...from the "Cleanest Line".

Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia on why to vote the Environment:

"We’ve seen a decade of record heat around the world, more-virulent storm systems, the evacuation of a major American city and, just this fall in Pakistan, the flooding of an area the size of Italy with seven million homeless. New drilling techniques for harder-to-reach oil created the largest oil spill in history. Fresh water, a resource for which we have no alternative, is being drawn down all around the world faster than it can be polluted. The major fisheries are depleted or close to depletion. The fish at the top of the food chain will poison us if we eat too many in a given month. A gyre of plastic waste twice the size of Texas floats the Pacific. There are fewer species of all kind, flora and fauna – fewer strands to the web of life. They’re disappearing at a rate unprecedented since the meteor hit the dinosaurs. "

Vision Quest ...

We try to sleep, to still our racing minds ...
only to fall into dreams of ancient times.

...more Redman words.

"...in accordance with Lakota belief that man did not occupy (any) special place in the eyes of 'Wakan Tanka', the Grandfather of us all. (We are) only a part of everything called the world .... (we) see that humaneness is not a thing which can be ordered by law. It is an ideal to be lived."

- Chief Luther Standing Bear - Lakota (Sioux) 1933

(Ref: "Land of the Spotted Eagle" - Luther Standing Bear)

Some 'new' foods...

Been looking around again and working out lifestyle choices trying to set some personal food boundaries ... trying to sever all junk food and work towards a superior diet.

QUINOA - A sacred food originates in the Ancient Inca diet called 'chisaya mama' (mother of all grains). Not actually a grain, but related to leafy greens (spinach and Swiss Chard), it's packed with protein - all nine essential amino acids ... chewy, crunchy and Gluten free.

KOMBUCHA - a fermented culture of yeast and bacteria mixed with black tea and sugar! Great tasting but tart drink that energizes and detoxifies, balances internal pH and curbs the appetite.
[PS - Not too sure about this stuff!]

HEMP MILK - most potent source and highest content of essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) ... rich in calcium,amino acids B vitamins and fiber.

AGAVE NECTAR - natural sweetener 75% stronger than sugar from the agave plant ( Tequila).

[Check out Wikipedia for reference to these foods]

ENJOY!
(I will add more as I discover them!)

On the suject of Spearfishing...

" Spearfishermen are the eyes and ears of the oceanmother whom they love. Ocean hunters are the ultimate practioners of a sustainable lifestyle. The energy required for hunting and gathering requires that they be selective stewards within the environment on which they depend - taking only what they need..."

A Redman speaks from the Past...

A Prayer by Richard Touch the Clouds
-descendant of Chief Crazy Horse:

"When the People listen again

to the Spirit of the Earth and Sky...

of the Wolf and Buffalo

and the Prairie Flower in the never ending Grass

and the great Oak Tree in the Forest,
there will be no strangers in this Land...
and the grass will grow plentiful again

and the Trees will rise in to pure Air
and the People will plant the good Corn
and the Buffalo will return many as the Stars
and you, the sons and daughters of Earth and Sky
will cross this River again and I will be with you....

Going with OCEANA...

I have struggled for some time with where to go with my support ... there are so many great organizations out there and today I decided on "OCEANA" !

Visit their website and see why...
www.na.oceana.org

Another site to appreciate is "Ocean Defense"
visit tem at: www.oceandefense.org

....and the favourite old action site is Sea Shepherd!

Operation BLUE-RAGE 2010- Sea Shepherd moves into the Med

So maybe someone would like to understand my personal rage at the Japanese Fishing Industry...

http://www.seashepherd.org/images/stories/blue-rage/homepage/crew_briefing_document.pdf

>.>))))):>

OCEANA also played a large role in documenting the tragedy unfolding in the Med and after reading this, ask the question...WHERE DOES IT END?

http//na.oceana.org

Shark finning ... Hawaii exports 'amakua' (ancestors) to Japan

Hawaii - Shark Fin Bill vs Riki Karamatsu
Saturday, April 17, 2010

This is Riki Karamatsu.

He is a politician.

He has been charged and convicted with drunk driving resulting in a crash.

He is currently running for Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii.

This man also hates sharks.

Enough to actively work against a new shark fin bill making the rounds through the hallowed halls of Hawaii's legislative offices.

Why is he doing this?

What can you do about it?

The answer to the first question is money. Riki Karamatsu is the patron of several well heeled shark fin businesses in Hawaii, businesses that sell thousands of tons of dried shark fin to Asia.

Currently the cost of shark fin is hovering at 1980's gold price levels. The shark fin industry is a multi-billion dollar global industry. It is also one of the most barbaric animal cruelty issues the conservation world is dealing with now. Akin to sedated wild bears and gall bladder secretions, a wild animal product that is as equally disturbing and one that has no place in Hawaii's business trading community.

So, what can you do about it?

Here is the list of contacts for Jon Riki Karamatsu. Your voice, in your own words, may help this man realize how many people care about sharks and how sometimes, being the patron of people whose business depends on shearing the fins off live animals for a soup product...is a bad career choice.

You can also tweet, blog, and re post this far and wide.

Let's send a clear and unambiguous message to Jon Riki Karamatsu.

"Mr.Karamatsu if you want to see your political career continue, get on the side of millions of people who care about our oceans, and our wildlife. Stop your solo attempts to block or modify legislation that would put and end to shark fin sales in Hawaii."

Note: Do not send threatening or abusive emails, phone calls or letters. You are entitled to use words that describe disgust, distaste, you are entitled to detail how you will support his opponent in his race for the Lieutenant Governor seat in Hawaii. You are also entitled to mention the fact that this man, who would aspire to the higher levels of government, was once so intoxicated he drove his car off the road.

Is this the man who should be leading Hawaii into the new decade?

For the many thousands of sharks that are currently being finned just outside the territorial waters of Hawaii the answer to that question is clearly no.

Blogger blumon said...

I wonder where the man's loyalty lies. We all know that the Japanese are actively pursuing the total destruction of our ocean resources. Hawaii is a sort of portal to Japan from the US. Is it possible that we have a man - a public figure charged with the responsibility to act in the best interests of a US state utilizing his position and benefiting financially, in the quest by Japanese government and corporate fishing interests to gobble up all oceanic resources while they can. Japanese people are subservient as a nation to authority - government and corporations - they do not behave consciously outside the parameters of what the 'authorities' dictate believing that whatever the powers dictate is what is best for them.It may be that our garden state of Hawaii is /has fallen into a realm of unknowingly serving Japanese interests.
I know for sure that true Hawaiians would never allow the wholesale slaughter and abuse of sharks ... it would be a major insult to their ancestors and a direct violation of the 'mana' of their 'amakua'. Where are the true Hawaiians in this story and why are they allowing this to happen on the very doorstep of the culture that they are attempting to revive? Why would they allow a man who hates sharks to rule over them and over rule in an extreme way the very root of their culture? Where's the 'aloha'?

9/02/2010 1:52


UPDATE: Hawaii has banned anything to do with Shark finning...made it illegal !
Now we need to watch for the criminal element that will inevitably continue to slaughter sharks for a quick buck ... yes it is still happening! Go after the shark fin traders in Hawaii ... keep an eye on them 'cos they are not about to give up their greedy money-making habits!

26 August 2010 - How long can this last?

Huge salmon runs bring cash bonanza for U.S. and Canadian fishermen

The biggest sockeye run in nearly a century — 25 million fish — is headed back to British Columbia's Fraser River and its tributaries. It's a bonanza for American and Canadian fishermen, who are more used to squabbling over how to divide up a declining resource.

By Hal Bernton

Seattle Times staff report

Boom and bust on the Fraser River
The number of sockeye salmon returning to the British Columbia river and tributaries.

1913-40 million
2009-Less than 2 million
2010-25 million


In 40 years of dropping nets into Washington waters, Ray Forsman has never experienced fishing like this past week.

He headed off early in the morning to the fishing grounds, and in two brief sets of his purse-seine net, filled up his boat with 70,000 pounds of sockeye. The fish, yielding ruby-red fillets, were worth more than $100,000.

A couple of days later, he quickly filled up his boat once again.

"I have been so engrossed in getting this job done that it hasn't all sunk in," said Forsman, 68, a commercial fisherman with the Suquamish Tribe near Kingston. "This is history. Just overwhelming emotions."

These fish are part of the biggest sockeye run in nearly a century to head back to British Columbia's Fraser River and its tributaries. An estimated 25 million fish have returned, more than double preseason forecasts.

The runs are yielding an unexpected bonanza for U.S. and Canadian commercial fishermen who are more used to feuding over dwindling shares of a declining resource.

"When something goes wrong in nature, we always blame each other about who caught too much," Forsman said. "This time, nature made sure there is enough for everybody."

The harvest may exceed 11 million salmon. Under international agreement, U.S. tribal and nontribal fleets that catch some of the fish as they pass through American waters are expected to get about 1.9 million of those fish.

Over the past decade, Fraser River runs have been more bust than boom. Last year was especially painful. Fewer than 2 million fish showed up, a fraction of the predicted run of more than 10 million, and the fishing grounds were closed.

Other years also yielded paltry catches and prompted some fishermen to abandon the harvest.

"Three years ago, I had 21 fish for the season," said Skip Anderson of Bellingham.

This year's U.S. fleet includes about 250 smaller gill-net vessels and 34 of the larger purse-seine vessels that lay out a net and then — with the aid of a skiff — cinch it up tight like a purse.

Much of this fleet is working the west side of San Juan Island, where fishing has sometimes been phenomenal for sockeye that average nearly six pounds apiece. The fish fetched from about $1.20 to $1.80 a pound.

Stan Nelson, a commercial purse seiner from Bellingham, said he edged up close to the kelp and rocks where the salmon bunched up. His crew set the net and pulled in a personal record of more than 100,000 pounds of sockeye.

"It's such a significant moment in my life to see this kind of abundance," said Nelson. "It's pretty humbling."

In recent years, there have been a few bright spots in Washington commercial salmon harvest. But these have not been enough to offset a long-term downturn that has resulted in a big reduction in processing capacity. So this year, those processors that remain are having a tough time keeping up with the sockeye volumes.

"So far, we have not had to turn a single pound of fish away, but I can tell you it's been a herculean effort to get that done," said John Garner, an executive at Trident Seafoods, which operates a Bellingham plant that is taking some of the fish.

If the Bellingham plant can't keep up with the volume, Trident may ship some fish north to Alaska for processing. "But it's fun to have problems like this. We'll take these problems over having no fish any day," he said.

Some of the Fraser River fish are showing up in local supermarkets, such as Costco, which is running a special to promote fresh sockeye fillets. But with a lot of other wild salmon from Alaska now on the market, some of the sockeye will be frozen or possibly canned.

The Fraser River harvest is regulated through the Pacific Salmon Commission, which includes U.S. and Canadian representatives.

Biologists caution that this year's run does not signal a sustained upswing of sockeye populations returning to the Fraser River watershed.

Although the Fraser's main stem is free of the dams that impede salmon runs on other rivers such as the Columbia, sockeye production still has had dramatic ups and downs. The biggest run on record is an estimated 40 million sockeye that returned in 1913.

The fish now returning to the Fraser were hatched from a strong 2006 run of wild fish that returned to the Fraser. These fish spent a year in freshwater and then headed out to sea, where they appeared to have found excellent feed that increased their survival rates.

But biologists expect that Fraser returns for the next few years will be much smaller. So 2010 may stand out as a blip — albeit, a glorious one — in the turbulent history of the Fraser River sockeye runs.

"It's a wonderful experience," Forsman said. "I hope to see it again."

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

The New Haiti?

Every one should be aware of the state of the environment on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola - and more specifically the differences between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Haiti's environment has been stripped of vegetation (just look at any NASA aerial photo of Hispaniola) and the coral reefs suffocated by the resulting runoff of sediment into the ocean surrounding the Haitian territory. Much has been lost and the environment that, with proper management could have supported the population, has suffered a catastrophic collapse. The demise of this Island environment and specifically Haiti, can be attributed to the French Government abandoning their Island colonial territory and leaving it to a corrupt group of thugs.

The news now is that the Island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean - also once a French colony - is heading down the same path as Haiti. Look at a NASA photo, read the articles in NatGeo and know that at the current rate of progress, our Mother Earth will lose and allow the destruction of another critical habitat. I believe the French people need to be held accountable.



http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/09/madagascar/draper-text

The Oil Industy's problems are just beginning!

STOCKHOLM (AP) — An island of ice more than four times the size of Manhattan is drifting across the Arctic Ocean after breaking off from a glacier in Greenland.

Potentially in the path of this unstoppable giant are oil platforms and shipping lanes — and any collision could do untold damage. In a worst case scenario, large chunks could reach the heavily trafficked waters where another Greenland iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912.

It's been a summer of near biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with wildfires, heat and smog in Russia and killer floods in Asia. But the moment the Petermann glacier cracked last week — creating the biggest Arctic ice island in half a century — may symbolize a warming world like no other.

"It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo.

Few images can capture the world's climate fears like a 100-square- mile (260-sqare-kilometer) chunk of ice breaking off Greenland's vast ice sheet, a reservoir of freshwater that if it collapsed would raise global sea levels by a devastating 20 feet (6 meters).

The world's newest ice island already is being used as a powerful emblem in the global warming debate, with U.S. Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts suggesting it could serve as a home for climate change skeptics.

Researchers are in a scramble to plot the trajectory of the floating ice shelf, which is moving toward the Nares Strait separating Greenland's northwestern coast and Canada's Ellsemere Island.

If it makes it into the strait before the winter freeze — due to start next month — it would likely be carried south by ocean currents, hugging Canada's east coast until it enters waters busy with oil activities and shipping off Newfoundland.

"That's where it starts to become dangerous," said Mark Drinkwater, of the European Space Agency.

The Canadian Ice Service estimates the journey will take one to two years. It's likely to break up as it bumps into other icebergs and jagged islands. The fragments would be further ground down by winds and waves and would start to melt as they move into warmer waters.

"But the fragments may still be quite large," warned Trudy Wohlleben, a Canadian ice forecaster, who first spotted the massive chunk of ice on satellite images last Thursday.

The chunks of ice could be large enough to threaten Canada's offshore platforms in the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, said Wohlleben.

And, while it's possible to redirect smaller icebergs, by towing them or spraying them with water cannons, "I don't think they could do that with an iceberg this large," she said. "They would have to physically move the rig."

Moving an offshore platform is time-consuming and expensive — and very complicated in cases where they are fixed to the ocean floor.

While Greenland's glaciers break off thousands of icebergs into Arctic waters every year, scientists say this ice island is the biggest in the northern hemisphere since 1962.

It contains enough freshwater to keep the Hudson River flowing for more than two years, said Andreas Muenchow of the University of Delaware.

The drifting ice sheet is likely to remain at the heart of the global warming discussion during its journey.

While experts say it's difficult to directly tie the giant ice island to climate change because there are so many factors that affect glaciers in the area, the unusual event coincides with worrisome signs of warming in the Arctic.

Since 1970, temperatures have risen more than 4.5 degrees (2.5 degrees C) in much of the Arctic — much faster than the global average. In June the Arctic sea ice cover was at the lowest level for that month since records began in 1979, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The retreat of Greenland's glaciers, which has accelerated in recent years, is one of the least understood pieces of the climate puzzle.

A team of climate scientists who visited the Petermann glacier last year, expecting it to crack then, is now planning another trip within weeks.

"We did leave behind a couple of time-lapse cameras and 11 GPS (devices). Now we are scrambling to get up there and recover the data," said Jason Box, an expert on Greenland glaciers from the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University.

Box and two British researchers traveled to the glacier last year with Greenpeace activists who offered space aboard their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, to scientists studying climate change.

They were hoping to capture the event with cameras rolling, which would have been a powerful image just months before the Copenhagen climate talks that failed to produce a binding treaty to reduce heat-trapping gas emissions.

"It would have been nice if it had broken off last year," said Melanie Duchin, who led that Greenpeace expedition. "I mean ice melting, it doesn't get any simpler than that."

Still, she finds it ironic that the Petermann breakup coincides with another catastrophe linked to fossil fuels. The Arctic Sunrise is now in the Gulf of Mexico, surveying the massive oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon blowout.

___

Associated Press Writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.