tagged w/ bluefin
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For years, data analysis companies have attempted to link social media updates to specific television events. Wednesday, Bluefin Labs publicly launches machine learning technology that makes a direct, real-time correlation between the shows and ads audiences are watching on TV and what those audiences are saying about that content via social media streams.For years, data analysis companies have attempted to link social media updates to... more
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My endless curiosity and wild pursuits have landed me in various, odd places throughout my time as a journalist. I often find myself asking "Where the hell am I this time? And how did I get here?"
I'm on a rickety, old bus whose seats all seem to sink in the middle. A motley bunch of countryfolk curiously look on as a blonde-haired woman (my producer) speaks in English with a strange Japanese-looking guy whose Western mannerisms are befuddling (me). Looking outside, I see very little. We're in a bit of a blizzard, and the fresh white powder is my light source.
I'm typing this, with half-frozen thumbs, onto my Blackberry. I can't find an Internet connection for my laptop, but Japan's amazing cell network means it's easy to catch a strong BlackBerry signal.My endless curiosity and wild pursuits have landed me in various, odd places... more
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From the NY Times Magazine (June 21, 2010)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27Tuna-t.html
Tuna's End
In the international waters south of Malta, the Greenpeace vessels Rainbow Warrior and Arctic Sunrise deployed eight inflatable Zodiacs and skiffs into the azure surface of the Mediterranean. Protesters aboard donned helmets and took up DayGlo flags and plywood shields. With the organization’s observation helicopter hovering above, the pilots of the tiny boats hit their throttles, hurtling the fleet forward to stop what they viewed as an egregious environmental crime. It was a high-octane updating of a familiar tableau, one that anyone who has followed Greenpeace’s Save the Whales adventures of the last 35 years would have recognized. But in the waters off Malta there was not a whale to be seen.
What was in the water that day was a congregation of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a fish that when prepared as sushi is one of the most valuable forms of seafood in the world. It’s also a fish that regularly journeys between America and Europe and whose two populations, or “stocks,” have both been catastrophically overexploited. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of only two known Atlantic bluefin spawning grounds, has only intensified the crisis. By some estimates, there may be only 9,000 of the most ecologically vital megabreeders left in the fish’s North American stock, enough for the entire population of New York to have a final bite (or two) of high-grade otoro sushi. The Mediterranean stock of bluefin, historically a larger population than the North American one, has declined drastically as well. Indeed, most Mediterranean bluefin fishing consists of netting or “seining” young wild fish for “outgrowing” on tuna “ranches.” Which was why the Greenpeace craft had just deployed off Malta: a French fishing boat was about to legally catch an entire school of tuna, many of them undoubtedly juveniles.
Oliver Knowles, a 34-year-old Briton who was coordinating the intervention, had told me a few days earlier via telephone what the strategy was going to be. “These fishing operations consist of a huge purse-seining vessel and a small skiff that’s quite fast,” Knowles said. A “purse seine” is a type of net used by industrial fishing fleets, called this because of the way it draws closed around a school of fish in the manner of an old-fashioned purse cinching up around a pile of coins. “The skiff takes one end of the net around the tuna and sort of closes the circle on them,” Knowles explained. “That’s the key intervention point. That’s where we have the strong moral mandate.”
But as the Zodiacs approached the French tuna-fishing boat Jean-Marie Christian VI, confusion engulfed the scene. As anticipated, the French seiner launched its skiffs and started to draw a net closed around the tuna school. Upon seeing the Greenpeace Zodiacs zooming in, the captain of the Jean-Marie Christian VI issued a call. “Mayday!” he shouted over the radio. “Pirate attack!” Other tuna boats responded to the alert and arrived to help. The Greenpeace activists identified themselves over the VHF, announcing they were staging a “peaceful action.”
Aboard one Zodiac, Frank Hewetson, a 20-year Greenpeace veteran who in his salad days as a protester scaled the first BP deepwater oil rigs off Scotland, tried to direct his pilot toward the net so that he could throw a daisy chain of sandbags over its floating edge and allow the bluefin to escape. But before Hewetson could deploy his gear, a French fishing skiff rammed his Zodiac. A moment later Hewetson was dragged by the leg toward the bow. “At first I thought I’d been lassoed,” Hewetson later told me from his hospital bed in London. “But then I looked down. ” A fisherman trying to puncture the Zodiac had swung a three-pronged grappling hook attached to a rope into the boat and snagged Hewetson clean through his leg between the bone and the calf muscle. (Using the old language of whale protests, Greenpeace would later report to Agence France-Presse that Hewetson had been “harpooned.”)
“Ma jambe! Ma jambe!” Hewetson cried out in French, trying to signal to the fisherman to slack off on the rope. The fisherman, according to Hewetson, first loosened it and then reconsidered and pulled it tight again. Eventually Hewetson was able to get enough give in the rope to yank the hook free. Elsewhere, fishermen armed with gaffs and sticks sank another Zodiac and, according to Greenpeace’s Knowles, fired a flare at the observation helicopter. At a certain point, the protesters made the decision to break off the engagement. “We have currently pulled back from the seining fleet,” Knowles e-mailed me shortly afterward, “to regroup and develop next steps.” Bertrand Wendling, the executive director of the tuna-fishing cooperative of which the Jean-Marie Christian VI was a part, called the Greenpeace protest “without doubt an act of provocation” in which “valuable work tools” were damaged.
(This story is much, much longer and continues at the link!)From the NY Times Magazine (June 21, 2010)... more
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The extinction of bluefin tuna is getting closer daily as idiots seek to trap the last wild fish.
"Tuna then are both a real thing and a metaphor. Literally they are one of the last big public supplies of wild fish left in the world. Metaphorically they are the terminus of an idea: that the ocean is an endless resource where new fish can always be found. In the years to come we can treat tuna as a mile marker to zoom past on our way toward annihilating the wild ocean or as a stop sign that compels us to turn back and radically reconsider."The extinction of bluefin tuna is getting closer daily as idiots seek to trap the last... more
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The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the worst environmental disaster the US has faced. Toxic oil from the Deepwater Horizon well threatens the region's sensitive shorelines and the nesting birds along the Louisiana coast. But there's another species at serious risk: the Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus. This disturbing video tells you more about their plight, and how this oil spill could be the last straw that pushes them over the edge ...The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the worst environmental disaster the US has faced.... more
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Last night I made an appearance on Top Chef. (And by appearance I mean I was in the background tasting food with several patrons of the mock restaurant). As an amateur chef myself, it was a privilege to sample the talents of folks who have spent so much time studying the craft of preparing amazing food. The episode was shot at RM Seafood, a sustainable seafood restaurant in Las Vegas. The challenge was to prepare a three-course meal for restaurant patrons (my wife and I) that included sustainable seafood. The message was clear: when seafood is prepared by the best of the best, it should be done responsibly.
Working for a network co-founded by Al Gore, I like to think of myself as a socially conscious and responsible citizen. Over the years, Vanguard has produced numerous stories about the environment from Madagascar to Greenland. I drive a Prius and shop for produce every Sunday at the local farmers market. (Wow, just writing that down makes me realize what a crunchy pinko I’ve become since moving to California). At the grocery store, I look for phrases like “line-caught” and “free range.” But like many eco-conscious consumers, the same rules often don’t apply when it comes to dining out for one of our favorite cuisines: sushi. To many of us, those tiny glistening jewel-colored rectangles just don’t look like fish. Even when we do acknowledge what we’re eating, it still feels like nothing could be more “organic” than eating a perfectly prepared piece of fresh fish in its most raw and natural state. But it’s that type of thinking that’s contributing to an environmental disaster. The three most popular items on the sushi menu, Tuna, Yellowtail, and Eel, are on the verge of disappearing. In fact, the rising global demand for sushi is causing the planet to fish out its seas completely, with some researchers estimating that all commercial fisheries will collapse within the next 40 years. More urgently, the World Wildlife Fund warns that if fishing practices don’t change, the Atlantic blue fin tuna faces extinction within the next TWO YEARS. Yet, it is still very difficult for many of us to give up our Toro.
So… earlier this month I began my quest to learn how to make my own sustainable sushi. Now, while I like to consider myself a decent cook, I’m no sushi chef and fully acknowledge that cleaning and eating your own raw fish can be a dangerous, if not downright insane, endeavor. But like many things Vanguard, I carefully researched and laid out a plan of attack and lunged forward with the idea. After weeks of reading, consulting seasoned sushi chefs, practicing cutting techniques (which I watched on YouTube), and multiple trips to my local Japanese market, Mitsuwa, I finally came up with a menu of alternative sushi fit for serving someone other than the neighborhood cat. Last Sunday, our Vanguard editor, Yasu, a native of Japan, bravely agreed to come over and taste the results. I’m proud to say that my weeks of preparation paid off. I got his nod on halibut nigori with yuzu, sole sashimi with ginger and ponzo, and miso-glazed black cod. All not only delicious, but sustainable fish. And we managed to avoid killing ourselves-- always a plus. Here’s to sustainable sushi!
Download this iPhone application from the Monterey Bay Aquarium for your guide to sustainable seafood.
Recently on the Vanguard Blog:
- Celeb Oxy Watch: Sam Jones III of Smallville - by Mariana van Zeller
- Hearing the voices in Afghanistan - by Kaj Larsen
- Running the Math on Big Brother’s Pills - by Darren Foster
- An overview of Cuba: Past, Present and Future - by Adrian BaschukLast night I made an appearance on Top Chef. (And by appearance I mean I was in the... more
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Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel got front row seats on Top Chef a few nights ago and blogged about his experience of tasting sustainable seafood on the Vanguard blog:
At the grocery store, I look for phrases like “line-caught” and “free range.” But like many eco-conscious consumers, the same rules often don’t apply when it comes to dining out for one of our favorite cuisines: sushi. To many of us, those tiny glistening jewel-colored rectangles just don’t look like fish. Even when we do acknowledge what we’re eating, it still feels like nothing could be more “organic” than eating a perfectly prepared piece of fresh fish in its most raw and natural state. But it’s that type of thinking that’s contributing to an environmental disaster. The three most popular items on the sushi menu, Tuna, Yellowtail, and Eel, are on the verge of disappearing. In fact, the rising global demand for sushi is causing the planet to fish out its seas completely, with some researchers estimating that all commercial fisheries will collapse within the next 40 years. More urgently, the World Wildlife Fund warns that if fishing practices don’t change, the Atlantic blue fin tuna faces extinction within the next TWO YEARS. Yet, it is still very difficult for many of us to give up our Toro. So… earlier this month I began my quest to learn how to make my own sustainable sushi.
Download this iPhone application from the Monterey Bay Aquarium for your guide to sustainable seafood.
Want to know about more environmentally friendly green iphone apps: stay tuned to a blog near you (aka tune in next week).
Recently on the Vanguard Blog:
- Celeb Oxy Watch: Sam Jones III of Smallville – by Mariana van Zeller
- Hearing the voices in Afghanistan – by Kaj Larsen
- Running the Math on Big Brother’s Pills – by Darren Foster
- An overview of Cuba: Past, Present and Future – by Adrian BaschukVanguard correspondent Christof Putzel got front row seats on Top Chef a few nights... more
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leahl
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added this
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2 years ago
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The trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna will continue unchecked after the rejection of a proposed fishing ban that had been described by conservationists as the only way to save the critically endangered species from extinction.The trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna will continue unchecked after the rejection of a... more
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As the insistent beat of unregulated mass consumption continues, another species faces annihilation. If you're eating bluefin tuna, congratulations; you've become part of the problem!As the insistent beat of unregulated mass consumption continues, another species faces... more
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