Fish Food 4 Thought

     Sea lions are the constant companions of vessels in harbors and coastal areas across the West Coast of the United States. They are gentle creatures, more bark than bite, with complex social systems. They are mothers and fathers like you and I, feeding their youth with milk to foster another generation of successful marine mammals. Contrast this to the scene that has played out in Oregon and Washington over the past decade. Men and women lacking the skills for actual jobs capture the animals, lock them in metal bars akin to those used to rape cows, sear the flesh of the animals with a number, the stench of burned skin and fur mixing with blood smoking through the air. The animals cry in agony... and are released. That's when the monitoring begins. It's almost like baseball... three strikes, and you're out. The only difference is that, for the poor pinnipeds, striking out is punished with a bullet to the brain, and the strikes are recorded any time they are observed... e

     Picture the scene: it is June 2011. The UN and NATO have backed militants aimed at toppling the regime of longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which they ultimately succeed in that October. Peaceful protests being met with hails of bullets has resulted in widespread violence, and thousands lose their lives amidst a constant cacophony of bullets, mines, and mortars; so bad is the situation that no foreign civilian aircraft are allowed to fly over the Northern African nation. This is part of the Arab Spring, a wider discontent that also rocks Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Qatar, Bahrain, and virtually every other MENA country, albeit in relatively smaller ways. In the midst of all of this is a pair of ships, a trimaran and an old trawler refitted by volunteers. They're not here for war, unless the fight to save the bluefin tuna can be considered such.      They were attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden that May, but nonetheless persevere into the most dangerous nation in the

       Please note that this paragraph serves only to provide context and not to delve into any social or political issues related to the United States and China. In May 2021, the United States combined dozens of bipartisan bills into a comprehensive legislative package called the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which aims to compete with China by codifying Made-in-America laws, bolstering cybersecurity, further sanctioning alleged human rights abuses in Tibet and Xinjiang, and more.      This law also aims to compete with China in terms of environmental protections. China and Hong Kong are, by far, the biggest consumers of shark fin soup and other products derived from the endangered elasmobranches. The United States, more likely on the grounds of punishing China than any concern for the sharks, it should be considered, included a ban on the import and export of shark fins in the United States in the USICA. 15 states have already banned it, shark finning in U.S. waters was banned