Articles by Grist staff

An Embarrassment of Richard

Richard Pombo in danger of losing House seat to Jerry McNerney Rep. Richard Pombo (R), chair of the House Resources Committee and bugbear of the environmental community, is in a knock-down, drag-out fight to win an eighth term representing California’s 11th congressional district. Pombo has far more moolah than his Democratic challenger, Jerry McNerney, but […]

A former fisherman responds to David Benton’s Q&A

Following Grist's Q&A with David Benton of the Marine Conservation Alliance, George Pletnikoff -- a former fisherman who now works with Greenpeace -- wrote to respond to some of Benton's points, arguing that the Alaskan fisheries are not quite the model of sustainability.

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I read with interest the article about David Benton of the Marine Conservation Alliance. The board and funders of the Marine Conservation Alliance are a veritable who's who of the industrial fisheries (mostly draggers and factory trawlers), and they have a right to their perspective. But being an Aleut from the Pribilof Islands, I have a different worldview and understanding of what is happening in Alaskan waters. I would like to respond to Benton's brave statement that Alaskan fisheries are healthy and that there are no examples of any overfishing practices. To the contrary, the examples abound.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council manages the lucrative pollock fishery -- lucrative for the moment, that is, for one or two fishing communities and for the Seattle owners. Under the "precautionary" catch limits set by the NPFMC, three of the region's main pollock fisheries have been closed or severely limited due to overfishing: two in the Bering Sea (the Aleutian Island and Bogoslov fisheries) and one in the Gulf of Alaska (the Shelikof Strait roe fishery). Despite use of "strict guidelines," these fisheries have been decimated by the same catch formulas still in use to determine the total allowable catch for pollock in the Bering Sea.

Today, the vast majority of the fishing pressure is on the spawning aggregation in the eastern Bering Sea, home to the last pollock stock capable of supporting a sizable commercial fishery. Yet, there are no marine reserves set up to protect spawning fish. And what does the NPFMC say about this? "We use the best available science to determine total allowable catch limits."

Good news on ivory bills, bad news on border fence, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Anyone Got an Extra PFD? Bluster’s Last Stand The Amazing Technicolor Dream Cote Bird Mentality Tender Loving Caribou Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Branson With the Stars Majora League The Revolution Will Be Criticized A Bern Talking-To Engine Block

Perilous state of Yellowstone’s grizzlies highlights need for solid science in policy-makin

The perilous state of Yellowstone's grizzly-bear population highlights the need for solid science in policy-making, argues Doug Honnold in this guest essay. Honnold, managing attorney of the Earthjustice Northern Rockies office, has been litigating public-interest environmental cases for more than 20 years. Some of his successful cases have led federal courts to reinstate the Clinton roadless rule, overturn the Farm Bureau's efforts to have Yellowstone wolves killed, and reject the government's grizzly bear recovery plan because of its lack of habitat standards.

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Our ability to protect and preserve wild places like Yellowstone -- indeed, our ability to protect our civilization -- turns in large part on our ability to understand the amazingly complex biological and scientific dynamics at play. We can't fight global warming or beat back avian flu or protect our families from air pollution unless we understand the science behind these issues and put it to use.

But as we've seen again and again through the annals of history, powerful political forces use corrupted science to support desired political results.

Witness the Bush administration's proposal to remove the Yellowstone grizzly bear population from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. By the basic standards of fundamental ecology, that should be a non-starter because of the relatively small population size and the substantial threats the bear faces.