Welcome to EcoLife! This blog, which is hosted by Portland State University students, aims to motivate, inform, and inspire change. We want you to learn about the complicated issues surrounding homelessness, while going beyond the tip of the iceberg. We hope to establish a connection with you through our posts regarding the lives and experiences of homeless individuals, expressed in these numerous stories and articles. We hope you enjoy our blog!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Last of the Bluefin Tuna?
The Last of the Bluefin Tuna?: "The fish is in on the brink of extinction due to poor stewardship. What can be done to save the species?..."
ARRR MATEY
Pirate Fishing,
Pirate fishing, also known as illegal fishing, is estimated to account for a loss of more than four billion dollars globally each year. That is without mentioning the destruction to the marine ecosystem that it causes (destroying ocean life). Pirate fishermen fish the ocean waters without regulations. They don’t report their catch, often selling their fish to ports where it blends in with legal fish, making it impossible for buyers to differentiate. Pirate fishing is more common in waters that have less regulation, where it is harder for local governments and fishing communities to catch the pirate fishing vessels. These illegal fishermen have no care about the destruction they are doing by overfishing the waters and leaving local fishing communities in despair. Regulating the illegal fishing market would greatly help our cause of creating a more sustainable fishing environment.
By
Nathaniel Germaneri
Source: Greenpeace.org
Pirate fishing, also known as illegal fishing, is estimated to account for a loss of more than four billion dollars globally each year. That is without mentioning the destruction to the marine ecosystem that it causes (destroying ocean life). Pirate fishermen fish the ocean waters without regulations. They don’t report their catch, often selling their fish to ports where it blends in with legal fish, making it impossible for buyers to differentiate. Pirate fishing is more common in waters that have less regulation, where it is harder for local governments and fishing communities to catch the pirate fishing vessels. These illegal fishermen have no care about the destruction they are doing by overfishing the waters and leaving local fishing communities in despair. Regulating the illegal fishing market would greatly help our cause of creating a more sustainable fishing environment.
By
Nathaniel Germaneri
Source: Greenpeace.org
Monday, February 8, 2010
We’re Running Out of Time
By Pontus Abelt
Each year we consume thousands of tons of wild tuna although we know that the stock is rapidly decreasing. For over five decades, the world’s leading fishing countries have been in denial, believing the world’s oceans impossible to drain. Thus, we have ignored the alarming reports and treated our oceans as a thriving food bank where everything is inexhaustible and exploitable. As a result of our hegemonic views of the earth’s most valuable resource, 75% of our ocean marine life is now on the verge of collapse.
However, the world’s legislators have finally recognized the issue and solutions are being discussed, where France takes the first step suggesting a ban on all trade of tuna. We’re running out of time, and decisions have to be made fast according to Dr. Sylvia Earle (2009) who argues that the wild bluefin tuna stock could be gone within the next five years. Both France and Italy are now willing to ban the trade of tuna, and instead focus on sustainable tuna fisheries along the Atlantic coast and Mediterranean Sea. Both countries are waiting for other EU nations to follow their initiative to stop fishing tuna to increase the wild bluefin tuna stock.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
You Can Take Action Now
By Jennifer Winward
Do you want to help stop overfishing? There is something you can do to help! The environmental organization OCEANA has put together a letter to President Obama, urging him to help protect the world's oceans. This includes overfishing, irresponsible fishing practices, injuring of wildlife, destruction of habitats and mercury contamination. All you have to do is fill in your name, e-mail and address on the form they provide. It is so simple, but it has a huge impact. So what are you waiting for? Click here to go right to the form!
Do you want to help stop overfishing? There is something you can do to help! The environmental organization OCEANA has put together a letter to President Obama, urging him to help protect the world's oceans. This includes overfishing, irresponsible fishing practices, injuring of wildlife, destruction of habitats and mercury contamination. All you have to do is fill in your name, e-mail and address on the form they provide. It is so simple, but it has a huge impact. So what are you waiting for? Click here to go right to the form!
Fish 2 Fork Campaign for sustainable fisheries and responsible restaurants
"Food is the new fur for the celebrity with a conscience" is an article that talks about how celebrities are getting on board the sustainable foods market. Various portals are being utilized to get their message to the public. Spearheaded by Charles Clover, a well know journalist and author of the documentaries namesake, celebrities are asking restaurants to become fish-friendly by not serving endangered fish in their restaurants and we should too. Customer reviews and fish-friendly rated restaurants can be found at the fish2fork website. Ted Danson has narrated the documentary on sustainable fishing. The movie is called "The End Of the Line." It is a graphic testimonial about the over-fishing and unnecessary death occurring in our oceans. I would encourage you to peruse the fish2fork website for gains made by Charles Clover and the WWF.
-Kristin McGlothen
View Charles at: Are you ordering fish tonight?
-Kristin McGlothen
View Charles at: Are you ordering fish tonight?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Test your knowledge
Check out this quiz on sustainable fisheries and see how well you know our ocean's current situation.
Click here for quiz
Click here for quiz
Quotas and Other Efforts
By: Travis Lien
One important way that organizations and governments are trying to protect the bluefin tuna is with quotas. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which was formed in 1966 out of fear of tuna extinction, created an invisible “management line” in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to help direct catch limits, or quotas. However, the commission ignored scientists and set quotas at double the recommended level. Several years later, when catches declined significantly because of tuna population declines and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora threatened to list tuna, the commission finally reduced quotas to sustainable levels, although a little too late. To make the situation even more ridiculous, a consultant was hired a few years later by exporters of tuna who, not surprisingly, determined no management changes were needed, affected consecutive quota increases, and blamed resulting population declines on environmental changes. This brings us nearly to the present, where quotas are meaningless because the amount of bluefin tuna available isn’t even enough to reach the quotas.
One brilliant idea has been proposed to save the tuna’s future. The idea calls for a 5-year moratorium of all bluefin tuna fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, their spawning grounds, each year during the spawning season; January through June. This would ensure that maximum spawning occurs over a long enough period to allow for significant population recovery. Imagine the moratorium being repeated every 15 or 20 years and the bluefin tuna responding so well that their status is no longer a problem. With some hard work, raising awareness, and a few more classes devoted to the cause, I believe these changes are possible.
Safina, Carl, and Dane H. Klinger. "Collapse of Bluefin Tuna in the Western Atlantic." Conservation Biology 22.2 (2008): 243-46. EBSCO Host. Society for Conservation Biology, 2008. Web. 2 Feb. 2010..
One important way that organizations and governments are trying to protect the bluefin tuna is with quotas. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, which was formed in 1966 out of fear of tuna extinction, created an invisible “management line” in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to help direct catch limits, or quotas. However, the commission ignored scientists and set quotas at double the recommended level. Several years later, when catches declined significantly because of tuna population declines and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora threatened to list tuna, the commission finally reduced quotas to sustainable levels, although a little too late. To make the situation even more ridiculous, a consultant was hired a few years later by exporters of tuna who, not surprisingly, determined no management changes were needed, affected consecutive quota increases, and blamed resulting population declines on environmental changes. This brings us nearly to the present, where quotas are meaningless because the amount of bluefin tuna available isn’t even enough to reach the quotas.
One brilliant idea has been proposed to save the tuna’s future. The idea calls for a 5-year moratorium of all bluefin tuna fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, their spawning grounds, each year during the spawning season; January through June. This would ensure that maximum spawning occurs over a long enough period to allow for significant population recovery. Imagine the moratorium being repeated every 15 or 20 years and the bluefin tuna responding so well that their status is no longer a problem. With some hard work, raising awareness, and a few more classes devoted to the cause, I believe these changes are possible.
Safina, Carl, and Dane H. Klinger. "Collapse of Bluefin Tuna in the Western Atlantic." Conservation Biology 22.2 (2008): 243-46. EBSCO Host. Society for Conservation Biology, 2008. Web. 2 Feb. 2010.
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