Animals 24-7

News on dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, zoonoses, & nature

Prince Charles, sea lice, & why salmon farming stinks

By

Norwegian investors hope to delouse the salmon industry with new facility in Maryland BALTIMORE, Maryland––Salmon farming stinks. Business media worldwide have for weeks failed to mention that fact in amplifying a July 7,  2020 announcement that the Norwegian firm AquaCon plans to build a $300 million land-based salmon farm on the eastern shore of Chesapeake […]

Scotland to stop shooting seals to save salmon farm profits––but not until 2021

By

50-year effort by Scottish seal defenders––but Humane Society of the U.S. blasts out media releases claiming credit DUMBARTON,  Scotland––Culminating a half century of effort by the Save Our Seals Fund,  and Animal Concern Scotland,  led for decades by John Robins of both organizations,  the Scottish Parliament on June 17,  2020 ratified a new Animals & Wildlife […]

COVID-19 brings no net gains for marine life––except in Iceland

By

“There is no market,”  but fish,  shellfish,  seals,  & whales are all still hunted WESTERLY,  Rhode Island;  HONOLULU,  Hawaii;  REYKJAVIK, Iceland––Restaurant closures ordered because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have economically crippled the U.S. commercial fishing industry from Long Island Sound to Hawaii,  and have hit the fishing industry worldwide,  but––except in Iceland,  where a case […]

Wolves, grey whales, & sea lions targeted to preserve meat-getting traditions

By

Cultural demand for killing wildlife is much stronger than economic interest             SEATTLE––The good news for wolves,  grey whales,  and California sea lions in the Pacific Northwest is that all three once-endangered predators,  now long off the U.S. endangered species list,  are reclaiming small niches in habitat that for millennia they dominated,  before human activity––especially […]

U.K.: “Nation of animal lovers” or of wildlife assassins?

By

Royal SPCA,  Royal Society for the Protection of Birds,  et al disregard & even promote cruelty on a shocking scale             LONDON,  U.K.––The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Great Britain,  the world’s oldest western-style animal advocacy organization,  founded in 1824 and granted a royal charter in 1840 by Queen Victoria,  wants […]

Why killing predators won’t bring back the salmon

By

Gulls join sea lions,  seals,  & cormorants in the crosshairs             VICTORIA,  British Columbia;  PORTLAND, Oregon––Blaming seals and sea lions for declining salmon stocks,  Pacific Balance Pinniped Society founder Thomas Sewid is frustrated these days because,  Sewid posted to Facebook on January 23,  2019,  “My firearm possession and acquisition license is expired.  I cannot hunt […]

Frustrated fishers push to kill West Coast sea lions & seals

By

Newly formed Pacific Balance Pinnipeds Society gives voice to anger             VANCOUVER,  B.C.;  PORTLAND,  Oregon––Removing a longtime irritant to the British Columbia wild salmon fishing industry––and a major economic competitor––the British Columbia government and First Nations have agreed to phase out 17 commercial salmon farms operated since 1987 by a company called Marine Harvest off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.             The […]

Watchable wildlife species often seen at Hidden Beach

By

Hidden Beach habitat use overview (See also Exploiting starving orcas to push a boondoggle.) Photographed at Hidden Beach by Beth Clifton Grey whales photographed from Hidden Beach, frequented by as many as three whale at a time for more than a month in spring 2018. Sydney the harbor seal,  born just north of Hidden Beach […]

Exploiting starving orcas to push a boondoggle

By

Habitat “restoration” scheme likely to hurt more than help Small fish were jumping by the dozens in the shallows tonight at Hidden Beach,  near Greenbank,  Washington. Speakers from Northwest Straits and the Island County Marine Resources Committee with alphabet soup behind their names had just alleged only minutes before,  to about 50 attendees at an […]

Thin ice & few buyers for pelts, but Canadian sealers kill 60,000 seal pups anyway

By

2018 seal hunt close to the end ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland––Perhaps the surest sign that the annual Atlantic Canada seal hunt is fading into history is the lack of prominence it has had this spring in the St. Johns Telegram,  the leading media voice serving Newfoundland since 1879,  which through April 2018 had barely mentioned it […]