5 mile long surf ride

In the aptly-named Turnagain Arm in Cook Inlet, Alaska.

This ride is on a tidal bore, when conditions drive an incoming tide to collide with outgoing current and create actual surfable waves.

Scott Dickerson of SurfAlaska.net captured the image and shot video (both shown in this post) from a motorized paraglider. For more go to this post on his website.

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Sharks patrolling flooded city streets?

Is it bull, or is it real? Could there really be sharks circling a butcher shop 30 km inland from the ocean following the Brisbane (Australia) floods?

Evidence of bull sharks swimming up flooded city streets seems real, but the stories of feeding behavior are probably over-hyped.

It's common to find fish in strange places during a flood, including in normally dry fields. Fish can invade fields to escape the fast flow in flooded and roaring river channels.

But I wouldn't waste my time worrying about being attacked by a nutter shark. They're probably just lost and confused and looking for a way back to the familiar ocean.

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japanese view on eating tuna to extinction

Are Japanese consumers responsible for eating bluefin tuna towards extinction? What should be done? Here's a view from Japan that includes the most comprehensive and reliable examination of the issues that I've ever seen in a newspaper.

Overall, Japan's sushi habit is a problem for tuna, but the Japan Times article says that increasing popularity of sushi elsewhere, including China, is letting Japan "off the hook."

Suggestions for what to do center on shifting consumer preferences in Japan to yellowfin tuna, the best substitute and a fish that has some problems but is in better shape overall than bluefin.

Take a look at this story from "the World's Window on Japan."

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Low oxygen cramps tuna and billfish

Have you ever grasped for oxygen, like during a high-altitude hike? Now you know what swordfish and tuna feel like in our Brave New Ocean.

According to a new report, expanding zones of low oxygen are occurring in the preferred habitat of tuna and billfish (swordfish, marlin, etc.), forcing them out of preferred habitat and into other areas.

Besides leaving fish nirvana for lesser places, hypoxia makes tuna and billfish more likely to get caught because they get forced into shallower waters that are more heavily fished. Ouch. Likely due to climate change, of course.

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Overfishing ends in the US

That's right, overfishing is no longer a problem in the US. This good news comes from fisheries scientist Steve Murawski. I know Dr. Murawski and if he says it, I believe it.

I worked on the 2006-7 reform of US fishing laws and this was an important goal, it's amazing to see the reforms working. Thanks need to go to many people, but especially US Senate staff member Margaret Spring for leading the reform, and the late US Senator Ted Stevens (Republican) for being a conservative champion of responsible fishing.

This is a monumental success, overfishing has been a problem in the US for at least a century.

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