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 […]
Washington bans Atlantic salmon sea pens––what’s in it for the fish?
Five-year phase-out of Atlantic salmon farming mandated by law OLYMPIA, Washington––What is in it for the fish? That is a question hardly anyone is asking, or is likely to ask, as Washington state embarks upon a legislatively mandated five-year phase-out of the sea pen-raised Atlantic salmon industry in Puget Sound. The phase-out bill was introduced […]
Campaign to pull the plug on Navy dolphin program takes to the air
Dolphin base looks like a sewage treatment plant SAN DIEGO, California––Campaigning for an end to marine mammal use by the U.S. Navy, former dolphin trainers Ric Trout and Russ Rector got a big boost on April 27, 2017 from CBS News 8 reporter Steve Price, who extensively aired recent video clips of the main […]
Seal hunting in Atlantic Canada nears a bitter, bloody end
Betting sealing will recover is like saving Confederate dollars in hopes the South will rise again (Donald Trump not withstanding) ST. JOHNS, Newfoundland––CBC Morning listeners, recipients of fundraising “alerts” from the Humane Society of the United States, and readers of The Dodo awakened on March 28, 2017 to reports, devoid of context, that the 2017 […]
Which are more deadly, balloons or alligators?
Editorial by Merritt Clifton Readers who troll my wife Beth’s personal Facebook page have probably seen a collage image she posted last summer showing me jogging along an embankment littered with alligators, stepping over their heads as I go, trailing a leaky helium balloon behind me. Obviously I didn’t really go hopping past alligators: the […]
“Salmon farming is an environmental disaster”
by John F. Robins, Animal Concern Scotland About thirty years ago an Animal Concern Director and I attended one of the first annual conferences of the Scottish fish farming industry. It was held in a wee hall in Oban and there were perhaps a hundred people attending. A student from University of Stirling gave a […]
Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtse River Dolphin
by Samuel Turvey Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016), 2008. 224 pages, paperback. $29.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Samuel Turvey, born in Lohja, Finland, as a child enjoyed a rare sighting of the Lake Saimaa seal. Landlocked by receding glaciers about 9,500 years ago, the Saimaa seal has adapted to living […]
The dolphin stories that made two authors famous
Build Me An Ark: A Life With Animals, by Brenda Peterson WW. Norton (500 5th Ave., New York, NY 10110-0017), 2000. 256 pages, hardcover. $23.95. Journey Of The Pink Dolphin: An Amazon Quest, by Sy Montgomery Simon & Schuster (1230 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10020), 2000. 320 pages, hardcover. $26.00. Reviewed by […]
U.S. law to save seals in Scotland
Save Our Seals Fund invokes Marine Mammal Protection Act where Scottish law failed DUMBARTON, Scotland––Believed to be allowing more seals to be killed than any nation without an actual seal hunt, Scotland may soon have to stop the mayhem or risk losing access to U.S. markets, under new U.S. trade rules. […]
Feds kill 2,400 cormorants but claim why colony fled nests is a mystery
Sea lions are meanwhile killed upstream PORTLAND, Oregon––Hiring USDA Wildlife Services to kill double-crested cormorants near the mouth of the Columbia River, while other agencies killed sea lions beneath the Bonneville Dam, nominally to protect chinook salmon runs on behalf of sport fishers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on May 19, 2016 admitted […]