Led by stiff Japanese lobbying, last week the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species “rejected a proposal by Monaco and the United States to ban international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, which is spiraling toward extinction.”
“Stocks of Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin dropped by more than 70 percent between 1957 and 2007, and by more than 60 percent in the last decade alone. But numbers like these are never really persuasive when commercial interests stand to lose, whether talking about tuna or sharks or salmon.” Opinion from The New York Times.
Marine ecologists, like Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, have been tracking the recent migrations of great white sharks near Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, and believe the creatures may be much more “migratory” than “coastal”–often tracking food sources like giant squid for great distances.
The recent research is altering many long-held beliefs about the feeding patterns and food items of the iconic, though greatly misunderstood, species: “The squid part is controversial. But Domeier’s work and that of other scientists increasingly suggests that great white sharks are not randomly roving eating machines,” writes Jill Leovy of The Las Angeles Times.
“Instead, they obey set migration patterns, have distinct populations and return to the same locales. They are not desperadoes but dutiful migrants: Nomads but not outlaws, they yearn for home.”
The 2009 documentary “The Cove”–a film about a small Japanese fishing village (Taiji) where legal dolphin hunting still occurs–has won the Oscar for best documentary film at the 82nd Academy Awards. The Japanese government and mayor of Taiji, however, believe the movie has unfairly depicted the village’s long history and traditions of hunting the sea.
“In a statement reported by The Associated Press, the office of the mayor of Taiji defended the village’s practices and said ‘The Cove’ contained statements that were not based on science. ‘There are different food traditions within Japan and around the world,’ the statement said. ‘It is important to respect and understand regional food cultures, which are based on traditions with long histories,’” reports Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times.
John Bradley of Outside investigates the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the long history of excluding mountain bikers from “this country’s 170,000 square miles of Wilderness.”
The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA)–an advocacy group from Boulder, Colorado–is doing its best to stem the tide: “IMBA works with environmental groups, land agencies, and legislators to create nuanced ‘companion designations’ for new Wilderness areas. These congressional designations, like National Conservation Area, National Recreation Area, and National Protection Area, offer many of the same safeguards as Wilderness regulations but without the bike ban.”
In February, Portland, Oregon’s City Council voted unanimously to adopt the 2030 Portland Bicycle Plan, which the city, its residents, and the Office of Transportation hope will create inertia towards their collective vision of turning Portland into the United State’s most bike-friendly city.
Some detractors, like John Charles of the Cascade Policy Institute, are wondering if the 20-year plan is thinking too far ahead: “[He] wonders why, when technology and culture are changing at a rapid pace, Portland is planning 20 years into the future. He compared it to a business in 1980 committing to 20 years of IBM typewriter purchases, unaware that the computer revolution was on the horizon.”
In 2006 two professional kayakers–Montana’s Seth Warren and Tyler Bradt–decided to travel (and paddle) more than 21,000 miles (Alaska to Argentina) in a red Toyota firetruck (“Baby”) which was retrofitted to run on vegetable oil. The highly regarded film Oil + Waterdocumented their environmental activism and adventure.
