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    Every Creeping Thing: True Tales of Faintly Repulsive Wildlife: “Conniff is a splendid writer–fresh, clear, uncondescending, and with never a false step; one can’t resist quoting him.” (NY Times Book Review)

    The Species Seekers:  Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth by Richard Conniff is “a swashbuckling romp” that “brilliantly evokes that just-before Darwin era” (BBC Focus) and “an enduring story bursting at the seams with intriguing, fantastical and disturbing anecdotes” (New Scientist). “This beautifully written book has the verve of an adventure story” (Wall St. Journal)

    Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time by Richard Conniff  is “Hilariously informative…This book will remind you why you always wanted to be a naturalist.” (Outside magazine) “Field naturalist Conniff’s animal adventures … are so amusing and full color that they burst right off the page …  a quick and intensely pleasurable read.” (Seed magazine) “Conniff’s poetic accounts of giraffes drifting past like sail boats, and his feeble attempts to educate Vervet monkeys on the wonders of tissue paper will leave your heart and sides aching.  An excellent read.” (BBC Focus magazine)

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Posts Tagged ‘U.S. consumers’

A Solution to Criminal Overfishing Comes Closer

Posted by Richard Conniff on November 2, 2015

(Photo: Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

(Photo: Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

My latest for Takepart:

The odds that American consumers will be able to go into a store and buy fish that’s safe and legally caught have begun to improve, perhaps dramatically, over the past week. At the same time, a new report from the World Wildlife Fund illustrates just how bad the situation has become: It estimates that 86 percent of global fisheries are now at high or moderate risk of pirate fishing.

The official term is IUU, for Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fisheries, and it means that those glistening imported fillets in your local market are highly likely to have been harvested in the wrong place or with the wrong methods. They may not even be the species advertised on the label. Or they could be contaminated with antibiotics, other drugs, or toxic chemicals used in some countries in farming or processing fish.

IUU, including fishing in protected marine reserves, is also a major factor in the global “empty seas” crisis. It’s been implicated in human trafficking. And it undercuts U.S. boats working in highly regulated and largely sustainable American fisheries. With an estimated value of $10 to $23 billion every year, IUU implicates every seafood merchant and every consumer in some of the worst criminal wildlife trafficking in the world. This is a lot to swallow for dinner.

The promising news is that Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Conservation and Extinction, Environmental Issues, Food & Drink | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »