Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Des Moines County sheriffs shot them dead. The story says 10 to 16 pigs were shot and left dead atop the sandbags holding back the flood waters. Left dead and rotting in the sun, presumably, as a grim warning to other pigs trying to save their own lives. “Attention! Deadly Force Used On All Cloven Hoofed Trespassers! No Exceptions! These 10 to 16 little piggy’s won’t be headed to market; they couldn’t stay home or they would have drowned. No little piggy had roast beef for its last meal. I didn’t hear if they were given a last meal, I think they had ‘none’. No, no little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home. Their home had been flooded.
The 10 to 16 pigs were the few sacrificed for the many. Spook would have been please. “They did not want to take a chance on losing a city due to a few hogs” said Louisa County Sheriff Curt Braby when he heard about the ‘pig incident’.
We understand completely that the lives and property of the town was more important than the lives of the little piggys. Still it’s very sad really, when thinking about how these 10 to 16 pigs missed being evacuated somehow with 36,000 other pigs in the Oakville area.
Maybe these pigs were some kind of free thinking renegades.
Maybe they saw a chance to avoid ‘going to market’ and decided to take their chances swimming to a better life. Alas that just wasn’t in the cards for these little porkers. But, you have to love em for trying to survive. That’s what we all do; isn’t it?
The chairman of the county emergency management commission said the state veterinarian and other agencies were consulted and after that the 10 to 16 animals were killed.
Still I’m left with one burning question. Why do they not know how many pigs they killed? Surely if they were simply left where they died someone could have taken at least an accurate count. Why does my heart feel a little sad for the little piggys, trying to escape death only to be killed for their efforts. I guess I need to figure out why the count of 10 to 16 bothers me too. Is it because 16 is only 4 less than 20 and 20 pigs would be double? It just feels like if a person or persons were going to kill a number of animals they ought to know what that number was.
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© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
They Died Trying! They didn’t want to go to market…
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
It’s amazing to find out that Apes plan ahead, but is it an earth shattering discovery?
Scientists in Sweden are detailing the results of studies they have been doing on chimpanzees and an orangutan. Apparently they offered up instructions on how to extract fruit ’soup’ from a tube and the primates caught right on and figured that was a pretty sweet tool.
The apes were offered this tube, after they were taught how to use it, along side other items such as a broken wrist watch. The apes decided to reject the wrist watch in favor of the tube. The apes apparently realized the tube would give them something tasty later. They were also offered plastic cars and teddy bears, still they opted for the tube.
The researchers therefore deduced the primates were planning for the future rather than seeking the immediate gratification of the a discarded wrist watch, a blue plastic car and a small teddy bear.
My dog buries his bones in anticipation of saving it for later. Squirrels hide their nuts knowing winter will be coming someday. Is that a cognitive decision or simply instinct maybe it’s just the will to survive.
It looks like the apes are not only able to plan for the future but, they are also smarter than humans. Rejecting the discarded wrist watch makes perfect sense. After all it would only make them late for their future appointments and with gas prices soaring who would want the added responsibility of a blue car, plastic or not. I’m sure they realized they wouldn’t be granted a drivers permit anyway.
The scientists believe the apes consciously chose the new tool, which was the hose, over useless pieces of distracting junk. They must be smarter than humans.
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© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Apes Are Smarter Than Humans After All! Science now has proof.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Maricopa County in Arizona has one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the U.S., which is presenting a potential West Nile crisis.
There are tens of thousands of swimming pools in the county left unattended and without maintenance. The pools, in the yards of homes now vacant, are a breeding ground for millions of mosquitoes. 17,214 homes in the county were offered at foreclosures sales in the first three months of this year alone, and there are countless numbers of homes where the owners have simply walked away.
Maricopa’s solution to the growing number of stagnant ‘pool swamps’, left behind in the aftermath of the deepening mortgage crisis, is to release minnows into these pools. Gambusia minnows can eat up to 300 mosquito larvae per day. Public health workers are breeding thousands of the little fish to make available to residents and local governments across the county.
What could possibly go wrong?
Conventional pool maintenance is out of the question. “Chlorine is not an effective answer because it is burned off by the sun in a couple of days” says Daniel Anderson a Chandler city official as he released a shoal of minnows into an abandoned backyard pool.
Anderson says, “Once these fish are in the pool, we are not concerned about mosquitoes until someone either buys the house or the pool dries up.”
What will be left in the dried up pools?
These little fishes breed at a rate of 25 to 300 offspring every two weeks. The rate at which water evaporates can be calculated, and I’m guessing that water evaporation has been estimated. Variables in temperatures, humidity and cloud cover make the evaporation calculation fairly fluid, but the parched desert climate of Maricopa county is rather consistent…so…
Minnows multiplying at a rate of maybe 600 per month, leaves me with pictures of tiny little fish dying in distress. Rotting in the noon-day sun of the desert, piled atop themselves in a heaving mass of flies and maggots while green pool water evaporates.
The horror (and the stench). The minnows sounded like the perfect idea until I started thinking 4 or 5 months down the road.
Let’s hope I’ve over thought this thing, as I’ve been known to do.
Photo: salmon society.
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© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Home Foreclosures Add To Public Health Crisis. Minnows are eating up the news!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
There may be as many as 8 Russian ice breakers patrolling the frozen waters of the Arctic. There are weekly reports of Russian aircraft over-flying the North Pole, simulating strikes on ‘enemy bases and shipping.’
Simulating strikes on enemy bases has to pain Prime Minister Stephen Harper like a raw nerve in a bad tooth. In August 2007 Harper announced that Canadian Forces would develop a northern army training base at Resolute and a deepwater port at Nanisivik, on Baffin Island. The plan to protect Canadian Sovereignty includes the procurement of 6 to 8 Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships, the first is expected in 2013.
Too little too late?
Russia operates 7 nuclear-powered icebreaker and the worlds largest nuclear-powered icebreaker ‘50 Years of Victory’ which is able to cut through 9.5 feet thick ice. In 2007 Russia had 18 total icebreakers.
Meanwhile the United States needs to figure out how to protect American interests in the Arctic with its two most powerful icebreakers nearing the end of their lives. In 2007 when both of them were sitting at a dock in Seattle, one manned by a skeleton crew, and one that is leased out to the National Science Foundation exclusively for research.
Of course it’s not a matter of having everyone’s ships in the same place at the same time, in a icebreaker face-off, but it’s difficult to understand how Canada or the U.S. will play catch-up in the ‘Great Game’ when it is obvious they find themselves suddenly in a match they didn’t expect for perhaps decades.
It might be a little difficult to assert sovereignty or authority showing up at the battle field waving a set of plans and good intentions. In fact some of these plans are still attached to the drawing board making logistics of even waving the plan more difficult.
It looks as though the Russians have been playing a strategic game of chess while while the U.S. was playing with their Wii’s and Canada was artfully sketching out plans.
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© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Russia Playing War Games Over The North Pole. The next ‘Great Game’ Has Started without all of the players.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
This is a dead dunlin simply fallen from the sky exhausted. The Saemangeum land reclamation project, said to be the world’s largest, has been spilling hard feelings, dead birds and a vast array of wildlife upon the edge of the Yellow Sea for years.
The project covers an area 7 times the size of Manhattan, somewhere in the neighborhood of 155 sq. miles. The Saemangeum land reclamation project is only a few miles south of Friday’s oil spill,as the migratory “crow flies”.
South Korea hatched the reclamation project after the Korean War. Originally the reclaimed land was slated for agriculture. Once the tidal flats, vital to the migratory birds of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, were filled the land would increase arable land for rice paddies.
What seemed like a good idea in 1953,for a nation trying to rise up from the turmoil war, turned out to be unnecessary. South Korea was able to produce a massive rice surplus in the face of inefficient agricultural methods. The reclamation project went forward in spite of there being no real agricultural need providing construction work and much needed employment.
The allure of sea side tourism and the prospect of generating perhaps more than 1 billion dollars a year from tourists the Saemangeum project moved ever forward. There was also an enticing prospect of building the worlds largest golf course with more than 500 holes. Countries across the globe have been developing sea side resorts for as long as humans have sought the surf and sand. Forever?
Nearly 80% of the Mediterranean Sea has been developed for tourism. Some places like Valencia in Spain, realized some 20 years ago, it was critical to the environment to reverse the damage that has been done their coastal areas.
More than 1,600 species of life call the Korean Yellow Sea Home. Life in, along, and passing through the Yellow sea range from 70 types of phytoplankton to 500 marine invertebrates, 150 types of fishes, 230 water birds and at least 10 kinds of marine mammals. The reclamation project has resulted in the loss of at least 25% of the total tidal flats in Korea have been lost. Just one of the arguments to continue the project was; more than 300,000 birds that stop at the tidal flats will find another place to refuel. Mallipo perhaps?
“Mallipo is finished” said Choi Kyung-hwan a local fisherman who had come out to help with the cleanup.
Photo thanks www.birdskorea.org
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© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Hebei Spirit Oil Spill May Have Dealt Final Blow After Saemangeum to Migratory Birds.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
While Ontario plans to close the 4 remaining coal-fuelled plants by 2014 the US is continuing to relax its emission standards for coal fuelled plants.
Coal emissions are a hot topic in the US. Some are even suggesting a form of coal powered autos. The relaxed emissions for coal pollution in the US may have quite a lot to do with that. Even China is making a move to eliminate coal to liquid synthetic petroleum. The process for turning coal to synthetic liquid fuel consumes nearly as much non-renewable energy as it returns. Liquid coal fuel is a fools folly.
The US clearly plans to exploit its cheap and abundant coal supply. The cost to convert is estimated at $25.00 a barrel. Compare that with the estimated $100.00 a barrel it could garner and coal to fuel looks like an appetizing investment. Meanwhile Canadians will be dying prematurely and those that don’t die will be suffering sever health consequences.
With more than 600 coal plants in the US Midwest many with no pollution scrubbers the winds that blow into Ontario contain as much as 90% of the pollution in Windsor and Sarnia. The cost of this pollution from the US is growing exponentially. The cost to human lives can’t be calculated.
Huge volumes of sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide, ozone and mercury flowing over the border from the US have spurred the government to lodge yet another formal complaint southward to the US EPA.
More trouble brewing on the winds would be the prospect of using CTL (coal to liquid) fuel in jets traveling over Canada. The US Air Force has been working on synthetic CTL mixtures to feed its need for less expensive fuel plans to increase its use of CTL mixed fuels to 100 million gallons in the next 2 years. This is a daunting number when one considers that the US military accounts for only 1.7% of the US fuel consumption.
Commercial airlines always trying to find ways to cut their expenses will be on board the CTL pipeline.
The 2Nd attempt to pass a Bill, in as many years, as it applies to CTL federal funding and inclusion in the nearly non-existent US national ‘energy policy’ went down in flames in a vote of 39-55. The thumbs down on these proposals is fueling speculations that many coal producing States in the US will be more determined to pass their own legislation stoking the CTL fires.
It may be quite demoralizing to nearly everyone concerned, but the fight must continue to prevent the cross contamination of the Canadian environment by the America’s ill-winds.
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© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
US killing as many as 2.700 Canadians anually? May hospitalize 12,000 per year with ill-winds.
Friday, April 13, 2007
We are happy to announce the new home of Pacific Spirit Marine Institute on the web, www.pacificspirit.org. Chances are, if you are reading this you have already found us!
This site is full of information on our Environmental Centre, our Education and Restoration programs, Outreach Network and Oceangoing Vessels. With our mission of working in partnerships to coordinate and deliver practical education, collaborative opportunities, and results-based restoration programs, we are always looking for interested partners.
We would like to thank Relentless Technology for the rapid deployment and great job on our new website.
Visit us frequently for updates on our programs and facilities.
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© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Pacific Spirit Marine Institute launches our new website.
