a rose by any other name

Everyone needs some time off in the summer, and the team here at footprint is no exception. After some much needed sunshine (avec sunscreen of course!) we're back and eager to bring you more light steps.

Speaking of vacations, one of us had a nasty dining surprise when she found out that her beloved pan-seared Chilean sea bass is actually the Antarctic toothfish - over-fished, and endangered.

Mainly caught in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, industrial fishing for this key predatory fish started in 1996 with New Zealand and now includes a dozen nations.

Though the industry maintains that the fishing pressure has not yet caused irreparable harm to the ecosystem, reports indicate that the fishing already has already had a dramatic impact.

The Ross Sea ecosystem, the last healthy open-ocean ecosystem left on earth, is in immanent danger.

So what's a girl to do?

Stop eating Chilean sea bass for one (try this seafood selector from the Environmental Defense Fund), and start supporting organizations like The Last Ocean Project, who is giving the Ross Sea a voice.

Galapagone?

"The Galapagos are under siege from the sheer numbers of humans wishing to overfish or to love the islands to death through eco-tourism," writes Captain Paul Watson, Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Co-Founder of Greenpeace, in a graphic letter titled Galapagos in Deep Trouble.

The archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator, 965 kilometres west of Ecuador, are being threatened by cars, overfishing, tourism, resource exploitation, even dogs and cats. I was lucky enough to visit as an 'eco-tourist' in 2005, and the profound experience left a deep impression. Now Ecuador is considering limiting tourism, and rightly so; I just hope they plan to punish the poachers and smugglers as well.

Read Watson's letter here>>