Sea Monster

Tag: food

  • Oceans of Garbage

    Great infographic from the folks over at mastersdegree.net. Created by: MastersDegree.net

  • Sahelian riches

    In the latest installment of my reports form West Africa, I visit my first fishing communities and meet some big ugly molluscs…                     For the past few days I’ve been paying my first visits to fishing communities here in the Gambia. I’ve met and chatted with…

  • Glowing transgenic sushi

    It feels a like a flash back to the heyday of black lights and lava lamps, but cutting edge transgenic technology has paved the way to fluorescent sushi. This stuff isn’t available in supermarkets (yet), but all you need is a few pet zebra fish, genetically tweaked to contain the Green Fluorescent Protein GFP (or as…

  • Fish, Sustainability, and Used Cars: Guest post by Dr. Martin Smith

    [Editor’s preface: Yesterday, we opened our discussion of seafood eco-labeling with a guest post by Dr. Tim Essington of the University of Washington. Today we present the second perspective on the Marine Seafood Council’s report on environmental certification of seafood products. Dr. Marty Smith is the Dan and Bunny Gabel Associate Professor of Environmental Economics…

  • Is seafood certification the answer to sustainability? SeaMonster asks Dr. Tim Essington

    [Editor’s preface: How should the conscientious piscivore forage in the complex ecosystem of the modern market? Those of us who love seafood but want to do the right thing are confronted with a blizzard of information and advice  — often conflicting — on the status of marine fish populations and the various management measures intended…

  • California approves fin ban: what next for shark celebrities?

    Sharks fin soup is on the way out in America’s Golden State. Today the California State Senate voted 25-9 to pass a bill that will ban the sale, trade, and possession of shark fins. In a few days it’ll be signed by the governor and effectively put an end to one of the largest, legal…

  • Bluefin land on the Red List: SeaMonster interviews the expert team

    Every five or ten years since 1963 a growing number of wild animal and plant species have been assessed for their risk of extinction to provide hard data useful to conservation and management. The unlucky ones found to be slipping go on the “Red List” overseen by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature…

  • Bluefin tuna spawn ‘naturally’ in captivity

    For the first time, captive bluefin tuna have produced millions of eggs without a chemical nudge from a dose of artificial hormones. Is this really a step forwards for the species? Or are they doomed to become domesticated shadows of their former, wild cousins who will still be caught, still be made into sushi, and…

  • Decapitated ecosystems come back to haunt us

    What happens when you cut off something’s head? In the case of an ecosystem, it doesn’t die, but transforms into something very different — and sometimes scary. A zombie, if you like. Decapitation is essentially what humans are doing to food webs throughout the world’s islands, continents, and oceans. Meaning that we’re cutting off the…

  • Zen garden with squid: A photo essay

    I love fish markets — I always feel like a kid in a candy store, looking for the strange and interesting creatures and parts thereof  hidden on a back shelf or down a back aisle. So I seek them out where’er I go. I’ve not been to the famed Tokyo fish market I’m afraid, where…