According to this year’s report, Americans consumed a total of 4.908 billion pounds of seafood in 2007, slightly less than the 4.944 billion pounds in 2006. The average American ate 16.3 pounds of fish and shellfish in 2007, a one percent decline from the 2006 consumption figures of 16.5 pounds. But what most concerns scientists is the growth in imported farm-raised seafood coupled with declines global fishstocks.
Who could possibly find anything bad to say about eating locally? After all, what’s the downside to dining on wild blackberries, dandelion greens, home-grown tomatoes and fresh-caught alligator snapping turtles?
Wait, what was that last one again?
Well, here in this corner of Northwest Florida I call home (and they don’t call it the “Redneck Riviera” for nothing), that’s a discussion that’s been raging this week. Seems a family from Jay, an inland (i.e., far from the touristy beaches) community, recently caught a 100-pound alligator snapping turtle … and decided to eat it.
Long-tailed macaques eat mostly fruit — but when resources are scarce, they’ve been known to get creative with their cuisine. When living near humans, they raid gardens and learn to beg for food. Sometimes they even steal food from inside houses.
Now, for the first time, scientists have observed long-tailed macaques fishing with their bare hands.
For every Muslim, Halal or ‘permissible’ in Arabic means that it passes the test, as far as food is concerned. This will certainly include correct handling procedures and many more practices.
But the question that has dogged Muslims for centuries has always been how to catch fish, using permissible methods that do not damage the environment.
“Lawful to you is the pursuit of water-game (fishing) and its use for food, for the benefit of yourselves and those who travel” (Surah Al-Maida, v. 96)
Dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing, and bottom trawling are all fishing techniques that may cause habitat destruction. A 2006 article in Science magazine said bottom trawling, the practice of pulling a fishing net along the sea bottom behind trawlers, removes around 5 to 25% of an area’s seabed life on a single run.
Cape Cod has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve just finished Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, which included a vivid depiction of the Provincetown restaurant scene. As a childhood frequenter of the Cape, I have fond memories of eating my way up and down the elbow. The fried clam shacks, Portuguese fish stews and fresh lobsters are essential pieces of the landscape, inspired by a strong and historical tradition of living off the sea. To eat on Cape Cod is to understand how food informs culture and strengthens community.
An entire army of day fisherman have, for decades, gone out into the deep green Atlantic, returning at dusk with enough fresh cod, haddock and bass to support a family. Beginning in the 1500s, Portuguese fishermen from Cape Verde and the Canary islands set up fishing shacks to take advantage of the rich summer months (and the Kennedys thought they were the first to summer on the Cape…) Eventually, these fisherman began to make their permanent homes along this stretch of New England coast as they discovered the abundance of year-round fish stocks.
But now, despite its decidedly nautical culture, the Cape is suffering from a deficiency of fish.
Most of Earth might be covered with water, but the large population of bipedal animals that crowd the planet’s land masses is doing its best to leave its imprint on the oceans as well.
A new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finds that humans have had a heavy impact on more than 40 percent of the world’s oceans. That’s an [...]
We send out fishermen in all weathers to the North Sea – a brutal piece of water that is freezing and ravaged by storms - and we demand they come back with nets heaving with our favourite fish.
Cod.
To supply our favourite dish. Cod and chips.
It’s time for a rethink. We’re gorging on creatures that can’t breed fast enough to keep up with governmental ineptitude.
Fish stocks around the British Isles are approaching extinction. European Union (EU) legislation is crazy.
According to the USDA's annual statistics survey, 10 billion animals are killed for human consumption every year in the United States. (Worldwide, I believe it’s 45 billion.) However, it is more accurate to say that “10 billion land animals are killed for human consumption every year"; otherwise, we’re disregarding the billions of aquatic animals killed for the same purpose – to satisfy human appetites. Although the number of aquatic animals killed for consumption in
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This post isn’t exactly related to my daily accounts of clean energy goings-on, but since I’ve been hunting since I was 12 (don’t ask about my record), it caught my eye.
The impacts of global warming are starting to hit home for a lot of us, and those out in nature see some of the earliest effects. In Culebra Creek, Colorado, locals are reporting very early run-off from the mountains. This means less water
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