Conservation – Page 36 – Southern Fried Science

Shark shooter identified, but has he broken any laws?

March 31, 2011March 31, 2011 David Shiffman 18 Comments

Earlier this month, a video of fishermen shooting a rifle at sharks appeared on YouTube and caused quite a stir. The video has since been removed, but not before shark conservation activists made copies (warning: the videos are extremely graphic and have inappropriate language). Apparently some computers can access the site with the videos and others can’t, if you can’t access the site and want a copy of the videos just let me know. All images in this post are screenshots from the video.

Severely injured great white shark found, are scientists responsible?

March 29, 2011May 3, 2011 David Shiffman 125 Comments

Conservation, Popular Culture, Science

[Editor’s Notice – Comments have been suspended on this post. Please visit “Full video of injured shark shows numerous natural injuries” for an update on this controversy]

Last summer, I reviewed National Geographic’s “Expedition Great White” and interviewed the lead scientist. Several researchers and conservationists were concerned about the methods that Dr. Michael Domeier uses to study great white sharks, particularly after one shark was “foul hooked” through the gills. These methods (removing captured great white sharks from the water to study them using a forklift-like structure) make for excellent television, but may be harmful to the sharks. As I reported last year:

Indian Ocean Tuna Commission Rejects Shark Conservation Policies

March 24, 2011 David Shiffman 1 Comment

Conservation, Science

Last week, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission held their annual meeting in Sri Lanka. As one of the few international fisheries policy organizations in the region, the IOTC is also responsible for management of billfish and sharks. Several new shark conservation policies were proposed this year. These included species-specific protections for hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks, closing loopholes in existing policies that ban finning sharks and discarding the bodies at sea, and requiring fishermen to collect and report more types of data on their shark bycatch. All of these proposals were rejected.

Biodiversity Wednesday: South Carolina’s Santee Cooper Lake System

March 23, 2011March 23, 2011 David Shiffman 3 Comments

Conservation, Science

As part of our Biodiversity Wednesday series, we’ve discussed amazing ecosystems all over the world. This week’s post will focus on an area a little closer to home (at least a little closer to my home). The Santee Cooper lake system, home to unique fish and a fascinating history, is less than an hour from Charleston. If you’ve ever driven on I-95 through South Carolina, you’ve gone right over it.

SanteeCooper — The Santee-Cooper system is marked with a white arrow. Image created with Google Earth

Grok my Flock

March 14, 2011March 13, 2011 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

Conservation

The Nicholas School of the Environment is hosting the Flat Grok Video Contest. We are on an unsustainable course. While world populations and consumption grow, resources diminish and global warming threatens our way of life. In his blog The Green Grok, Dr. Bill Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, elucidates … Read More “Grok my Flock” »

State of the Field: Shark Conservation Policies

March 1, 2011March 1, 2011 David Shiffman 6 Comments

Conservation, Science

Shark populations around the world are crashing. Researchers have reported that many populations have decreased by 90% or more since the 1970’s. The leading causes for these precipitous declines are bycatch, which kills tens of millions of sharks each year, and the shark fin fishery, which kills as many as 73 million sharks each year. In this edition of State of the Field, I will explain what different countries are doing about this problem.

In many parts of the world, it is still legal to cut the fins off of a still-living shark and dump the rest of the animal overboard where it will bleed to death or drown. Other nations have a variety of management policies.

Dead Zambezi Shark tangled in shark nets — Credit: Fiona Ayerst, Marine Photobank

Call for chapters – Environmental Leadership: A Reference Handbook

March 1, 2011March 1, 2011 Andrew Thaler

Conservation

The Nicholas School of the Environment is seeking scholarly editorial contributions to Environmental Leadership, a 2-volume, 100-chapter reference handbook that is part of the new SAGE Reference Series on Leadership. Chapters are anticipated to be 7000 words. This is a unique opportunity to help define environmental leadership. Academic and public libraries will be able to purchase the handbook as both a printed and a digital product.

Turtle science at the Archie Carr National Wildlife refuge

February 23, 2011February 23, 2011 David Shiffman

Conservation, Science

The high density of sea turtles at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge provides a wonderful opportunity for research, and a team from the University of Central Florida takes full advantage of it. They were kind enough to allow me to tag along.

Shark Science Monday: Nick Dulvy talks about determining shark’s conservation status

February 21, 2011 David Shiffman 2 Comments

Conservation, Science

In this week’s edition of Shark Science Monday, Nick Dulvy, co-chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, discusses how researchers determine the conservation status of shark species. If you have a question for Nick, leave it below and I’ll make sure he sees it.

Terrible Terminal Groins

February 21, 2011February 21, 2011 Bluegrass Blue Crab 7 Comments

Conservation

ft macon — check out the sand loss on Ft. Macon, which has a historic terminal groin, www.sierraclubnc.blogspot.com

Tomorrow a bill will be introduced into the NC House that allows the use of terminal groins to protect private property along the coast, overturning the 1979 ban on hardened structures along the coast. Although NC would join all of the other eastern seaboard states in allowing such protections, the bill, if passed, would also end a long history of attempting to maintain a natural coastline. This natural coastline is why the Outer Banks have become such a popular tourist destination, bringing millions into the state economy each year.

So why might North Carolina leaders turn their back on historical decisions? This year’s General Assembly is under a new majority – for the first time since 1898, led by Republicans. Rising populations along the coast are using this as an opportunity to demand more permanent solutions to shoreline erosion. Previous strategies of beach restoration, inlet channel realignment, and sandbagging are no longer adequate to coastal property owners. However, though terminal groins may seem like an easy solution, they are not as simple as they seem at first glance. It’s these nuances that make them a really bad idea, both for maritime ecology we’ve worked so hard to protect and for the wallets of North Carolinian taxpayers.

Read More “Terrible Terminal Groins” »