfortunately did not get to see) at the Society for Conservation Biology conference in Chattanooga, TN. Here is what the scientist did: he gave consumers the option of eating caviar from a "rare" species of sturgeon or a "common" species of sturgeon. Most consumers, even before trying it, imagined they would like the "rare" eggs best. After eating it, 70% of consumers preferred the "rare" species. But here's the kicker: all the caviar was from farmed sturgeon. This means that certain rare species that are desired in luxury markets--…
josh donlan | July 18, 2008SB's Randy Olson joins a conversation on NPR's Talk of the Nation to discuss his new movie Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy. Randy and folks from The Martin Group discuss how to break through "the green fog" and fight green fatigue.
josh donlan | July 17, 2008In this month's issue of Search Magazine (formally Science and Spirit), Chris Hallman writes about Pleistocene Rewilding and talks to conservation luminaries Michael Soule, Paul Martin, and Dave Forman. Hallman concludes that sometimes even science needs to take a leap of faith. Soule elegantly agrees by adding, "We're damned if we do, and damned if we don't...I'd rather be damned for careful doing than for doing nothing."
jjacquet | July 16, 2008As Josh just mentioned, overfishing is an underestimated problem. Furthermore, new research from UBC Fisheries Centre economist Rashid Sumaila (and one of my esteemed committee-members!) shows that rising fuel costs may not keep fishers, big or small, off the water, to the extent that governments continue to subsidize fuel costs (which account for 60 percent the cost of fishing).
At present, fuel subsidies account for roughly 20 percent of the $34 billion in annual fisheries subsidies. These subsidies are taxpayer monies redirected to fishermen often in the form of grants, loans, tax…
josh donlan | July 15, 2008Nature reported last week about more bad news. Daniel Pauly along with SB's very own (Jennifer) and others reported on their new research that documents the underreported fishing impacts of artesianal fisheries around the world. The results are not pretty: the amount of overfishing is very often underreported, sometimes as much as three or four times. One aspect that is contributing to the problem is the fisheries agreements that high-income nations often have with low-income nations. Jennifer describes it as a Robin Hood in reverse, "Instead of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, it'…
jjacquet | July 14, 2008Given that Randy Olson is not only a director but also the founder of the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project as well as my co-blogger, you might expect that I have favorable things to say about his latest film--and I do. It was a delight to watch Sizzle and equally delightful to be privy to the evolution of the film from an idea to interview clips to a full-length feature...comedy?
Sizzle is indeed funny. But it is so much more that it becomes difficult to categorize, which is part of its strength. From serious statements by scientists to dazzling polar bear shots, from Olson's mother…
rolson | July 14, 2008We're in the middle of the Outfest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. I've been to four of their parties now. I have to say, these are the nicest, most supportive, most polite, most fun, most open, most down home, most un-pretentious filmmakers I have ever met in nearly 20 years of going to film festivals. I had no idea. I'm thinking of all the posers and phonies I've sat and talked to at the probably 50 film festivals I've been to over the years. All the full-of-themselves, dressed in black, name dropping, insecure, snotty vacuous filmmakers I've had to stand around and chat with at film…
jjacquet | July 13, 2008Barack Obama attended the 11th International Symposium on Coral Reefs and here is proof: him sandwiched between two top ocean scientists and proponents of the term 'shifting baselines': Daniel Pauly and Jeremy Jackson.
Okay, okay. So he is a cardboard cutout. I purchased him back in Ohio to ruffle the feathers in my Republican hearth and thought he might come in handy at the conference. Some in attendance had a different perspective, though, and as I walked into one of the upstairs rooms (where I had set Obama up off to side), he was being carted off by organizers who said they received…
jjacquet | July 11, 2008I am here in Ft. Lauderdale at the 11th International Coral Reefs Symposium, which only happens once every four years. It's a big deal and more than 3000 scientists have gathered to discuss coral reefs for the week. The news for coral reefs, as you might suspect, is grim (one scientist described them as the living dead--the zombies of the sea). But there is good news about the scientists involved in reef research.
Given that this is my first coral reef conference, my baseline is this week. But for scientists such as Jeremy Jackson from Scripps and Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller from the…
jjacquet | July 10, 2008There is a great interview with Randy Olson about his new film Sizzle published today by Erik Hoffner at Grist. Check it out here.
rolson | July 9, 2008The world has changed. Sometimes its hard to notice. This is what "shifting baselines" is about. And this is also what an excellent article this month's Atlantic Monthly titled Is Google Making Us Stupid is about. Much more than just the idea of getting lazy and using Google to remember things for you, the article talks about the entire shift of ability to focus and experience deep emotions that has taken place. I love this article.
For over twenty years I have felt what this article has to say. Since way back in the eighties when Beavis and Butthead introduced a new way of maintaining…
josh donlan | July 8, 2008Now this is exciting. T. Boone Pickens, chair of the Hedge Fund BP Capital Management, is throwing his money to the wind. Listen to an interview on NPR with ex-oilman Pickens and his new wind energy investment in Texas.