While the 2020 Presidential election frees us from the specter of the collapse of the Republic for the moment, it does not portend all it could have…
We won! – sort-of
(Not so) Critical Habitat
On August 5, 2020, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposed two definitions of the word “habitat” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Both of their proposed definitions limited the agency’s ability…
Atlantic seismic surveys dropped
Big news has been popping off so fast and furious these last few weeks that I worry about getting whiplash.
What’s in a word?
The gist of what they are proposing puts temporal, geographical, and circumstantial constraints on the meaning of the word “habitat.”
Are the wheels falling off the oil industry?
While it is 30 years too late, we may be saved from the worst of climate catastrophe as the wheels fall off the petroleum industry.
Dropping the NEPA Bomb
As anticipated, the Administration released their revised version of the National Environmental Policy Act. This has been a long-sought-after plumb for the oilmen, and really, they have been polishing up for this moment for 40 years.
Welcome to the Virtual Life!
Since the end of April I have avoided the airport numerous times, and I’m sort–of getting used to it. Will “Zooming” replace scientific conferences?
Happy Juneteenth! – Excavating the layers
When I started writing these newsletters back in 2008, I was determined to focus exclusively on ocean noise and bioacoustics issues – and the work we were doing to address them. A decade later 2017 arrived, and the work migrated down…
Report from the Whale Jails
Late last week Daniela, OCR’s Communications Director, posted a tragic video taken from above the Miami “Seaquarium” of Tokitae (a.k.a. ‘Lolita’), a captive orca. The video has stirred up a lot of emotions – and comments, because the captive plight of…