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Whaler crisis and perceived threat to Antarctic penguins spawn new term
There's not a word in Webster's that adequately describes the scenario of a whaling boat crippled by fire and drifting near the world's largest penguin breeding grounds in Antarctica.
Irony would work in a pinch, but it's more than that.
Indeed, what transpired yesterday Down Under — when the 8,000 ton Nisshin Maru, the mother ship for five other Japanese vessels that hunt whales, burst into flames and become disabled 110 miles from Cape Adare and its 250,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins — is a happenstance with a strikingly different result than anyone could expect.But it's much more than that … for a nation that hunts whales, in the name of research, according to the Associated Press, to draw the ire of international environmentalists for even a hint of a threat those cuddly, tuxedoed, flightless fowl, all while a global ban on commercial whaling has been imposed for more than two decades.
So, we've coined a new term: jale. It means to bring more unwanted attention to a questionable activity than one could have possibly imagined; it roots are found in the phrase "Japanese whaler."
(A quick tour of dictionary.com suggests that the Romanian "jale" translates to mourning, which seems strangely apropos.)
Although the Nisshin Maru is carrying tens of thousands of gallons of oil, none had spilled and the vessel apparently is in no immediate danger of sinking. Japanese officials said today the situation poses no environmental threat, the AP reports.
"Fears that this might turn into some environmental disaster are premature. The vessel is not drifting, it's not listing and it's not leaking,'' said Hiroshi Hatanaka, director general of the Japanese government-affiliated Institute of Cetacean Research.
"The area in which the fire broke out is not located near the fuel holds."
Meanwhile, recovery efforts seem to be turning into a political tug-of-war.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter of New Zealand, an anti-whaling nation that also has responsibility for maritime rescues in the area, urged the Japanese government to use either the Greenpeace ship Esperanza — a converted Russian tug — or a U.S. icebreaker in the area to move the vessel.
"It is imperative the Nisshin Maru is towed further away from the pristine Antarctic coast, the neighboring penguin colony and the perilous ice floes," Carter said.
"It's likely we have two days of good weather to move the Nisshin Maru out of Antarctic waters in the safest and most practical way."
Greenpeace said it was willing and able to help, and the Esperanza — in the region to try to stop the whale hunt — could reach the stricken ship in about 24 hours. "We have the capacity and we're on the spot," Greenpeace spokeswoman Cindy Baxter said.
Glenn Inwood, spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research, said no help was needed.
"The whole Greenpeace offer is a red herring. Their assistance is not required and will not be accepted," Inwood told The Associated Press.
In a sidebar, one of the ships in the Nisshin Maru's fleet collided earlier this week with a ship from the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group, which was protesting the hunt but left the area on Wednesday, according to the AP.
What other word could better describe this curious situation unfolding in the pristine Antarctic waters than jale?
(An alternate definition for jale is, when one can't make up better material to blog about.)
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After the Hollywood Walk of Fame, sign up for L.A.'s Toxic Tour
For as shocked as we were to hear some far-fetched Angelenos had designs on creating a wildlife refuge along a concrete flood-control channel that passes for the Los Angeles River, we're not at all surprised to discover the popularity of the City of Angel's Toxic Tour.
From "Asthma Town" and slaughterhouses to an oil refinery and an elementary school where a factory's chlorine gas once sickened dozens, the bus excursions illustrate how pollution often hits hardest in the poor, minority neighborhoods, the Associated Press reports.
"The big thing with the tours is to put a human face on this," said Bill Gallegos, executive director of Communities for a Better Environment, a watchdog group that stages the Toxic Tour.
Timothy Malloy, co-director of the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles, takes students on the tour to reinforce classroom lessons on pollution, according to the AP.
"What really drove it home for the students," Malloy said, "is we were standing at the end of a cul-de-sac with these small homes, and they were looking across a property and could see the emissions we were talking about."
So when you're next in L.A. and take the obligatory Walk of Fame in Hollywood and follow the celebrity maps to the mansions of the rich and famous, consider tempering the glitz and glamour with a serious look at the city's less pristine environs on the Toxic Tour.
Then you can more knowledgably opine about the efforts to create a Los Angeles version of Central Park.
Stowaway squirrel shuts down transpacific flight
Looking for some options in the hunting offseason?
An unscheduled stop in Honolulu for 202 passengers aboard an American Airlines flight from Tokyo bound for Dallas was blamed on stowaway squirrel, according to the Associated Press.
The decision to land in Hawaii was made after pilots of last week's transpacific flight heard something hotfooting it across the wire-laden space above the cockpit.
"You do not want a varmint up in the wiring areas and what-have-you on an airplane. You don't want anything up there,'' said John Hotard, spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline.
He said pilots feared the animal would chew through wiring or cause other problems.
"So, as a precaution, we diverted,'' Hotard said."
The airlines rep said the 777 had flown to Tokyo from New York before the Dallas flight.
Honolulu, however, proved to be the final destination for the squirrel, which was trapped by state and federal agriculture and wildlife officials, the AP reports. Fearing Eastern gray squirrel may have been carrying rabies, authorities had the rodent killed.
Looking for tips on squirrel hunting? ESPNOutdoors.com's Keith Sutton can tell you a thing or two about the varmints in his Out There column.
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Finally, the documentation we need: This is why they call us sportsmen
There is something about Faces in the Crowd that draws sports fans time and again. It's a magnetic pull, to see who is the up-and-coming athlete and witness what remarkable achievements have been accomplished.
And you can count on it when you open up the pages of Sports Illustrated, as it is the magazine's most enduring feature, having chronicled the happenings of athletes and other not-so-sporting individuals for more than 50 years.
You know you've arrived when you see your mug in Faces in the Crowd. For some it's the mark of things to come; for others who we never hear from again, it is the crowning achievement of a sports career.
"I think about being in Faces in the Crowd each time I read through the magazine and see the latest kids in there," Tiger Woods, who appeared in the column in 1990 at age 14, told SI. "It brings back great memories."
"I remember exactly where I was when I saw it," Carl Lewis says in his SI profile. Lewis made his mark in Faces in the Crowd in 1978 at age 16; he would go on to become unquestionably America's greatest track and field athlete.
SI recently celebrated its golden anniversary of Faces in the Crowd with a tribute edition that broke down its 15,672 Faces (though Dec. 16, 2006).
Now while you would expect a few sports to dominate — track and field led all categories with 1,980 entries, followed by basketball (1,124), golf (1,016), football (991), baseball (962), swimming (874) and tennis (840) — sportsmen will be pleasantly surprised to see our outdoor disciplines represented in the comprehensive compilation.
In fact, the 167 entries for fishing ranked 18th out of some 235 categories, beating out such sports as field hockey (163), equestrian (157), weightlifting (127), squash (126), cycling (121), fencing (118), diving (117), martial arts (116), auto racing (107), boxing (106), horse racing (92) and, perhaps most impressively, "none specified" (151).
Hey, if fishing can beat out all unnamed sports combined, we've made our mark, yes indeed.
Other outdoor entries to make the list include: shooting (157); archery (107); trap shooting (84); skeet shooting (28); hunting (12); duck calling (5); ice fishing (4); conservation (2); goose calling (2); rattlesnake hunting! (2); spear fishing (2); fox hunting (1); hunt racing? (1); new frontiersman (1); sportswoman (1); surfcasting (1); turkey calling (1); wildlife agent (1); and wildlife biologist (1).
Now everyone in the world of athletics and beyond should know without doubt why they call us sportsmen.
Some other interesting Faces in the Crowd categories (with total entries) include:
foolish college prank; does that count?)
Now that is one big walleye, my friends
Word in now that Washingtson state has a new walleye record — a simply smashing 19.3-pounder taken by grizzled Richland, Wash., angler Mike Hepper last week on the Columbia River above McNary Dam.
The fish, taken on a spinner-and-worm combo, measured 33.7 inches with a girth of 22.24 inches, according to Paul Hoffarth, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist who verified the catch.
Everything about this walleye is impressive, including its scientific name — Stizostedion vitreum. What a classy handle, Stizostedion vitreum. It's the type of moniker befitting of the pedigree paperwork for a Lab. Of course Stizostedion is "pungent throat" and vitreum, from the Latin, means "glassy," in reference to the large peepers of this largest member of the perch family.
The previous Washington record was an 18.9-pounder caught downriver from this one in the Columbia's John Day Pool in 2002.
Many folks think, and apparently with very, very good reason, that the Columbia River is home to the future world-record walleye. Like the 75-year-old largemouth bass record, the walleye standard — a 25-pound specimen taken in 1960 from Tennessee's Old Hickory Lake — is becoming the stuff of legends. Forty-six years is a loooooong time for a freshwater trophy game-fish record to remain atop the books.
And, always the sportsman, Hepper played down his milestone with allusions of grander catches to come.
"It's great to get the record, but I know there's a bigger one out there," he said.
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Now the feds want to make heroes of sea lions
Just days after I go public with my elaborate plan to eliminate the menaces that are salmon-eating sea lions, the feds announce they are going to make heroes of the pesky pinnipeds.
Smells more like conspiracy.
Either way, when the government wants to use the marine mammals in the fight on terrorism, that leaves me and my plan to scare the flippers off them all wet.
Apparently the military needs to improve security around Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, located near Seattle on the Puget Sound. Nearby Evergreen State residents know the base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories.
But what isn't as publicized is that it's potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the Associated Press reports.
Enter sea lions and their partners in anti-terrorism, dolphins. Dozens of the mammals that have been trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers may be sent to protect the western Washington Naval base.
Being recruited for the assignment are as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program in San Diego, according to the AP.
"These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission," said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program.
We'll say. Check this out:
The Navy is seeking public comment for an environmental impact statement on the proposal. Do you think that's a good time for me to bring to its attention my plan of attack for ridding the Columbia River of the Steller and California sea lions that are ravaging salmon, steelhead and sturgeon stocks below Bonneville with no end in sight?
Probably not. The sea lion is about to get a "seal" of approval from proud Americans everywhere who won't say boo to anyone or anything trying to defend our great nation. And bully for them
As for me, foiled again.
I just wonder how long this new sea lion anti-terrorism action is going to delay any potential sea-lion hazing efforts the feds have planned for the Columbia River?
About the author: Brett Pauly spent nearly six years editing and publishing ESPNOutdoors.com before moving on to produce the ESPN.com Sports Travel site.
He is a national award-winning writer and editor with 14 years of experience in the newspaper trade. The Evergreen State of Washington is where he makes his home. Click here to email him.
