Whale City

The CoveThe Hump, a high-end Los Angeles sushi restaurant, is now being investigated for illegally serving whale meat to their upscale clientele as a result of a stealthy “investigation” by Mr. Hambleton, who just won an Academy Award for the documentary, “The Cove”.

According to the NYT, Mr. Hambleton fashioned a small-camera and was able to obtain footage of two vegans in the sushi restaurant ordering and being served “thick pink slices” of what the waitress called “whale”. The two vegans then acted squeamish, which they probably were, and shoved the mystery meat into a zip-lock bag in a purse.
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Courtesy of Averette at en.wikipediaWith the recent death of a Sea World trainer in Orlando, Florida the plight of marine mammals in captivity has been brought to light once again and it is important to remember that, while the death of the 40 year old trainer, was rather unfortunate, we must remember that it is the Orcas that are the true victims along with other marine mammals held in captivity. Read more

When we experience progress firsthand, don’t you get so excited? I remember when Taco Bell started paying its tomato pickers fair wages and I was so excited to get a quesadilla from The Bell again! From the Global Gag Rule to passing endangered species laws to getting harmful chemicals banned, we will certainly take what we can get and celebrate every step forward.

It’s the steps backward that make us outraged.

In a move that Greenpeace simply describes as “baffling,” the International Whaling Commission—scratch that, not the entire Commission itself, but a teeny tiny group within the group—is trying to save the whales by reinstating commercial whaling.

That’s like getting people to lose weight by offering them all-you-can-eat buffets every day. Read more

Asian CarpHave you heard about the Asian carp tragedy going on up in the Midwest right now? Lake Michigan, a large Great Lake that juts south from Canada and gave birth to the port towns of Milwaukee and Chicago, is in very real danger of letting in an invasive species of fish that could potentially take over the lake, effectively destroying the fishing industry of the upper Midwest. Michigan currently has a $7 billion fishing industry. So if your $7 billion dollar industry was in danger of dying because of another fish, what would you do? Read more

I'm catching up on my Hulu queue this week, after a big lag over the holidays, so it wasn't until this morning that I saw Charles Moore as Stephen Colbert's interview guest.  Captain Moore is the one who first discovered and identified the Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Gyre while sailing back to Los Angeles from Hawaii.
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I enjoy watching MonsterQuest, but it tends to irritate me.  My feelings towards the show were handily summed up by a quote from the latest episode I watched.  "If ____ happens, the results would be frightening."  Well, sure!  And if crocodiles learned to drive cars, the results would be frightening, too.  What's your point?

The point of their episode "Killer Jellyfish" is that if jellyfish take over the ocean, the results would be frightening.  (Except for some of the clips from night diving in Australia, the point of which was "if these sharks were hungrier, the results would be frightening."  I mean honestly, sharks have it hard enough without the narrator throwing around terms like "feeding frenzy" to describe sharks swimming around peacefully, over a suite of horror movie music, don't you think?)
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Fisheries around the world are in serious trouble, with many facing a complete collapse due to unsustainable and destructive fishing practices that have wrecked havoc with the ocean's ecosystem and depleted many fishing stocks to near extinction. This can pose a dilemma for those seeking the important health benefits of including fish in your regular diet. So how can you still find ways to fit in the important health benefits of seafood in a safe and ocean friendly way?

To find safe, ocean friendly seafood you need to know three things: Read more

Pilot WhaleThis past weekend a mass stranding of pilot whales resulted in the loss of 175 whales to spite the best efforts of many who tried to rescue the struggling animals who were beached in two separate stranding incidences. Read more

Blue WhaleOne of the most eerily enchanting sounds in nature is undoubtedly the mesmerizing song of the blue whale. The song of the blue whale, the largest animal on Earth, can travel several miles away and while the exact nature, content, and purpose of these calls are not yet completely understood by the scientists that study them, researchers have recently discovered a trend in the pitch emitted by the singing whales. Read more

Scientists and the curious, have been paying attention to the songs of whales, especially to those of "Big Blue," the blue whale, since the 1960s. The blue whale, known to scientists as Balaenoptera musculus, a member of the baleen whale group, and the largest animal known to have existed on the Earth, ever. They were close to extinction, after years of over-hunting, and their future was seriously in doubt. But of late, there's been some good news.

Scientists Mark McDonald of WhaleAcoustics in Bellvue, Colo., John Hildebrand of Scripps Oceanography, and Sarah Mesnick of NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center, haven been studying data regarding the songs of blue whales from around the world, and noticed a pattern. The pitch, that is the audio frequency of the songs, has been steadily curbing downward. Read more