eat them up, yumm!
--Thanks to Anjela for sending me this story on the current situation of ocean critters and the potential harm our love of dipping them in melted butter can have. An excerpt:
"Stop by the seafood section of a typical supermarket these days, and you'll see a vivid testimony to the bounty of the oceans: piles of snowy white North Atlantic cod, glistening red snapper, and thick swordfish, halibut, and sea bass. But beneath this display of abundance lurks the reality that many popular fish will soon be missing from fish markets because large numbers of them are already missing from the oceans.
Last month the National Marine Fisheries Service and ocean conservation group Oceana listed species that have declined as much as 90 percent from their estimated original populations. And earlier in the fall, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, a blue-ribbon panel appointed by President Bush, released a study warning that too many marine species are being extracted from the oceans faster than they can reproduce.
While there is growing consensus about an impending underwater crisis, there is less agreement regarding what to do about it – particularly as it concerns the behavior of consumers, whose appetite for seafood seems to be growing with each passing year.
Americans ate a record 16.3 pounds of fish and shellfish per person in 2003, up from 15.6 pounds in 2002, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now, say ocean activists, these seafood lovers will also have to learn to be stewards of the seas' bounty – or risk seeing their favorite fish disappear forever."
The fishing industry is odd in that it is one of the few sources of food that is reaped without being sowed. Just recently have folks started to realize that we need to play a larger part in regulating our wild harvests. Alaska has been particularly progressive in this respect but no system has proven to be perfect.
Fish farming has proven itself to be a pretty horrible idea--especially in nations like Chile that have set up the slimmest of standards (warning: steer clear of salmon purchased at Costco, as it is generally raised in Chilean farms. Shit, steer clear of any salmon not bearing a wild catch logo of some kind.)
*** *** ***
--Strange story of a corporate jet (a Gulfsteam V turbojet) owned by folks who seem to exist only on paper that has been used by the US to transport "hooded and handcuffed passengers" since 2001. This is from today's Washington Post article on the subject:
" . . . the agency is flying captured terrorist suspects from one country to another for detention and interrogation.
The CIA calls this activity "rendition." Premier Executive's Gulfstream helps make it possible. According to civilian aircraft landing permits, the jet has permission to use U.S. military airfields worldwide.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, secret renditions have become a principal weapon in the CIA's arsenal against suspected al Qaeda terrorists, according to congressional testimony by CIA officials. But as the practice has grown, the agency has had significantly more difficulty keeping it secret.
According to airport officials, public documents and hobbyist plane spotters, the Gulfstream V, with tail number N379P, has been used to whisk detainees into or out of Jakarta, Indonesia; Pakistan; Egypt; and Sweden, usually at night, and has landed at well-known U.S. government refueling stops.
As the outlines of the rendition system have been revealed, criticism of the practice has grown. Human rights groups are working on legal challenges to renditions, said Morton Sklar, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA, because one of their purposes is to transfer captives to countries that use harsh interrogation methods outlawed in the United States. That, he said, is prohibited by the U.N. Convention on Torture. "
Kind of weird. The term "rendition" scares me.
"Stop by the seafood section of a typical supermarket these days, and you'll see a vivid testimony to the bounty of the oceans: piles of snowy white North Atlantic cod, glistening red snapper, and thick swordfish, halibut, and sea bass. But beneath this display of abundance lurks the reality that many popular fish will soon be missing from fish markets because large numbers of them are already missing from the oceans.
Last month the National Marine Fisheries Service and ocean conservation group Oceana listed species that have declined as much as 90 percent from their estimated original populations. And earlier in the fall, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, a blue-ribbon panel appointed by President Bush, released a study warning that too many marine species are being extracted from the oceans faster than they can reproduce.
While there is growing consensus about an impending underwater crisis, there is less agreement regarding what to do about it – particularly as it concerns the behavior of consumers, whose appetite for seafood seems to be growing with each passing year.
Americans ate a record 16.3 pounds of fish and shellfish per person in 2003, up from 15.6 pounds in 2002, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Now, say ocean activists, these seafood lovers will also have to learn to be stewards of the seas' bounty – or risk seeing their favorite fish disappear forever."
The fishing industry is odd in that it is one of the few sources of food that is reaped without being sowed. Just recently have folks started to realize that we need to play a larger part in regulating our wild harvests. Alaska has been particularly progressive in this respect but no system has proven to be perfect.
Fish farming has proven itself to be a pretty horrible idea--especially in nations like Chile that have set up the slimmest of standards (warning: steer clear of salmon purchased at Costco, as it is generally raised in Chilean farms. Shit, steer clear of any salmon not bearing a wild catch logo of some kind.)
*** *** ***
--Strange story of a corporate jet (a Gulfsteam V turbojet) owned by folks who seem to exist only on paper that has been used by the US to transport "hooded and handcuffed passengers" since 2001. This is from today's Washington Post article on the subject:
" . . . the agency is flying captured terrorist suspects from one country to another for detention and interrogation.
The CIA calls this activity "rendition." Premier Executive's Gulfstream helps make it possible. According to civilian aircraft landing permits, the jet has permission to use U.S. military airfields worldwide.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, secret renditions have become a principal weapon in the CIA's arsenal against suspected al Qaeda terrorists, according to congressional testimony by CIA officials. But as the practice has grown, the agency has had significantly more difficulty keeping it secret.
According to airport officials, public documents and hobbyist plane spotters, the Gulfstream V, with tail number N379P, has been used to whisk detainees into or out of Jakarta, Indonesia; Pakistan; Egypt; and Sweden, usually at night, and has landed at well-known U.S. government refueling stops.
As the outlines of the rendition system have been revealed, criticism of the practice has grown. Human rights groups are working on legal challenges to renditions, said Morton Sklar, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA, because one of their purposes is to transfer captives to countries that use harsh interrogation methods outlawed in the United States. That, he said, is prohibited by the U.N. Convention on Torture. "
Kind of weird. The term "rendition" scares me.
posted by sqrl at 1:11 PM
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