Orphaned animals struggle in oil disaster (Baltimore Sun)
The smallest victims are the biggest challenge for crews rescuing birds fouled with oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill.
Traditionally, American environmentalism wins its biggest victories after some important piece of American environment is poisoned, exterminated or set on fire. An oil spill and a burning river in 1969 led to new anti-pollution laws in the 1970s. The Exxon Valdez disaster helped create an Earth Day revival in 1990 and sparked a landmark clean-air law. But this year, the worst oil spill in U.S. history — and, before that, the worst coal-mining disaster in 40 years — haven’t put the same kind of drive into the debate over climate change and fossil-fuel energy.
Wild fish, farmed fish (NPR)
He says people need to understand that every time they eat a fish that wasn’t farmed, they are eating a wild animal, and the problem with wild fishing is that it isn’t sustainable on a large, commercial scale. And things are only getting worse. A study by the World Health Organization found that the world has doubled its per capita fish consumption over the past 50 years and, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we now harvest about 90 million tons of wild fish and shellfish from the ocean every year.
Sharks eating sharks (Discovery)
One of the most extensive studies on the diets of deepwater sharks reveals these toothy animals may eat everything from discards tossed off commercial fishing vessels to other sharks.