Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten schooled in the history and current status of New England groundfish and shellfish. There are definitely some bright spots, like scallops and today’s haddock catch in Georges Bank, but there are also some problems including the economic realities of fishing for a living. I love eating seafood, but […]
Author Archive
A helping hand for dinner
A sustainable harvest?
I sat down to a feast of fresh Maine lobster on Wednesday, my second this summer, and, to be honest, I completely enjoyed it from start to finish, despite the complete mess I made on both table and clothing (I should probably have a bib at home for this…)- but I had to wonder, given […]
All at sea
My goal was to learn about the history of marine fisheries in New England because I felt that narrowing down the geographic region would make the topic manageable- given the amount of information sloshing around in my brain, I should have narrowed more. I started by digging through some pretty old records for lobster and […]
Sea-ing my food
I love seafood. Well, I love food in general, but seafood is a big part of that. Thankfully, I’m just two hours from the coast, and fresh seafood is something I can expect and enjoy on a regular basis (I’ve even become something of a snob about which seafood sources I’m willing to use- once […]
This one’s for the birds
Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the chance to look at the status of migratory song birds, some of which are doing quite well (Baltimore orioles, for example: stable population, large range, sports team), while others are facing very bleak conditions (for a sobering experience, check out Golden-cheeked warblers, or, if you want to […]
Three migrant birds, three migrant birds, see how they change
This week I investigated three migratory song bird species to see how things were changing on a smaller scale, and while I chose these species largely because I love their plumage (I’ll admit to being shallow here and not considering the “inner-bird”), I also selected them because they represent three different scenarios: a complicated situation, […]
Lost in Migration
I feel like I’ve spent the last week swimming in a very, very big lake of migration information. I think I may have made my goals for this month a little too broad given the sheer volume of data out there- maybe I should have concentrated on a specific area or genus of birds. Trying […]
Am I missing something?
I will be the first to admit that I am not an ornithologist. I took an ornithology class at Antioch largely because I had no real knowledge of birds at all, apart from knowing that baby songbirds are often loud and persistent, especially the mockingbirds. Since my goal is to work in environmental conservation and […]
What’s your role?
Hopefully the past few weeks have provided some new insight into an impressive and, at least in the Northeast, common predator. Fishers aren’t abundant in all parts of their range, but they are active members of the community where I live, and information provided by Dr. Kays’ research, as I mentioned last week, indicates they […]
Fisher-Man
In my last post, I provided a glimpse of fisher history and ecology, talking about changes within the Northeast population, fisher diversity along the Pacific coast, and their impact on prey populations. This week I pondered the fisher-human relationship and how they react to the ways in which we’ve changed the environment around us and […]