MEXICO CITY — Forty years ago the winter habitat of the monarch butterfly in Mexico was supposedly discovered. After searching for decades, on January 9, 1975 the Canadian scientist Fred A. Urquhart, an entomologist at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough College, received a phone call from an American living in Mexico City named Kenneth Brugger, […]
Homero Aridjis is a Mexican poet and environmental activist. His seminal work is “1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezón of Castile.” In 1985, he organized the Group of 100 — a group of prominent artists and writers, including Octavio Paz, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Rufino Tamayo — to defend biodiversity in Mexico and […]
Homero Aridjis is a Mexican poet and environmental activist. His seminal work is “1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezón of Castile.” In 1985, he organized the Group of 100 — a group of prominent artists and writers, including Octavio Paz, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Rufino Tamayo — to defend biodiversity in Mexico and […]
President Barack Obama President Enrique Peña Nieto Prime Minister Stephen Harper Honorable Gentlemen: Among the countless organisms that have evolved during the history of life on earth, monarch butterflies are among the most extraordinary. Sadly, their unique multigenerational migration across our large continent, their spectacular overwintering aggregations on the volcanic mountains in central Mexico, and […]
MEXICO CITY — Some 40 years ago a poor fisherman named Francisco Mayoral, who lived on the shores of San Ignacio Lagoon, halfway down the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, stretched out his hand to touch a gray whale that raised its head out of the water alongside his wooden panga. Mr. Mayoral, who […]
FRANCISCO (PACHICO) MAYORAL, R.I.P. “Pachico,” as he was known to all in the small village that surrounds Baja’s San Ignacio Lagoon, changed my life. He changed the lives of thousands who have journeyed in recent years to this magical place to see and even pet whales in the wild. The guardian of the lagoon, Pachico […]
For centuries, probably millennia, the small, oily fish known as Atlantic menhaden have been the protein-filled food of choice for striped bass and many other large species in our waters. Fishermen call them pogeys or bunker, often using them as bait to entice stripers to their lines. Menhaden were once so abundant that early Americans […]
On October 8, an unusual protest was scheduled to take place outside the National Archives in Washington, D.C. A group of researchers into the Kennedy assassination planned to form a picket line at the Visitor’s Entrance. They were there because the National Archives had announced it will not release 1,171 top-secret CIA documents in advance […]
In mid-August, the Cape Cod Times came out with a story headlined, “Infection attacking striped bass.” The article cited the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries noting that “warming water temperatures might be causing an increase in the number of striped bass that have lesions from a viral or bacterial infection….The agency urged caution in handling […]
First, the good news: In mid-February 2011, the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean called it quits because of pressure from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Paul Watson’s crew on three ships had been chasing the Japanese fleet for more than a week, making it impossible for them to continue operations. This year, […]
Farewell Sunday on Martha’s Vineyard Martha’s Vineyard rested quietly in the golden haze of her warmth, Her sandy thighs cooling in the wide blue-white wash of the sea. The passions of the night had wearied her, But her rest was peaceful and she glowed, Like burnished gold in the late morning, easy warming, Sun of […]
What is the International Whaling Commission thinking? How can they be on the verge of legitimizing rogue whaling, and how come the United States seems to be going along with this? The global moratorium on commercial whaling that took effect almost 25 years ago has WORKED. The number of great whales being slaughtered each year […]
“….for there is no splendor greater than the gray when the light turns it to silver.” — Homero Aridjis, The Eye of the Whale Gray whales break the water’s surface in Laguna San Ignacio. photo: George Peper Ten years ago this month, the Mexican government — under intense pressure from environmentalists — announced it was […]
Casting blame in striper dispute The striped bass is once again facing a decline in its numbers, and efforts to stem the losses have stoked tensions between commercial and recreational fishermen. The wily striped bass – admired by New England fishermen for centuries – nearly disappeared from East Coast waters in the early 1980s. A […]
Author, Striper Wars H796, An Act relative to the conservation of Atlantic striped bass Massachusetts Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources & Agriculture January 14, 2010 I thank you for allowing me to testify today on what I believe is an urgent conservation measure, vital to preserving for our children and grand-children the most magnificent […]
Conservationist Robert Pond, founder of Stripers Unlimited, dies at 92 Robert Pond, a retired fishing lure manufacturer who founded Stripers Unlimited and was an early crusader for ocean conservation, died Saturday at the Golden Living Center-Garden Place in Attleboro. The husband of Avis Elizabeth Boyd, he was 92. Mr. Pond, a resident of Attleboro and […]
Perhaps 100 yards off our bow, a massive gray mound rises to the surface. Francisco Mayoral, the wizened captain of our small motorized panga, cuts back on the throttle and begins a gradual approach. A fan-shaped geyser of seawater erupts ahead and subsides with a whoosh. As the whale dives, arching its heart-shaped flukes, a […]
Twenty-five years ago, the striped bass were on the verge of disappearing altogether from our waters. Federal scientists trying to pinpoint a cause listed pollution in the Chesapeake Bay spawning grounds as one probable reason — from residues of the banned pesticide DDT to the new phenomenon of acid rain. The other factor was clearly […]
The comeback of the Atlantic striped bass has been called the foremost example of a fisheries management success story, proving that if strong enough regulations are put in place, even a fish population in the worst straits can make a dramatic turn-around. As I documented in my book, Striper Wars: An American Fish Story, this […]
Dick Russell’s second book on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, is an important contribution to the subject’s literature. Russell intertwines some of his previously published articles with chapters of never-before-published information, offering updated perspectives on previous revelations and adding new information to the case. Russell’s combination […]