What is Maryland without Blue Crabs?

According to a WalletPop blog report, Blue Crabs are disappearing from Maryland.

Seems like the estimated population has dropped some 70% in the past twenty years. I'm with all the commenters though who wonder exactly how a census on crabs his done. Do we wrangle a potful and ask'em "Hey guys, tell us where your buddies are and how many you have, and we'll set you free!" According to the DNR "The survey is based upon a scientifically peer-reviewed design, and provides precise estimates each year of the number of crabs over-wintering in the Bay." Sers'ly? How do you KNOW it's precise?

I know, I'm being overly sarcastic and cynical. I'm just in that sort of mood. Check out these exerpts from the DNR report and you'll understand why I'm irked:

"Despite the low 2007 harvest and a persistently low crab population, the 2007 exploitation rate substantially exceeded the target removal rate. A bay-wide target removal rate has been set at 46%. In 2007 crabbers removed approximately 60% of the available crabs."

"In 2007, reproduction was extremely poor, placing the resource and the fishery in an increasingly perilous position. When the abundance of these adult crabs is low, the population and the fishery are heavily dependent upon annual reproduction."

And yet, said Fisheries reaction to such news seems to be a knee-jerk "Wow, the crab are on their way out, we'd better scoop'em all up before they're gone!" sort of attitude.

From the DNR page it sounds like they have a good plan in place for limiting harvesting, especially of female crabs...except that they make no mention of how they intend to ENFORCE these limitations.

Well, heres hoping I can check the DNR website this year and see some results! But all the crab-harvesting restrictions in the world won't help if we can't curb habitat loss and pollution!

Learn more about the Bay and Blue Crabs.

Water Conservation in the news

Yesterday I noticed that half of the news stories on my news ticker widget involved water conservation, so I thought I might highlight those on this wonderful Earth Day!
Here are some of the headlines:

New Mexico: Water Authority Rewards Conservation
California: California Launches $4 Million Water Conservation Push
California: Pittsburg Approves Water Conservation Plan

I did my part to conserve water yesterday, too. I sat the water buckets out in the rain to fill. I didn't fill them up by any means, but collected several inches of water overall, and am confident that I conserved at least a couple of gallons of water, which saves A) the water itself, and B) the electricity needed to run the pump. So go me.

In your face, Sarah Palin!

While Palin was campaigning in Indiana last week, so was Defenders of Wildlife. Thanks to donations from Defenders supporters, they were able to run ads exposing Palin's brutal wolf slaughter record, including 240 wolves killed already this season, and plans to implement gas and snares to kill denning wolves and pups.
So thanks, Defenders supporters, for helping to run this hard-hitting ad campaign against Palin's anti-wolf agenda.

Facebook Fairy Garden Update: I harvested my first vitual flower and helped secure 2 square feet of endangered rainforest!

Facebook App helps save rainforest!

Ever wish you could just sit around and play silly games, and magically save the planet at the same time? Now, thanks to Facebook's 'Fairyland' application, you can! Check out this update from the Fairyland News page:

Rainforest Protection News!
Saturday March 7th
As you know, whilst having fun in Fairyland, every plant you grow and harvest also makes a small contribution to real-world rainforest conservation (which is the "sq ft" of rainforest protected you see whenever you harvest a plant.)Every 2 months, we total this up across all Gardens and make an equivalent donation to the Nature Conservancy's "Adopt An Acre" programme, which works to protect rainforests around the world (more details here if you're intersted in learning more.)In January/February, the Fairy Gardens harvested enough plants to help protect another 2,866,068 sq ft (about 66 acres) of rainforest which equates to a further donation of $3,300 to the programme. This brings our total donations to date to $10,700 (or 214 acres of rainforest protected!)The money to make this donation comes from our advertisers and from Gold purchases. For total transparency, we make our donation through the Causes application on Facebook (view our Causes page right here.)
Thanks for supporting both Fairyland and our planet!

Talk about fabulous. Now you can play, have fun, connect with your friends and help a cause all at the same time. Finally, social networking lives up to its potential! I have to say, I avoided getting a Facebook page for a long time, but now I'm kinda liking it. I talk to my sister more than ever, I get great links to other causes, and Facebook provides you with easy applications for sharing websites and petitions. Not to mention all those fun, silly, pointless surveys. All in all, kinda awesome. So come visit me on Facebook, and water my garden for me if I forget! The more virtual flowers we grow, the more real life rainforest we can save.
You can find me on Facebook by my email, TheUrbanJackal@aol.com . Friend me, and lets save some rainforest together!

It's the Crocodile's turn!

First Coyotes, now Crocodiles, what next, Coati?

The American Crocodile is now considered such a threat to the pet population in South Florida that the LA Times has picked up the story. Maybe that's because people who live in the California foothills know what it's like to have their poodle eaten by a coyote, or a mountain lion, or say, an 11-foot crocodile.

Well, buddy. Keep your poodle on a leash. The crocodiles were there first.

I love how they didn't even get the name of the story right, check it out. It says 'alligator population on the rise', not Crocodile. Brilliant. Genius!

Petitions out the wazoo

I get half a dozen of them in my mailbox on a good day. They are petitions from countless conservation organizations, and I try to share as many as I can with you. Just in case you don't get them on your own!
Here are the ones I've signed so far today:

Reinstate Moritorium on Drilling the Outer Continental Shelf

Help Save the Grand Canyon

Support Historic Bill to End Canada's Commercial Seal Hunt

Coyote 'problem' in Colorado

Coyotes seem to be the whipping boy of suburbanites these days.
Greenwood Village, a suburb of Denver, has hired a contractor to monitor its coyotes and shoot them if 'necessary.'
Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director of WildEarth Guardians doesn't approve of this approach, and neither do I. The trapper/shooter/tracker in question, Jay Stewart seems to be annoyed that people are trying to chase the coyotes away, meanwhile past efforts made by the city to control the coyote population have included trapping....which means that someone had to BAIT the coyotes into the traps. Baited traps can only lead to more opportunistic coyotes in the area. Placing signs around coyote denning sites to keep people away is a good way to keep the people from getting hurt, but it's basically enabling the coyotes. By giving them their space, the village is actually encouraging them to take root and move on in.
"Scientists tell us the best way to address problems with coyotes is to enforce leash laws and wildlife feeding ordinances and reinstill a wariness of humans in them," Rosmarino said.
So basically, don't blame the coyotes for your problem. Blame yourselves. Click Here to read WildEarth Guardians take on the 'problem.'