oceans
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A review of A Whale Hunt
For countless generations the Makah Indians have lived on the shores of Neah Bay, in the corner of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, the northwesternmost tip of the 48 states. Until the 1920s, hunting the gray whales that swam past this stretch of coastline as they migrated between Baja California and Alaska's Bering Sea had been a Makah tradition for 2,000 years.
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Kris Williams is saving sea turtles in Georgia
Kris Williams is the “Turtle Babe” of Wassaw Island. At 33, the attractive, square-jawed blonde heads the oldest volunteer-based sea turtle conservation project in North America. What a babe. Optimism comes as naturally to Williams as the tide comes to the beach. It has to, because sea turtle conservation in Georgia isn’t easy. “Awareness is […]
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Reading tea leaves for the environment
Every month I get a kind of Reader’s Digest for people interested in the future. It’s called Future Survey, issued by the World Future Society. Each month it contains about 50 extended summaries of recent publications about the paths — economic, environmental, social — we seem to be following. The November 2000 issue, for example, […]
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Sea turtle activists are pushing for protections in Texas
They may be swimming against the current, but sea turtle advocates say they want Gov. George W. Bush (R) to show a little of his fabled compassion for the endangered reptiles that frequent the Gulf of Mexico along the Texas coast. The New York Times ad. Image: STRP. As the GOP presidential hopeful prepared to […]
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What's killing off lobsters in Long Island Sound?
Richard A. French, a specialist in animal disease at the University of Connecticut, often comes to work wearing a lobster tie tack he bought at a shellfish conference. He’s had lobsters on the brain lately, particularly the mystery of why hundreds of thousands of lobsters have died within the last year in Long Island Sound. […]
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There aren't many right whales left
Chris Slay wears bib overalls and wire-rimmed glasses, occasionally recites poetry, and watches right whales for a living. Once more into the breach. David Wiley, National Marine Fisheries Service. After this year’s dismal right whale calving season, the poetry that comes to Slay’s mind is darkly pessimistic. The rarest whale of them all may be […]
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Atlantic salmon are even worse off than their Pacific cousins
To catch an Atlantic salmon in the Machias River back in the 1940s — and we’re talking a legitimate salmon here, maybe 30 or 40 pounds — didn’t require a knack with rod and reel, nor even the wily patience of the angler. Mostly what you needed was decent aim with a rifle or pitchfork […]
