Cheney's role in Klamath salmon die-off probed

Congress will look into VP Cheney's role in the Klamath salmon crisis. I guess the blogfish expose has already spurred action. At issue is whether Cheney's role violated the Endangered Species Act.

More to follow, I expect.

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Dangerous Chinese seafood banned

The FDA has banned some types of imported Chinese seafood, primarily farmed fish. The problem is contamination with drugs used to treat fish, which may not be safe for people who eat the seafood.

Yikes, this is a scary time for the seafood business. While US seafood may not be tainted by the ban, consumer confidence in seafood will definitely suffer. And how many people won't bother to notice the details? Especially since seafood labeling is not exactly helpful in finding out everything you want to know.

Would you look at the back of this can to find "product of China" before deciding whether to buy? Note that this tuna is not subject to the ban.

Maybe this will spur improvements in seafood labeling?

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Carnival of the blue 2

Please contribute by posting or coming on board July 2...

Carnival of the blue 2--on blogfish July 2. It was fun last time, and it'll be even better next time.

Details at Carnival of the blue homepage.

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Encouraging ocean conservation with bad news?

Would you rather be an oceanographer or dig in garbage? Popular Science says studying garbage is a better job, because studying the ocean is too depressing.

OK, this means we've told the story of ocean decline too well. Popular Science says oceanographer is the second worst job in science, because it's all about weathering bad news. Yikes, I think we've gone too far.

Oceanographer ranks second behind hazmat diver (diving in sewage or nuclear waste), and just ahead of elephant vasectomist (sterilizing male elephants) or digging in garbage to study people's waste disposal habits. Ugh.

This is a change from my youth, when everyone wanted to be Jacques Cousteau and dive in the beautiful deep blue sea.

Yes, we need to tell people about problems, but we also need to inspire with our visions of solutions. Otherwise, we become the bummer brigade that everyone wants to ignore.

Now pardon me while I take a vacation from ocean conservation work and go do something fun like dig in garbage.

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Punishment threat maintains orderly fish mating line

Imagine keeping order in a situation where only the top-ranked male and female are allowed to mate. It works in some small coral reef fish, but only with a strong threat of punishment.

Lower-ranked gobies not only keep their place in line, they starve themselves to stay small and non-threatening. Now that's an orderly queue.

What's the threat? Any lower-ranked fish who challenges the fish above gets expelled from the group for losing a fight. And that can mean death for these small fish who depend on the group's coral reef territory for shelter and food.

I guess it's better for a little fish to stay small and wait for their turn, rather than risk losing an all or nothing challenge to move up the line and get a chance to mate.

This is a classic example of a dominance hierarchy, such as the "pecking order" observed in chickens. It's fairly common in the animal world for social status to determine access to food or sex. Sounds like junior high school to me.

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