Latest Articles

Researchers track large marine predators across the globe

I spent the spring and summer of 2002 studying at Hopkins Marine Station, in Pacific Grove, Calif. -- splashing around in tide pools, diving in kelp forests, and wading through mud in Elkhorn Slough. One of the highlights of my time there was helping Dr. Barbara Block and Dr. Dan Costa experiment with placing satellite tags on elephant seals. These seals can dive as deep as 1700 ft, spending up to 30 minutes underwater, so they were great test subjects to see how the tags would hold up.

After capturing a few seals on Año Nuevo Island and trucking them an hour down the coast to Hopkins, the scientists glued the tags on and released them, tracking their progress as they swam back home.

Block and Costa are lead scientists in the Tagging of Pacific Predators project. The project is helping them to understand where migrating sharks, leatherback turtles, bluefin tuna, seals, albatross, and other large marine animals spend their time.

Not only do the tags track the animals' location, swim speed, and depth and duration of dives, but they also collect information about the temperature and salinity of the seawater, which is beamed back to the researchers via satellite. Fancy, eh?

Toying With Our Emotions

Bush administration may be complicit in lead-painted-toy debacle While China has endured a lot of criticism from the lead-painted-toy debacle, the Bush administration is not off the hook. Consumer advocates say the anti-regulation administration has hindered attempts to crack down on inspection of imported Chinese playthings; in addition, critics accuse the feds of encouraging the […]

Lovely Nissan, Meter Made

Nissan to install fuel-efficiency gauge in all its models Automaker Nissan announced plans yesterday to install a gauge in all its vehicles that estimates fuel-efficiency to let drivers know how their driving habits affect gas mileage. The gauge already appears in some of Nissan’s newest luxury cars, but its plan to eventually showcase the efficiency […]

Teddy Would Be Proud

Conservation organization sues feds over energy development The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership has sued the U.S. Department of the Interior over the authorization of thousands of new oil and gas wells, roads, and miles of pipeline in a wildlife-rich area of Wyoming. News that an organization has sued the federal government over environmental travesties is, […]

Do They Just Not Caribou?

BLM offers yet another plan for drilling on Alaska’s sensitive North Slope In 1923, U.S. President Warren G. Harding designated 23 million acres on Alaska’s North Slope as a national petroleum reserve. The ecologically sensitive northeast corner of the reserve — which includes pristine Lake Teshekpuk and is vital habitat for breeding caribou and migrating […]

Rey Snarls

Top Forest Service official may be held in contempt of court The top official at the U.S. Forest Service has some ‘splainin’ to do. Mark Rey may be held in contempt of court and possibly jailed unless the USFS follows through on a court-ordered analysis of the environmental impact of a toxic flame retardant, U.S. […]

Who’s in Barge Here?

Barge spills diesel near Vancouver Island orca habitat A barge has tipped over off the coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island, creating a diesel slick over a mile long that is threatening orca habitat. The barge, which was carrying logging equipment, including a fuel truck, was just outside the boundary of an ecological reserve when it […]

Umbra on replacing a boiler

Dear Umbra, When changing boilers for heating a house for the next 30 to 40 years, should we choose gas or electric? We have gas now and want to go from 80 percent efficient to 95 percent efficient. About 60 percent of our electricity comes from Missouri River hydro and 40 percent from coal. We […]

Interview with Utah mine owner

Crandall Canyon mine owner Robert Murray took the occasion of a short interview with AP to express just how hard this whole experience has been on him, and to bitch about the miners union, which is being a big meanie to him. Poor Bob. I bet if those nine dead miners weren’t, you know, dead, […]

A simple video about CFLs

Natalie Portman, Chloe Sevigny, and Kyra Sedgwick in a National Geographic Green video about CFLs: