Might as well eat ’em: A semi-serious April Fool’s Day ethical debate

Posted on By David Shiffman 38 Comments on Might as well eat ’em: A semi-serious April Fool’s Day ethical debate
Conservation

Sushi! Image from OpenClipArt.org

Bluefin tuna are some of the most endangered fish in the sea. Prized by the sushi industry for their delicious flavor, populations of bluefin have declined precipitously in recent decades.

They also may be the first species of fish to be driven to extinction by commercial fishing. Normally, when populations of fish get low, it isn’t profitable to fish for them anymore- thus they are not driven to extinction. However, a single bluefin tuna can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it is still profitable to fish for the last one.

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Has President Obama broken a promise on offshore drilling?

Posted on By David Shiffman 15 Comments on Has President Obama broken a promise on offshore drilling?
Conservation

I received an e-mail from Oceana today encouraging me to “tell President Obama to keep his promise”. The e-mail claims that while running for President, he campaigned against offshore oil drilling, which would make his recent announcement about allowing offshore drilling a broken promise indeed. However, I seem to remember that Obama as a candidate was for offshore drilling. I went to my favorite non-partisan fact check website, Politifact, to sort this out.

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An update on WhySharksMatter’s first PCR

Posted on By David Shiffman 1 Comment on An update on WhySharksMatter’s first PCR
Science

I know that many of you have been losing sleep over the questionable quality of my first PCR and gel. Well, the mystery has been solved! My lab partner made the gel with DI water instead of with TAE/agarose solution. Not only is that an easily fixable problem for the future… it’s something that, for … Read More “An update on WhySharksMatter’s first PCR” »