Save the fishies

As you read in my previous blog post, Chipotle is a fast food chain restaurant with surprisingly sustainable food practices. They are the only ones of their kind to use organic foods which is pretty awesome. This article will tell you more about the new non profit organization they have established to help assist family farms and educate young people about sustainable farming!

Florida is one of my favorite places in the world. Actually, it is my favorite place in the world - though Tennessee fans will probably all hate my guts after reading this. I grew up in Florida for a good third of my life and it has thoroughly become a part of me. Every summer my family and I make our annual trip to the beach and stay with my aunt. She lives in a rural town with only one high school in the county and lots of men who make their living off of fishing. Being right on the gulf of Mexico, these men go out every morning and come back in the evening with their various catches: grouper, marlin, flounder and lots of others. I've even been out on a fishing expedition or two with my cousins. The kind of fishing we're doing is just with a hook, line, and sinker. If we catch something we don't want to eat we throw it back into the ocean, and it can still live a happy fish life. But unfortunately for the big fishing companies, they can't do the same. With their huge fishing nets they pull in all sorts of marine animals that aren't supposed to be eaten - the most well publicized example of this is of course dolphins being pulled in with tuna. But it happens to lots of other kinds of animals too. In a new effort by scientists and fishermen alike, fishing gear is being changed to help save some of the "bycatch". Changes involve a differnece in hook design and net design, putting noismakers on boats, and making fishing lines more visible. Overall hopefully these modifications will save some of the most important and endangered marine species! You can read the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/science/23catch.html?pagewanted=1&ref=earth 

P.S. Just posted on the NY times a couple of hours ago: Obama is deciding not to take environmentalist's advice and enforce stricter ozone standards that he's been talking about enforcing through the course of his presidency. Smh. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/science/earth/04air.html?ref=earth