Uncategorized
Congratulations to our own WhySharksMatter, who has successfully defended his masters thesis at College of Charleston.
Science
This 2011 Beneath the Waves Film Festival entry comes from UK filmmaker Simon Spear of “View From the Blue”. Porbeagles in Peril explains the plight of the porbeagle shark, a relative of the great white, in UK waters.
Science
All is quiet on the site today because Bluegrass Blue Crab and I are currently in Charleston watching WhySharksMatter’s masters thesis defense. Since y’all can’t be there with us, take a moment to enjoy David’s talk from Benthic Ecology 2011 – Detection of an ontogenetic shift in the diet of a heavily exploited shark species. … Read More “Weekly dose of SHIFF: Detection of an ontogenetic shift in sandbar shark diets” »
Popular Culture
Tomorrow is Earth Day, and unlike years past, we don’t have anything big planned (though something major in the Southern Fried Science World is happening tomorrow). In the mean time, please enjoy this playlist of ocean songs to inspire and remind:
Uncategorized
The squishiness of the term sustainability also offers people pick of what they choose to think about and what kinds of changes they want to make in their lives. I return this week from a week of thinking about spaces of sustainability during the American Assocation of Geographers conference, where the series of sessions entitled “food alterity” was standing room only. One of the speakers started off her talk with the question “why are we all so obsessed with food, what it is about food that gets people excited where we really should be excited about energy”. She went on to give a fascinating talk about who gets to write the grower’s manual for organic strawberries (literally, it’s apparently a power struggle over legitimate knowledge). But her first question really stuck with me.
Conservation
…was a hoax. A report that the Japanese government will scrap all research whaling has been dismissed as a hoax. source So please, stop e-mailing me this: “Effective immediately, Japan will no longer conduct scientific research on whale populations which require capture and dissection,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Makoto Inoue, speaking at a press conference … Read More “The end of whaling in Japan…” »
Popular Culture
Just a reminder that one year ago today, the Deep Water Horizon exploded and sunk into the Gulf of Mexico, taking 11 lives with it and starting a chain of event that resulted in the largest oil blowout in history.
Uncategorized
All people are still dependent on natural resources, but centuries of development complete with urbanization and globalization have removed a large proportion of the world’s population from the production of those natural resources both physically and psychologically. Take, for example, a New York City investment banker. He gets up in the morning, puts on his suit, grabs his coffee and bagel to go, and takes the subway to work where he will trade shares of largely transnational companies. However, each step of his day is connected to and supported by a network of natural resource-based communities: one in India that grew and spun his suit, one in Columbia that grew his coffee, one in North Dakota that grew the wheat for his bagel, and countless others that produce the raw materials for the company he trades. This process of separation means that natural resource dependent communities face both forces of marginalization and empowerment.
Read More “Resource Dependent Communities in a Globalizing World” »
Conservation
Daniel Pauly’s research over the last 20 has provided much of the foundational theory in modern fisheries management. In 5 Easy Pieces, Daniel Pauly presents his five most influential papers, with a concise history of both the intellectual and human motivations that led to each study. The papers that were included in this volume are: Primary Production required to Sustain Global Fisheries, Fishing Down Marine Food Webs, Systematic Distortion in World Fisheries Catch Trends, Towards Sustainability in Global Fisheries, and The Future of Fisheries.
Conservation, Science
This 2011 Beneath the Waves Film Festival entry comes from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Shifting Gears tells the story of longlining in the Gulf of Mexico. If you have a question for the filmmakers, please leave it as a comment below and I’ll make sure they get it.