As fish go, silver carp—one of several species that fall under the general term Asian carp—have a lot going for them. They are voracious feeders, they can grow to more than 40 lbs. and their bony bodies mean few Americans want to eat them, so they can escape the overfished fate of their more filletable cousins. But they do have …
Animals
Protecting Tigers in a Troubled Land
Burma is best known to the West as the home of one of the most repressive military regimes in the world, a country where more than 2,100 political prisoners remain behind bars. The U.S. has strict economic sanctions against Burma—a policy President Obama just renewed last week—and the country’s most famous citizen, democratic icon …
Animals That Can Think
A portfolio of creature portraits by photographer Finlay MacKay
Getting to Know What’s in Your Ocean
Every so often we get a glimpse — a transluscent body with a glowing orb hanging off its forehead, or this dragonfish, with teeth on its tongue and jaws that look like they could take your arm off. These missives from our oceans’ depths are as captivating as they are few and far between – the fruit of long, expensive forays to
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Canada’s Transsexual Fish
It just got harder to be a fish—at least a Canadian fish. Or at least a Canadian fish looking for a mate. That’s because more and more of the boys keep turning into girls. As with so many other things, it’s humans who are to blame.
The human household environment is awash in chemicals—preservatives, plastics, drugs, cosmetics and …
Will Southeast Asia’s Hydro Rush Drown the Giant Catfish?
It’s hard to overstate the fever for hydroelectric power that has infected southeast Asia in recent years. Hydro power has more than tripled across the region since 1980, a growth that is pinned primarily to the mighty waters of the Mekong, the huge and powerful river that winds its way from the Tibetan–Qinghai Plateau, through …
New York State Plans the Gooseageddon
Usually when we’re writing about wildlife here at Ecocentric, we’re describing efforts to conserve biodiversity in the face of development, pollution and climate change. (Unless we’re just talking about big, fat marmots.) But when it comes to Canada geese, the state of New York has different ideas. The New York Times is reporting that …
Can a Lawsuit Stop the Asian Carp?
I’ve written before about fears over the voracious Asian carp, an invasive species that has moved up the Mississippi and now seems to have made its way into the Great Lakes, where it could cause significant havoc. Scientists have been warning for months about the threat the carp—a family of freshwater fish native to China and parts of …
The Unknown Wonders of Rare Plants
I find it hard to think of a more depressing finding than this one: writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of international researchers predict that thousands of rare flowering plant species are likely to become extinct before humans discover them.
And that’s just from the current pressure from habitat loss …
Global Paper Company — and Clients —Under Fire for Deforestation
In its ongoing campaign to draw attention to Indonesia’s deforestation woes, Greenpeace has released a new report singling out Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), one of the world’s largest paper companies owned by Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas, for sourcing trees from rainforest and peatland that are home to endangered species like the …