Small Fish, Big Apple

Big Changes at Small Fish

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 05:11:00 +0000

Small Fish, Big Apple is dead. Long live Small Fish, Big Red! The holiday is over for me, I have accepted a job in Perth, Western Australia and left the Big Apple. Perth is one of the most geographically isolated cities in the world. It is more than 2000 km from the next city of >1 million people. It is geographically closer to East Timor, Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia, than it is to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. According to Wikipedia, it is the antipode of Hamilton, Bermuda. Living here is...

Japanese Scientists Publish Results From "Scientific" Whaling Program

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:09:00 +0000

Japan has been roundly criticized by many commentators over the past two decades for it's “scientific” whaling program, with many saying the program is no more than commercial whale hunting in disguise. Japanese scientists have finally published data from this program in Popular Biology, and their findings aren’t good: whales are getting skinnier, and global warming might be at fault: Japan's scientists claim their controversial whaling programme has produced a key finding. Measurements taken from more...

Climate Change "Skeptic" Admits He Was Wrong.

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:28:00 +0000

James Hrynyshyn at The Island of Doubt has a post up this morning which describes a rapid about-face performed by climate change denialist Steven Goddard of The Register. We all make mistakes. And even the most humble among us can be a little self-righteous when it comes to our pet projects. But when was the last time you came across a self-righteous pseudo-skeptic who had the decency to admit to getting it completely wrong? Meet Steven Goddard of The Register, a peculiar little news outlet published in...

Moving Toward a Global Biodiversity Observation and Measurement System

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:00:00 +0000

From Science Magazine: Biodiversity is a composite term used to embrace the variety of types, forms, spatial arrangements, processes, and interactions of biological systems at all scales and levels of organization, from genes to species and ecosystems, along with the evolutionary history that led to their existence. In part because of this complexity, universally applicable measures of biodiversity have proven elusive. Commonly used measures, such as the number of species present, are strongly...

Teenage DNA Detectives Expose US Fish Fraud

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:25:00 +0000

New Scientist magazine is carrying the story of two classmates from New York's Trinity School who collected 60 fish samples from fish stores and restaurants around New York. They then sent their samples off to the University of Guelph in Canada for DNA testing. Of 56 samples that could be identified by the DNA barcoding identification technique, 14 were mislabeled as an entirely different species. "We never expected these results. People should get what they pay for," said Kate Stoeckle, 18, of the project...

New Regulation Would Lessen Influence of Fish and Wildlife Experts

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:56:00 +0000

The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) has been at the center of some of the fiercest environmental battles in the history of the United States. It has been the law which has held up big dams, helped bring iconic species such as the bald eagle back from the brink, and been used by environmentalists battling loggers over old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. For these reasons the ESA is often demonised by those who prefer business as usual to biodiversity preservation. The Bush Administration, with...

Beautiful Sailfish Photographs

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:06:00 +0000

Amazing underwater shots of sailfish feeding on a school of sardines, from National Geographic: Source: Paul Nicklen @ National Geographic Source: Paul Nicklen @ National Geographic Source: Paul Nicklen @ National Geographic More photos here.

The US EPA is Dysfunctional

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:30:00 +0000

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and with safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land. The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2, 1970. Over the first 30 years of its existence the EPA played an important role and acted decisively to live up to its mandate of protecting human health and safeguarding the natural environment. Today however the...

More Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) Ornithological Geekery

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:03:00 +0000

Source: wikimedia.org Since I posted about Jonathan Meiburg's (not so) secret life as a bird nerd the other day I have been pointed to this series of videos on YouTube: Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater gives a tour of the Falkland Islands. As part of a survey team from Falklands Conservation and the Edinburgh Zoo, he searches for Striated Caracaras or, "Johnny Rook".There are some lovely shots of all kinds of non-birdy wildlife of the Falklands in these videos.

Murray River Lower Lakes Beyond Salvation

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Source: Alex Schrader www.abc.net.au The Australian Federal Water Minister, Penny Wong, has announced that due to the extended drought, the Murray River's lower lakes appear to now be beyond salvation. Lying near the mouth of the Murray in SA, the lakes have been listed as internationally protected wetlands under the Ramsar Convention. They host a large number of plants, animals and migratory birds. Back in July I wrote that: Australia’s worst drought in 100 years, which has already cost the nation $20...

Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg is a Bird Nerd

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:04:00 +0000

Source: Scientific American Here at Small Fish, Big Apple we love Shearwater. We really, really love them. Their new record "Rook" is on high rotate right now at the Small Fish, Big Apple Headquarters. If you don't know Shearwater then you can go here to check out a few songs. Jonathan Meiburg from Shearwater (formerly of Okkervil River) is the subject of a fascinating interview in Scientific American this week, where he talks about field work he did studying the Striated Caracara in the...

Exxon-Mobil and Climate Change Deniers

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:37:00 +0000

From David McKnight in The Age this morning: In May this year, the multibillion-dollar oil giant Exxon-Mobil ... announced that it would cease funding nine groups that had fuelled a global campaign to deny climate change. Exxon's decision comes after a shareholder revolt by members of the Rockefeller family and big superannuation funds to get the oil giant to take climate change more seriously. Exxon (once Standard Oil) was founded by the legendary John D. Rockefeller. Last year, the chairman of the US...

Leopard vs Crocodile: who would win?

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:03:00 +0000

Check out this amazing series of photos to find out. Source: Hal Brindley

Sustainable Seafood: Part 4 - Can sustainable seafood guides help protect the environment?

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:18:00 +0000

Part 4 in a series of posts about sustainable seafood. Part 1 - This is the post that started me thinking about the problem. Part 2 - Sustainable Seafood: Part 2 - What is sustainability? Part 3 - Sustainable Seafood: Part 3 - How does sustainability relate to seafood? I described in previous posts what sustainability is, and how it relates to seafood. In this post I want to talk about guides to buying sustainably produced seafood. When we buy a product we become a party to the production of that...

Another Awesome Kenyan Wildlife Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:37:00 +0000

As a marine ecologist I have a serious fascination for terrestrial ecology blogs, and I've stumbled across another stunner - Notes From Kenya. It's a blog written by Michigan State University students in the Holekamp Lab, about their experiences in Kenya as they research spotted hyenas in the field. Source: Brittany Gunther at Notes From Kenya Brittany Gunther took this amazing photo last week of a fight between a group of spotted hyenas and a lioness. Note the fourth hyena visible under the lion's...

Sustainable Seafood: Part 3 - How does sustainability relate to seafood?

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:20:00 +0000

Part 3 in a series of posts about sustainable seafood. Part 1 - This is the post that started me thinking about the problem. Part 2 - Sustainable Seafood: Part 2 - What is sustainability? Sustainable Seafood: Part 3 - How does sustainability relate to seafood? From MarineBio: "Fish currently supply the greatest percentage of the world's protein consumed by humans. This fact may soon change, however, given that most of the world's major fisheries are being fished at levels above their maximum sustainable...

Sustainable Seafood: Part 2 - What is sustainability?

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:49:00 +0000

I wrote a post about sustainably caught seafood a few weeks back (available here), but this issue is still causing me considerable grief, so I thought that I would revisit the topic in a series of short posts summarizing the problem as I see it. Sustainable Seafood: Part 2 - What is sustainability? The concept of sustainability has been around for a long time. Now it is a buzzword which is often heard when people are talking about the environment and environmental degredation. It was a word which began...

Scientists Slam Climate Change Deniers

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:48:00 +0000

New Zealand's national science academy, the Royal Society (RSNZ), has challenged climate change "deniers", issuing a statement declaring unequivocally that the globe is warming and that humans are to blame. "The globe is warming because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions," the society said, reporting the findings of an expert committee on climate. In summary, the statement says: The globe is warming because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Measurements show that greenhouse gas...

Australian Drought Expected to Worsen and Alter River Basin Ecology

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Source: Alex Schrader www.abc.net.auFrom Reuters:Australia’s worst drought in 100 years, which has already cost the nation $20 billion dollars since 2002, is likely to become even more severe and cause permanent ecological changes in the country’s breadbasket, the Murray-Darling river basin, government officials said.Alexandrina Council which manages the environment at the Murray mouth and lower lakes region says emergency water flows are needed or the river system will soon be beyond repair. Neil...

Ballast Free Cargo Ship

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Source: Conservation Magazine online. Illustration courtesy of University of Michigan. The introduction of exotic species into new environments can pose a major threat to the integrity of natural communities, the existence of rare and endangered species, the viability of living resource-based industries and pose risks to human health. In the marine environment, any mechanism that can rapidly transport organisms from shallow coastal waters across natural oceanic barriers has the potential to help exotic...

Antarctic Fishing Pirates Identified

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:12:00 +0000

Source: www.NZHerald.co.nz From the New Zealand Herald: An international fishing company caught supporting Southern Ocean illegal fishing can now be named and shamed, after a failed attempt to gag the government in the High Court, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said today. "Illegal fishing is a serious threat to global fisheries and this case shines a light on the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the Southern Ocean," Mr Anderton said. "The...

Why Can't We Just Be Friends?

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:14:00 +0000

What with all this fighting between Invertebrates and Vertebrates, I get thinking why do we have to fight? Why can't we learn from the cleaner fish? From New Scientist: Peacemakers should look to the cleaner fish as a role model. In the coral reef world at least, all it takes to keep an aggressive predator in check and bystanders safe is good service and a gentle rub. Cleaner fish remove and eat the parasites off other fish, exchanging a...

Spectacular Pictures of Bugs

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:58:00 +0000

Over at Dark Roasted Blend they have curated an amazing selection of Scanning Election Micrographs (SEM) and macro photographs of insect heads. There are some amazingly beautiful pictures of some spectacularly ugly creatures. Source: The Oklahoma Microscopy Society Source: Martin Amm

More Amazing Golden Ray Photo's

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:07:00 +0000

I've previously posted about Golden Rays here. Here are some more photos, from the Telegraph this time:Source: www.telegraph.com More photo's here.

The Mara Triangle - Best Wildlife Blog On The Web. Read It! Donate!

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony Judd) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Kenyan ranger and blogger Joseph Kimojino. Source Wired Magazine. Emily Meehan of Wired covered this story at the end of May. Basically as told by Wired the story goes like this: A ranger in Kenya's acclaimed Mara Triangle wildlife park Kimojino is a member of the Masai tribe. He first learned how to click a computer mouse in November. Now he blogs about the Mara Triangle and posts wild animal photos on Flickr nearly every day. Kimojino's online outreach is an effort to raise awareness and money for the...