Stone crabs are in trouble, females in the comic book industry and new rules for Goliath Grouper - WLRN

-

On this Tuesday, March 29, edition of Sundial:

Stone Crabs

Unless you're a crabber, the last time you might have thought about stone crabs might have been when you had your claws with a side of butter at dinner. And when you got the bill for that, you might also have noticed that the price of your crab claw has gone up.

Stone crab season will be coming to an end in a little over a month. And there are concerns that we need to get a better handle on the stone crab population.

As the pandemic continues, you can rely on WLRN to keep you current on local news and information. Your support is what keeps WLRN strong. Please become a member today. Donate now. Thank you. 

WLRN's environment Reporter Jenny Staletovich joined Sundial. She's been looking into the status of stone crabs in Florida for an upcoming report.

"When I started asking around about the numbers themselves and how the population was doing, I was actually surprised to find out that they had declined so much," Staletovich said. "They were at their highest in 2000, and ever since then they have been declining."

Stone Crabs on Sundial.mp3

stone_crab_bob_care.jpg

Female Comic Book Artists 

In the Sundial Book Club pick for March, "Secret Identity" by Alex Segura, the protagonist is named Carmen Valdez. She had just moved to New York. It's the 1970s. And she has a dream of making it as a comic book creator. But she faces an uphill battle because it's a male-dominated industry.

How many female artists are there in the comic book industry today? Many more than the 1970s, but it's still disproportionate.

Keyla Valerio is a Miamian now living in Detroit, who has worked on projects like the Power Rangers. She joined Sundial to share what the industry is like for women now, and how she still feels the pressure sometimes to create while thinking about a more male audience.

"Things like even color are very gendered," she said. "When you're trying to kind of, draw and create content for people, especially knowing what your audience is, I think a lot of us grew up or started off feeling like you kind of have to cater to who is buying what."

"But I think the nice thing with more of an uptick in more female consumers as far as comics, and even stuff like video games … it lets us creators have a little more freedom and just do the work that we want to do, and it takes off, I think," Valerio said.

What it's like to be a woman in the comic book industry.mp3

kvalerio-darling-isssue-1-variant-cover.jpg

Goliath Grouper 

For the past 32 years, there has been a ban on killing Goliath grouper. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently lifted that ban — with the exception of a tract in South Florida from Martin County to the Dry Tortugas.

The fish are popular with divers. Shana Phelan, the owner of Pura Vida Divers in Riviera Beach, joined Sundial to share what it's like to dive with these big fish — in some cases up to 800 pounds.

"They are the cutest, ugliest fish you'll ever see," Phelan said.

And she made it clear she is not in favor of the ban being partially lifted on fishing these gentle, inquisitive giants in the sea.

"We're not super excited about it," she said. "There are definitely ways to do research without having to cause mortality."

You can find more of WLRN's coverage of Goliath grouper here.

Diving with Goliath Grouper.mp3

goliath grouper demaria key west library.jpg

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All In The Family: Maine Mother & Son Charged in Massive Drug Bust

-
Image
corso dog :: Article Creator Woman Hospitalized After Attack By 2 Dogs At Same Edmonton Home Where Boy Died: Lawyer UPDATE: On April 15, 2024, the City of Edmonton provided an update on the fatal attack. It said that prior to the deadly incident on April 1, "the city had no lawful basis to remove the dogs from the home." The city added that "all prior complaints about the dogs involved in this incident were investigated thoroughly and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the applicable legislation." The city also said a review found that its staff "acted appropriately in accordance with our standard practices and in compliance with the relevant legal constraints given the nature of past complaints and reports." A woman was hospitalized after being attacked in February by two large Cane Corso dogs at the same home where an 11-year-old boy was killed last week, the woman's lawyer told Global News. "I
Read more

Rare Frogs And Illegal Drugs - Palisades Hudson Financial Group

-
Image
Colombian conservationist Ivan Lozano has hit on a brilliantly promising strategy to protect his country’s rare and endangered amphibians. His plan: Flood the market with them. Lozano is not hunting rare frogs in Colombia’s Andean forests. He is raising them himself and selling them at prices designed to undercut poachers and smugglers. If he can raise the frogs cheaply enough, and in large enough numbers, he might manage to drive down the market price to the point that poachers no longer find it worthwhile to harvest and smuggle the creatures onto the black markets. Lozano told The Associated Press that his company also encourages collectors to breed their own frogs. Picture yourself as a poacher. If the government toughens the legal penalties and steps up enforcement, you will shrug your shoulders; legal risks are a basic cost of doing business. Since the demand for your product already exists among foreign collectors and other buyers, tougher enforcement merely reduces supply a
Read more

Burn scars, winter storms threaten rare and endangered species in San Gabriel Mountains - The Bakersfield Californian

-
Image
LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m
Read more