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?

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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If you’re into saving whales and a fan of Greenpeace, this might be your chance to get a bit more acquainted with both.

Greenpeace’s Organizing Team is accepting applications for its Spring 2010 Student Activist Training. As a Greenpeace Student Activist, you can become a leader in the environmental movement.

Greenpeace says that this program, located in both Washington, DC and San Francisco, is the best hands-on training for student activists. A semester of activism and training, the program entails grassroots organizing fundamentals as well as instruction in media, campaign strategy and direct action. Over fifty trainings are included in the program.

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This is some of the best conservation news I've heard in ages. The island nation of Palau has decided to ban shark fishing in its waters, a territory of ocean about the size of Texas.  The New York Times points out that the tiny, impoverished nation of 20,000 is going to have trouble policing the ban, but it still remains an important step in the preservation of the oceans.


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Scuba diver and photographer Marco Queral has been taking incredible photographs with, and of, humpback whales for some time. I was initially worried that Queral might be harassing the whales, but based on comments he's made in interviews, he waits for the whales to make the first move. Queral seems to be both extraordinarily patient, and deeply respectful towards the 50-foot mammals. He relies on their own curiosity, and is very much aware that they are not toys.

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