Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

Gulf Coast Oil Platforms: Save the Rigs?

June 13, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Oil rig at sunset

This year, it's likely more than 100 offshore structures in the Gulf of Mexico will be removed as part of a Department of the Interior plan. There are 650 nonproducing oil and gas platforms, known in the industry as “idle iron,” listed for removal “as soon as possible”—i.e. within five years of the end of production or a year of losing the lease—under Interior’s directive. Historically, companies seldom removed an idle structure until the lease for the area where it was located expired. Having companies clean up after themselves sounds like a good idea, but many ... Read More

More like this: Environment
Tags: , , , ,

Fishing for Answers in Marine Sanctuaries

March 14, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

It's a zero-sum game for people and the environment. For one to win, the other must lose — particularly for the desperately poor in tropical countries. Or so goes the conventional wisdom. But is it actually true? Dr. Tim McClanahan, a marine biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, talks about his research with poor fisherman in Kenya who eke out a living fishing — usually overfishing — on threatened coral reefs. When marine reserves that excluded fishing were created on some of these coral reefs, local fisherman stood in fierce opposition. Contrary to expectations, the ... Read More

More like this: Curiouser
Tags: ,

The Success of Vizcaino’s Fishing Cooperatives

June 14, 2010 • By • 2 Comments
The pangas of Isla Natividad are all blue, while the ones from Punta Eugenia are yellow. (Kristian Beadle)

Voyage of Kiri writer Kristian Beadle, still on the road in El Hippo, reaches a part of the Pacific Coast of Baja where he learns that cooperation is the key to sustainable fisheries and livelihoods. Location: In Punta Abreojos, in the southern part of the Vizcaíno Peninsula, on the Pacific Coast of central Baja. Conditions: The wind never stops. The car is dusty, inside and out. Discussion: "No fishing today," said Daniel matter-of-factly, his pseudo-bloodshot eyes fixed on the ocean, his big hands clasped calmly together. His living room window had a direct view of the gale-force ... Read More

More like this: Environment, Voyage of Kiri
Tags: , ,

The Perils of Being Selfish With Shellfish

December 1, 2009 • By • 1 Comment

It was good news when scientists in Puerto Peñasco, a fishing and tourism hub in Baja California, found proof for the first time of the rapid "reseeding" effects of marine reserves — how a no-fishing zone can replenish fish stocks by exporting babies beyond its boundaries. The Puerto Peñasco divers were worried about the declining stocks of snails and scallops, the bread and butter of their trade. So, beginning in 2001, they worked closely with researchers to design, set up and monitor three de facto marine reserves where fishing was banned. The no-fishing zones extended along 11 miles ... Read More

More like this: Environment, Science & Environment
Tags: ,

Power to the (Fishing) People

April 1, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment

It is no secret that the world's fisheries are in trouble. Separate recent scientific studies found that more than 90 percent of large pelagic fish have been removed from the sea in the past 50 years alone, that more than half of monitored U.S. fish stocks are overfished, and that if fishing practices don't change, all of Earth's fisheries could be exhausted by mid-century. Given those disturbing findings, it would be reasonable to assume that scientists, fishermen and policy makers are hard at work turning the tide to ensure the long-term sustainability of the world's fisheries. But it ... Read More

More like this: Environment, Science & Environment
Tags: , , ,