home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback

 

New Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: The Real Scandal at the Times: Why Not Give Jayson Blair a Pulitzer? After all They Gave Them to Safire and Gerth; What About the Framing of Wen Ho Lee? Falling for the Jessica Lynch Fraud? Judy Miller's Missing WMDs? Blair, the Early Years; Meet the Minister of Sleaze: Deputy Interior Secretary Steve Griles; He Still Works for Big Oil and Strip Miners; Uses 90-Year Old Women as Human Shields; The Crash of the American Economy; Smearing Rachel Corrie's Memory; The Origins of Chalabi: Is He a Creature of Israeli Intelligence? Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide web audience is soaring, with more than 60,000 visitors a day. This is inspiring news, but the work involved also compels us to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now!

Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Coming Soon!
From Common Courage Press

Recent Stories

May 29, 2003

CounterPunch Wire
WMD: Who Said What When

Jason Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime

Ron Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.

Michelle Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in America: Pay More to Die Sooner

Kimberly Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus

Harry Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at the Top of the IRA

Stew Albert
Cops of the World

Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?

 

May 28, 2003

David Vest
DubyaCo.: It's Not So Funny Any More

Dave Lindorff
My Grandfather's Medal

John Stanton
America's Dying: Arts and Philosophy Hold the Key

Bernard Weiner
A PNAC Primer

Robert Jensen
Texas Dems Set a Standard for the Rest of the Party

Ahmad Faruqui
The Oil Business of Regime Change: the CIA and Iran

Hammond Guthrie
Disarming Conundrums

Steve Perry
What If There's No Such Thing as Al-Qaeda?

 

May 27, 2003

Kurt Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli Myths

Anthony Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?

Patrick Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad

John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character

Kathleen Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets

Jeffrey Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap

Steve Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands

 

May 26, 2003

Franklin C. Spinney
Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism

Elaine Cassel
Supreme Sacrifice

Sam Hamod
When Trained Killers Return Home

Stew Albert
The Final Conflict

 

May 24 / 25, 2003

Gary Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss and the Neo-Cons

Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure

Diane Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"

Alexander Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life

William S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?

William Cook
Road to Nowhere

David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice

Ilan Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel

Wayne Madsen
American Idle

Noah Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields

Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars

Lenni Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill

Mickey Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda

Michael Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad

Adam Engel
Towers of Babel

Poets' Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski

 

May 23, 2003

Standard Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?

Ron Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!

Michael Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply at Risk

Elaine Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."

Sam Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq

Christopher Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)

Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23

 

May 22, 2003

Mark Gaffney
Christian in Name Only

Carl Estabrook
Republic of Fear

Carl Camacho, Jr.
Reason for Hope

Ben Granby
What Rates a Headline from the Middle East?

Vanessa Jones
Terror Alerts in Australia

Mickey Z.
Instant Understanding

Don Monkerud
Snowballs in a Soggy Economy

Barry Lando
The Nether-Nether World of G.W. Bush

Steve Perry
Total Information
Awareness: Secret Shadow Program?

 

May 21, 2003

Dave Lindorff
Ari Fleischer Quits the Scene: The Liar's Gone, the Enablers Remain

Chris Floyd
How Blood Money Becomes Business Opportunity

Dr. Gerry Lower
Graham's God and Bush's Pathology

Patrick Cockburn
In Post War Iraq, the Signs of Breakdown are Everywhere

Brian Cloughley
The Fatuous Braintrust: Newt, Rummy and Wolfowitz

Saul Landau
Shopping, the End of the World and the Politics of Bush

Larry Kearney
Two Morning Poems, May 2003

Steve Perry
Chaos in Iraq: Just What the US Wanted?

Elaine Cassel
Ashcroft Justice Comes to Iraq

 

May 20, 2003

Tariq Ali
The Empire Advances

Ahmad Faruqui
Whither American Nationalism?

Ben Tripp
Dialysis with Osama

Linda Heard
The Cage of Occupation

Cynthia McKinney
Toward a Just and Peaceful World

Edward Said
The Arab Condition

Mokhiber and Weissman
Why Ari Should Have Resigned in Protest Long Ago

Stew Albert
Yale Men

Steve Perry
The New Face of Al-Qaeda

 

May 19, 2003

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
A Letter to Kofi Annan on Powell's Missing Evidence

CounterPunch Wire
"Terror" Slut Steve Emerson Eats Crow

John Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies

Matt Vidal
Corporate Media and the Myth of the Free Market

Michael S. Ladah
The Fine Print to Bush's Road Map

Robert Fisk
Bush's Eternal War Backfires

Elaine Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years

Jonathan Freedland
Ann Coulter's Appalling Magic

Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a

 

May 17 / 18, 2003

Uri Avnery
The Children's Teeth

Peter Linebaugh
An American Tribute to Christopher Hill

Gary Leupp
Nepal Today

Rock and Rap Confidential
The Republican Plot Against the Dixie Chicks

Walter Sommerfeld
Plundering Baghdad's Museums

Ron Jacobs
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades

Thomas P. Healy
Dubya Does Indy

Tarif Abboushi
Bush, Sharon and the Roadmap

Francis Boyle
Debating US War Crimes in Iraq

Mark Davis
An Interview with Richard Butler

Richard Lichtman
American Mourning

Michael Ortiz Hill
Overcoming Terrorism

Adam Engel
Uncle Sam is YOU!

Alan Maas
The Best News Show on TV

Poets' Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert

Elaine Cassel
Good Enough for an Alien

Website of the Weekend
The 37 Americans Who Run Iraq

Song of the Weekend
Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues

 

May 16, 2003

Leah Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix

Ben Tripp
Fear Itself

Sharon Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools

Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?

Sam Hamod
A Nation of Fear

Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price

Robert McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab

Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count

Steve Perry
We're All Extras in Bush's Movie

Website of the Day
Iraq and Our Energy Future

 

May 15, 2003

Ayesha Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter Writing Campaigns

Julie Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees: Can He Get a Fair Trial?

Tanya Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure

Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?

Kenneth Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts New Yorker's Goldberg

Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell

Steve Perry
Bush's Little Nukes

Website of the Day
Strip-o-Rama

 

May 14, 2003

Cindy Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From

Jason Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret November Deal for Iraq's Oil

David Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's Alaska

John Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos

Jack McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism and Double Standards

Wayne Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again

M. Junaid Alam
The Longer View

Paul de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War

James Reiss
What? Me Worry?

Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings

Website of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans

 

May 13, 2003

Saul Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves

Michael Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western Standards

Uri Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat

Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing

Jacob Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas

William Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory

The Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes

Stew Albert
Asylum

Hammond Guthrie
An Illogical Reign

Website of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence

 

May 12, 2003

Chris Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad

Dave Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs

Sam Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty

Uzi Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.

Jason Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White

Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark

Federico Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else

Steve Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12

Book of the Day
Fooling Marty Peretz

Website of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In

 

 

 

 

 

Hot Stories

Cindy Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From

Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Watch

Michel Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians"

Uzma Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go

Paul de Rooij
Arrogant Propaganda

Gore Vidal
The Erosion of the American Dream

Francis Boyle
Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution

Click Here for More Stories.

 

Subscribe Online


Search CounterPunch

 

May 30, 2003

The Toll of Industrial Fishing

Our Endangered Ocean

By TODD STEINER

Last month another major warning flag on the state of our oceans was hoisted when Canadian scientists reported that 90 percent of the world's big fish have disappeared from the seas. Their study found that the largest and some of the most economically important species of fish had been wiped out in the past 50 years by industrialized fishing, in particular, by a fishing method known as longlining.

This study follows another that was presented in February at the U.S.'s most prestigious scientific meeting, the American Association for the Advancement of Science by Duke University professor Dr. Larry Crowder. Crowder reported that industrialized longlining was driving many non-target species toward extinction as well, including the Pacific leatherback sea turtles and some species of seabirds. Collectively, all these marine species are critical to ecosystem dynamics, but are viewed as expendable by an international fishing industry that seeks to maximize short-term profits without taking into account the tremendous environmental costs of their practices.

For example, the pelagic longline industry sets over 5 million baited hooks every day (almost 2 billion annually). The lines used in longlining can be up to 60 miles long with more than 2,000 hooks on each line. These lines catch anything that bites or is unfortunate enough to get hooked while swimming in its path. Not coincidentally, in the past two decades, as longlining has increased, the number of Pacific leatherback sea turtle females that have safely returned from the oceans to their nesting sites has dropped dramatically by over 90%. The international community came together to ban destructive industrial fishing in the past, and it now needs to push for similar action. In 1993, the U.N. banned drift-net fishing on the high seas. The nets had caused a similar crisis at sea, drowning hundreds of thousands of dolphins and other marine species. Unfortunately, after the U.N. ban on this practice, many of these vessels replaced their drift nets with longlines and gill nets.

The endangerment of the Pacific leatherback sea turtle will be just the first in a host of crises if unsustainable fishing practices are not addressed. If we allow the commercial fishing industry to pursue short-term profit without concern for the long-term costs to society, we will see a greater decline in fishery stocks and biodiversity. For that reason, we urge the U.N. to fend off efforts to derail environmental agreements, and institute an international moratorium on pelagic longline and gill-net fishing in the Pacific that harm or kill endangered or threatened marine species.

Hundreds of prominent marine scientists and nongovernmental organizations from more than 50 nations have joined the effort to ban this type of fishing by signing a letter calling for the U.N. moratorium. Broad support from marine experts should send a clear signal to the Bush administration that it needs to rise to the challenge of creating more sustainable global marine policies.

To be sure, promoting a greater level of responsibility and accountability in the world's fisheries requires determined international leadership, but the consumer has a role as well. Many of the big fish being wiped out by industrial longlining, such as swordfish, sharks and tuna are top-of-the-food-chain predators that have bioaccumulated poisonous mercury in their flesh. The mercury levels in these fish are so high that the FDA and EPA have recommended that women of child-bearing age and children simply not eat these species to protect their health. In California, supermarkets and restaurants are obligated to post warnings about eating these species under Prop 65 Toxics Right to Know Law.

By taking swordfish, tuna and shark off our menus, and demanding that seafood restaurants and retailers provide sustainable seafood choices, we can save the leatherback sea turtle and other marine species from the jaws of industrial fishing fleets. Our choices will reduce demand and send the message to the Bush Administration and the fishing industry that we demand protection of the health of our oceans and of the people who inhabit this planet.

Todd Steiner is director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network; an environmental organization working to protect endangered marine wildlife and the ocean ecosystems on which we all depend.



Today's Features

CounterPunch Wire
WMD: Who Said What When

Jason Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime

Ron Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.

Michelle Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in America: Pay More to Die Sooner

Kimberly Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus

Harry Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at the Top of the IRA

Stew Albert
Cops of the World

Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?

 

Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!

home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /