Sunday, September 19, 2021

learning US History all over again

 Reading the extraordinary 2014 volume "An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States", by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, is like a fresh breeze into your mind, causing a re-visioning of much of what we think we've learned about US History.

Although many of us can say we "know this", it's disturbing to learn the extent to which our society is built on the genocide of native people in the Americas, and has been for several hundred years. This is a book that may keep you up at night.


Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Rewilding: what is it, why does it merit our attention?

 


More about "rewilding", how we wuld do it, what it means: "Rewilding is comprehensive, often large-scale, conservation effort focused on restoring sustainable biodiversity and ecosystem health by protecting core wild/wilderness areas, providing connectivity between such areas, and protecting or reintroducing apex predators and highly interactive species (keystone species). The shorthand definition of Rewilding is the "3 C's"--conservation of Cores, Corridors, and Carnivores. The ultimate goal of rewilding efforts is to mitigate the species extinction crisis and restore healthy and sustainable ecosystem function in areas that require little or no human intervention or management." https://rewilding.org/what-is-rewilding/ Learn more: https://rewilding.org/ https://rewildingeurope.com/what-is-rewilding-2/

Monday, May 3, 2021

Conservation of Global Fisheries

Learn more about conservation of global fisheries:

 "HARVEST STRATEGY SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS"


"The harvest strategy approach has been well studied by scientists from around the globe as they seek to understand how to best implement this type of management for various species, each with their own set of biological characteristics and environmental conditions. The process by which this policy is shaped at different organizations varies, and these studies look to those processes to help outline and recommend best practices for successful development of a harvest strategy."

 https://harveststrategies.org/

International Fisheries Conservation Program

 "The International Fisheries Conservation Project seeks to catalyze development of a system to ensure the long-term sustainable management of marine fisheries globally. Since 2013, TOF has promoted science-based management of tunas in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through its Global Tuna Conservation Project, and in 2019, launched the International Fisheries Conservation Project to build on our success over the last six years and to take a more holistic, global approach."

 https://oceanfdn.org/projects/international-fisheries-conservation-program/

A Healthy Ocean Depends on Sustainably Managed Fisheries

"The health of our ocean and inland waters and the livelihoods of millions of people all depend on well-managed fisheries. Fish and other seafood products provide vital nutrients for more than three billion people around the globe and supply an income for 10 to 12 percent of the world’s population. From small-scale mussel and sea urchin fisheries along the Humboldt Current in South America, to nearshore octopus fisheries in Kenya, to the freshwater fisheries of the U.S. Great Lakes and industrial tuna fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific—these diverse species are essential to healthy ecosystems and resilient communities."

https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/provide-food-and-water-sustainably/food-and-water-stories/global-fisheries/ 

 Threats and Overfishing

"Fishing is one of the most significant drivers of declines in ocean wildlife populations. Catching fish is not inherently bad for the ocean, except for when vessels catch fish faster than stocks can replenish, something called overfishing.

The number of overfished stocks globally has tripled in half a century and today fully one-third of the world's assessed fisheries are currently pushed beyond their biological limits, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Overfishing is closely tied to bycatch—the capture of unwanted sea life while fishing for a different species. This, too, is a serious marine threat that causes the needless loss of billions of fish, along with hundreds of thousands of sea turtles and cetaceans."

  https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing