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Reuters blog archive
from Global Investing:
Why Abenomics is leading to a squid shortage in Japan
"Abenomics" -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's aggressive reflationary fiscal and monetary policy -- is widely praised for injecting optimism into the world's third largest economy and making Tokyo stocks the best performing equity market in the world this year.
However, in Japan, something odd is happening as a result of Abenomics -- a big shortage of squid.
Japan Squid Fisheries Association (JAFRA) decided to halt all fishing operations this Friday and Saturday because a weaker yen is pushing petrol prices higher, to the extent that going out to the sea will bring a guaranteed loss. The yen has lost more than 13 percent against the dollar since the start of the year.
Squid fishing is highly energy-intensive because fishers use light to lure squid at night. Fuel makes up around a third of the cost of fishing.
from Photographers Blog:
Fishing for fins
Off the coast of Vancouver Island, Canada
By Ben Nelms
Last year, Canada became home to the first shark fishery in the world that was labeled with a Marine Stewardship Council certification. This is an internationally recognized certification that lists the B.C Spiny Dogfish Shark industry as ‘certified sustainable seafood.’ The fishery is located in the Pacific waters of Canada, off the coast and around Vancouver Island.
I spent a handful of nights on a commercial fishing boat called the Ocean Sunset. We departed from the small village of Ucluelet, which is on the Western shores of Vancouver Island. The only thing I forgot on land was my sea legs.
from Photographers Blog:
The fisherman at Lake Koenigssee
Smoking like 400 years ago...
By Michael Dalder
After eighty-four successive days without catching a fish, the old man Santiago tells his young friend Manolin that he will go “far out” into the ocean. And there, a huge marlin takes his bait but Santiago is physically unable to reel him in. Nevertheless, Santiago refuses to let him go, so this leads to a three-day struggle between the fisherman and the fish.
This famous scene of Ernest Hemingway's novella "The Old Man and the Sea" was in my mind when I first contacted the Bavarian fisherman Thomas Amort from Lake Koenigssee.
from Photographers Blog:
The king of the Amazon
By Bruno Kelly
It was a dream come true for me to accompany the men who fish the pirarucu, South America’s largest freshwater fish. It was even more so to do it in the region of the Juruá River, one of the most inhospitable, winding and virgin rivers in the Amazon Basin.
The pirarucu, also known as the arapaima, is considered a living fossil. The adventure to fish them began from our departure from Manaus in an amphibious plane able to set down on dry land or water, called a Grand Caravan. Our pilot assured us that this is one of the few light aircraft certified to transport the president of the United States, and that left us much less nervous since we were heading into a region with nothing more than jungle and rivers below us.
from Photographers Blog:
Fishing to survive in Cité Soleil
By Swoan Parker
“I’m living in a bad place and didn’t want to get involved in any bad things”, is what 27-year-old Wilkens Sinar told me. His neighborhood, Cité Soleil, is one of the poorest and most dangerous slums in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and just 500 miles from the United States. This densely populated area located near the capital of Port-au-Prince houses families who mostly migrated from the countryside in search of work. Unable to afford the rents in most of the capital, they have no other choice but to settle here where powerful gangs operate rampantly.
As I walked through the endless maze of shanty homes built of pieces of concrete or junk metal latched together, the smell of raw sewage permeated the air. I found myself at the seacoast where small boats were docked and fishermen were either setting off or returning with their catch of mostly small crabs and fish.
from Photographers Blog:
A fisherman’s sad tale
By Yuriko Nakao
Seaweed grower Takaaki Watanabe took to the sea in his boat before the massive tsunami roared into the northeastern Japanese town of Minamisanriku, becoming one of a lucky few to save the vessel essential for their livelihood.
But back on shore the raging waters of March 11 swept away his wife, his mother and his house, built on land in his family for 13 generations, though his three teenaged daughters managed to survive.
from Environment Forum:
Brad Pitt, Matt Damon give krill a star turn
There are no small parts, only small actors, or so the old show-biz saying goes. Now there are big stars -- Matt Damon and Brad Pitt -- playing two of the smallest parts ever. In a far cry from "Ocean's Eleven" (and 12 and 13) they're lending their voices to a pair of krill, small shrimp-like creatures that form the base of the Antarctic food web.
Pitt and Damon play Will and Bill, the krill, in "Happy Feet Two," the sequel to the 2006 dancing-penguins animated feature. Both films have conservation themes. The latest movie opens in mid-November.
from Environment Forum:
Why is this Great White Shark smiling?
For this Great White Shark, it's even better now in the Bahamas.
The long-running tourist slogan has a new meaning for all 40 of the shark species around the Caribbean island chain after the Bahamian government banned all commercial shark fishing in the approximately 243,244 square miles (630,000 square kilometers) of the country’s waters.
What's good for sharks is good for the Bahamian economy. These big fish bring in about $78 million each year, or more than $800 million over the last 20 years, according to the Bahamas Diving Association -- the Bahamas is one of the world's premier shark-watching destinations for divers.
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Happy Father’s Day, you’re goin’ fission!
Blog Guy, I need some suggestions for a Father's Day gift for my dad. He loves to fish, but he seems to have all the equipment he needs.
How about sending him on an exotic vacation to a great gourmet fishing detonation?
from Photographers Blog:
Fishing for the right picture
The fishing harbor of Mumbai, India, has been one of my favorite hunting grounds for pictures in the city. It was one of the first places I discovered upon landing in the city seven months ago. The fishing harbor is small, a ‘little’ smelly and very crowded. You can’t stand in one place and if you do, then you'll be pushed about and abused by the locals who don’t like tourists taking pictures during business hours.
For this particular picture I had to wait for almost an hour. I noticed earlier that cranes tried to swoop down on a particular kind of fish being carried by the fisher folks on their heads. Now I had to find a good angle and try to position myself from where I wouldn't be in anyone's way and there would still be some room to maneuver.
