Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

The Invisible Sea Creatures Worth More Than Uranium, Silver, and Kobe Beef Combined

April 5, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
elver

There is something happening in Maine, which is notable in itself because, well, Maine. But it's also notable because it involves Native Americans, the government, and obviously lots of money. Oh, and these crazy-expensive, glass-colored baby eels. So, these eels. They're called elvers, and in North America they're usually born near the Bahamas and then carried up the East Coast—as far north as Canada—by currents. The Economist says they "look rather like clear noodles." They're worth about $2,600 a pound. For reference: uranium is around $42.25 per pound, silver $445 per pound, ... Read More

More like this: Environment
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Wanna Save the Rhino? Legalize Horn Farming

March 6, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
The African White Rhino (PHOTO: JASON PRINCE/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Like the dodo, the dinosaur, and the pig-footed bandicoot (maybe), the western black rhinoceros is now a thing of the past, hunted to extinction for its horn. And small wonder. Despite being banned in 1977, the rhino horn trade is flourishing. Twenty years ago, a kilo of horn went for $4,700. Today, it sells for $65,000, making it more valuable than either gold or cocaine. Poaching is on the rise, and by some accounts, the number of endangered (but not yet extinct) white rhino killed doubles each year. By 2035, African wildlands could be devoid of the animal. As parties to the international ... Read More

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In the Third Inning It’s Oil Drillers 1, Polar Bears 0

January 15, 2013 • By •

In a setback to the animal we described as the “fuzzy face of climate change,” a federal court has determined that setting aside 187,157 square miles of Arctic coastline in Alaska as “critical” polar bear habitat under the Endangered Species Act was too ambitious. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had identified the area of coastline, offshore sea ice, and islands as prime real estate for the dens of pregnant polar bears. It was also, as these things happen, prime real estate for oil and gas development. And so we have another entry in the culture wars column. As Zac Unger explained ... Read More

More like this: The 101
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Nepalese Tigers Figure Out How To Avoid Rush Hour

September 6, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
nepal-sukla-phanta-tiger

Via Kate Shaw at Ars Technica: We don't necessarily need to separate human and animal populations to protect them from each other, if the adaptations of tigers in a Nepal nature reserve show us anything. Biologists from Michigan State University set up 80 or so automatic cameras around Chitwan national park, a Bengal Tiger habitat, hoping to record the animal's schedule. The cameras captured not just tiger activity, but also humans who live in and near the park. Analyzing the video revealed that both human and tiger used the same paths and populated the same areas. The two groups ... Read More

More like this: The 101
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Can Monk Seals Find a Berth on Noah’s Ark?

July 31, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Monk seal

The “extinction vortex” is all too familiar in the world of endangered species: Extremely small populations often become vulnerable to new threats, precipitating a downward spiral toward extinction. But in a world of limited resources, I wonder about society’s obligation to intervene where there is little chance for reversing downward trends. A case in point is the critically endangered monk seal, which is declining toward extinction in one of the most pristine marine wilderness areas on earth. The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the northwest Hawaiian Islands is the ... Read More

More like this: Environment
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Species Disappearing Faster Than We Can Count

July 17, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Green Bottle Blue Tarantula

In 2012, a sneezing monkey, a spongy mushroom, and a blue tarantula became official earthly inhabitants alongside more than 15,000 other new discoveries. Some of these species are more than just wondrous creatures, their existence could have broad implications. A wild rice species discovered in the 1970s was hybridized, and increased the world's rice production nearly fourfold. To this day, that rice provides food in places where it would otherwise be scarce. Every time we discover a new species, it could be a link to health, food, medicine: something that can help what ails us. Over ... Read More

More like this: Environment
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Freeing Tangled Leviathans: The Whale Wrangler

June 25, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Detangling whale

THE GOBBLER GUILLOTINE WAS DESIGNED IN TEXAS for shooting turkeys. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, Scott Landry is the only person who has successfully used the four-bladed arrow to shoot at whales on the high seas. Landry’s choice of weapon is a far cry from the traditional heavy iron harpoon, but it has proved effective for his goal: freeing the animals from yards of tangled rope and fishing gear. Landry will tell you that he knows little about hunting turkeys. But the 42-year-old marine biologist has repurposed tools of that trade for a different kind of hunt. He is the director ... Read More

More like this: Environment, July-August 2012
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Let My People Surf… and Eat Salmon Jerky

May 29, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Man holding salmon

Patagonia, the clothing company, was almost Patagonia, a grain company. Thirty-five years ago, while in Nepal on a climbing expedition, founder Yvon Chouinard started thinking about grains. "The Sherpas would say, ‘Well, OK, we'll eat your freeze-dried stuff, but once we get up high, we have to eat our own stuff, since yours doesn't give us what we need,”" he told me recently. "They'd eat tsampa, which is this roasted grain with butter tea. Years later, our scientists found out what they already knew: that complex carbohydrates are the best thing to eat when you're at high altitude," ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics
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Dam Busting: A Concrete Victory for Fish, Jobs

October 14, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Perhaps you’ve seen the American Express TV ad where the famously contentious outdoorsman and clothesmaker Yvon Chouinard looks into the camera and declares, “I’m a dam buster.” He’s not alone in sharing that sentiment, as a sediment-choked dam in Southern California has become the bête noir of conservationists living there. A menacing wedge of concrete jammed between the steep walls of a canyon in the Los Padres National Forest, the Matilija Dam looms over the Ventura River. Built in 1947 both to store precious rainwater and preventing flooding when it did, the dam no longer ... Read More

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Long Slog for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

September 20, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Long Slog for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

Against all odds, the critically endangered ivory-billed woodpecker may still be hanging on in a desolate handful of bottomland swamps in the American Southeast. Depending on who's asked, the last putative sighting of the large black-and-white bird occurred in early 2007 in the Florida Panhandle or the spring of 2008 in a Louisiana bayou. And there hasn't been an undisputed report of ivory-bills for nearly 70 years, more than twice the bird's maximum lifespan. The putative rediscovery of the bird in 2005, announced with much fanfare at a Washington, D.C., press conference that included ... Read More

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