Marine Conservation

I hope it comes as no suprise to my readers that many species of fish are being fished to commercial (and sometimes total) extinction.  It's a form of madness that is destroying the ocean environment and will shortly leave us with no exploitable stock of many fish that we love to eat. (to catch the vast majority of cod before they are large enough to breed, is a little careless to say the least.  You think we'd have learned from the collapse of the Newfoundland cod industry, but apparantly not...)

For those of you who want to know what fish they can eat with a clean conscience, I suggest this site http://www.fishonline.org/

For easy reference when you are out shopping or at a restaurant the Marine Conservation Society has also produced a Good Fish Pocket Guide. This wallet-sized list of the Fish to Eat and the Fish to Avoid is available FREE from MCS on receipt of a SAE to Marine Conservation Society, Unit 3 Wolf Business Park, Alton Road, Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5NB.

Or you can ask me for one - I ususually carry a spare so I have one to give to anyone who asks.  It's tiny enough to fit in my purse, brightly coloured and easy to read and just has a 'yes', 'no' or 'maybe' rating for each species of fish I'm likely to see in the shops.

Colony Collapse Disorder

What is happening to bee colonies?

Colony collapse disorder, or the total abandonment of their hives by bees, is increasingly widespread and could cause a collapse in the production of crops that are dependant on bees for pollination.  There may be a connection with mobile phone usage.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece

My only question relating to this theory is that the condition appeared in America before the UK and mobile phone usuage (I believe) is higher over here.  On the other hand, most bee keepers in America move around the country to pollinate different fields, so I'm guessing they may have much higher than average use of mobiles.

However, if you keep bees, it might be advisable to make sure that you never take your handset near the hive.