The Outdoor Industry is an Economic Colossus
By JR Sullivan/Field & Stream
Photo by Donald Lee Pardue/flickr
But the Outdoor Industry Association has
released a report
on the outdoor-recreation economy, the findings of which suggest that if elected officials wish to stimulate local economies, ensuring that outdoorsmen have access to untampered wilderness and clean streams, and that public lands remain public, would be in their best interest.
According to this year's report, the outdoor-recreation industry generated a staggering $887 billion in consumer spending last year, up from $646 billion the year prior. Public lands, the report notes, are the backbone of the outdoor economy, which accounts not only for hunters and fishermen, but also bikers, boaters, hikers, kayakers, off-roaders, skiers, and other outdoor hobbyists.
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China's Appetite Pushes Fisheries to the Brink
By Andrew Jacobs/The New York Times
Photo by Jon D. Anderson/flickr
Once upon a time, the seas teemed with mackerel, squid and sardines, and life was good. But now, on opposite sides of the globe, sun-creased fishermen lament as they reel in their nearly empty nets.
"Your net would be so full of fish, you could barely heave it onto the boat," said Mamadou So, 52, a fisherman in
Senegal
, gesturing to the meager assortment of tiny fish flapping in his wooden canoe.
A world away in eastern
China
, Zhu Delong, 75, also shook his head as his net dredged up a disappointing array of pinkie-size shrimp and fledgling yellow croakers. "When I was a kid, you could cast a line out your back door and hook huge yellow croakers," he said. "Now the sea is empty."
Overfishing is depleting oceans across the globe, with 90 percent of the world's fisheries fully exploited or facing collapse, according to the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
. From
Russian king crab fishermen
in the west Bering Sea to
Mexican ships
that poach red snapper off the coast of Florida, unsustainable fishing practices threaten the well-being of millions of people in the developing world who depend on the sea for income and food, experts say.
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A Look Inside the World of Illegal Eagle Trafficking
By Avi Selk/The Washington Post
Photo by Mick Thompson/flickr
Welcome to the niche underworld of illegal bird trafficking: garbage bags full of eagle bits; talons laid out like watches on a kitchen floor; bloody smuggling routes said to stretch from hunting grounds in Wyoming to black markets in Los Angeles or much farther.
Fifteen people
face federal charges after a two-year undercover investigation of what U.S. Attorney Randy Seiler described at a news conference in South Dakota as a multistate "chop shop for eagles."
At the top of the list of suspects is Troy Fairbanks, the 54-year-old operator of a Native American dance company who authorities say ran a side business as the self-styled "best feather man in the Midwest."
As the feds began their sting operation in 2014, a government informant made contact with Fairbanks at a campground near his home in Rapid City, S.D., according to a federal indictment. They allegedly talked eagle, and the informant left with Fairbanks's business card.
In visits to Fairbanks's home over the next year, according to the indictment, the informant bought thousands of dollars worth of eagle parts, once trading black bear claws and $1,000 cash for a feathered headdress styled after the outfits of
Cheyenne Dog Soldiers.
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How to Spot the Path of an Unseen Whale
By Glenn Jeffries/Hakai
Photo by pontia/flickr
The multi-hour experience of whale watching can generally be edited down to a few key frames: a burst of action on the clock face of the sea; the animal's slow, elegant arc; and the Y of the tail, slipping below the surface. At that point, most whale watchers get distracted, turning back to their cameras to check if they pressed the button at the exact right moment.
There's actually more to see. Just as patient moviegoers are treated to "credit cookies" at the end of a film, those who keep watching the water are rewarded. Look where the whale was and you will see in its place, for a short time, a completely smooth, undisturbed crown of glassy water.
I found a mention of the phenomenon in a single paragraph of Philip Hoare's hugely popular 2008 non-fiction book The Whale. He refers to the "slick of flat water" with an Iñupiaq term-qala, translated as "the path of the unseen whale."
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What's a Hellbender, and Why Does a Zoo Want to Save Them?
By Sarah Kaplan/The Washington Post
Photo by Brian Gratwicke/flickr
Herpetologist Don Boyer inevitably drew attention when he drove into town. People would notice his truck, with "Bronx Zoo" emblazoned across the side, and want to know what he was doing in their corner of western New York.
"Releasing hellbenders," he told them.
"People were like, 'Hellbenders? Why are you releasing them?' " Boyer recalled Friday.
One glance at the creatures was unlikely to assuage nervous onlookers. The Eastern hellbender, the largest salamander in the Western Hemisphere, looks as though someone yanked out a giant's esophagus, gave it legs and taught it to swim. The two-foot-long amphibian has slime-covered skin, beady eyes and a paddle-like tail. Its ruffled torso resembles the edge of a lasagna noodle, inspiring one of the creature's many colorful nicknames, "old lasagna sides."
"They're pretty odd-looking creatures," Boyer acknowledged. "Nocturnal and aquatic and secretive and strange. ... Otherwordly."
But they're also threatened. Which is why scientists at the Bronx Zoo have been working to raise the giant salamanders in captivity and then reintroduce healthy adults into the wild.
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