An Oppor-TUNA-ty To Get Involved

Tuna fish are amazing. They are huge (up to 1500 pounds huge!), extremely fast swimmers (up to 70 mph fast!), they have an impressive amount of stamina (annual travelling of 4000+ miles!), and they are worth A LOT of money (one bluefin Tuna sold for $1.76 million dollars in 2013). Unfortunately, like many fish in the sea, Tuna have been overexploited using environmentally degrading practices.

Besides unsustainable practices such as sport fishing, Tuna are fished by ranching, and corraling. Now both of these practices are bad in their own ways.

1. Ranching is when entire schools of Tuna are caught in nets, and then towed to nearby the shore. Here, the Tuna are raised for a few months and then harvest and exported. Ranching itself does not count towards legal catch quotas, and as a result, does not fall under aquatic regulations and remains unregulated. In addition to a lack of regulations, this form of Tuna fishing negatively affects the age structures of wild populations. Juvenile Tuna are removed from the wild; juvenile Tuna being the type of Tuna in charge of replenishing wild populations.

2. Tuna are found swimming below dolphins in the ocean. As a result, corraling the dolphons is the method used to catch Tuna, The dolphins are corraled into a small area, and then a net is dropped around the dolphins, simultaneously catching the Tuna below. All species caught in this area (mainly dolphins) are then hauled on board the ship.  Consequently, all dolphins caught while trying to catch Tuna are dead before they can be freed.

The problem with Tuna is that they are valuable, yet undeniably finite. There is a large demand for Tuna, and a large profit to be reaped from selling Tuna. The question is whether or not the world is able to reach an agreement that preserves wild tuna stocks.

This post is not about finding a better way to catch Tuna. I am be no means an expert fisherman with the ingenuity to create a revolutionary technique or net that only catches exactly what you are looking for. That in itself is its own problem. I am, however, calling for you to get educated on the issue, and to get involved in pushing for more regulations. There still only exists a few regulations for fishing Tuna, and many areas around the ocean have no catch limits. Tuna populations would also benefit from restrictions on catching juvenile Tuna, but this would require countries to take a hit economically speaking in the short term.

Photo Cred: http://learn.uvm.edu/foodsystemsblog/2013/09/19/species-on-the-edge-of-a-knife-can-bluefin-tuna-survive-the-sushi-craze/

As always: comments, questions, concerns or even random thoughts? I would love if you shared them with me so please comment below!

Encountering Racism Abroad

In Ethiopia the most dominant skin colour is black. Therefore, when I traveled there, naturally my white skin stuck out and I was an easy target for a variety of things.

1. Everyone stared at me
-No matter where I was going or what I was doing my skin was different, and that made me funny/interesting/something new to look at. The picture above shows a market that I was trying to take a picture of, while instead, a couple of friends stopped to stare me down.

2. White skin means I must have money for everyone
-Absolutely every single time I walked out of the hotel I was at some point approached by a stranger and asked to give money for a special cause. Examples of special causes include money for university books, money for food, water, food, or money for practically anything else you can think of.

3. Other white tourists are instantly your best friend
-As you walk down the street other white tourists will smile, nod or wave at you even though you have never met them before. They are also quick to come over and talk about anything that might be on their mind.

4. White means you can be taken advantage of
-I was mugged 4 times in 2 weeks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (luckily I was never harmed probably due to the fact that locals, in general, are fairly nice people and as I was told countless times by locals, stealing is okay, hurting someone is not). In addition, prices seemed to be triple what any local would pay which led to an exceedingly annoying amount of haggling.

Encountering racism abroad is also not just specific to Ethiopia, or Africa even. I was well prepared for these sorts of activities as countless travel guides all describe different racist events that can occur when you choose to travel. People of Asian descent travelling to Asia from North America and being treated differently than white Westerners, African American woman travelling alone through Europe being believed to be prostitutes, African Americans travelling to Africa and still being considered as ‘white’, and once I even traveled with my French teacher to Paris and he wasn’t considered french there because he was from Quebec.

Side Note: This is not always a bad thing as my friend from the Philippines is able to use her Asian looks to fake being foreign and consequently skip airport lines in American airports because the attendant doesn’t want to deal with someone who doesn’t speak English.

Now none of these things, to me at least, were ever that bad. I mean I don’t mind being stared at, talking down prices is not that harmful and I managed to foil all mugging attempts, they were more just annoying. But seeing as there are different levels of harm that are being caused (being thought of as a prostitute does not sound fun), I can see how this can escalate into a problem quickly.

The best advice I can give while travelling is to not fret over these small issues, but rather to be prepared enough to be able to handle it if the situation arises and otherwise, enjoy your travels!

I would just like to make sure that everyone knows that I am never trying to sound racist and if this post comes off as racist in any way please let me know so I can fix it.

As always: comments, questions, concerns or even random thoughts? I would love if you shared them with me so please comment below!

H2NO

While volunteering in Ethiopia I stayed in the capital city Addis Ababa. Addis is at an altitude of 2400 meters above sea level, which typically can cause a person to feel tired, sleepless and out of breath as you try to acclimatize to the elevation.  I was staying at Cheshire Services for the week which is surrounded by mountains making for a ton of walking. The combination of acclimatization and physical activity made me very thirsty. The only problem? The water is not safe to drink.

As you can see, I ended up drinking A LOT of bottled water during my one week stay. In this particular case I was forced to drink bottled water, which I am normally highly against. I agree that the market for bottled water in Ethiopia and countries with unsafe water should exist, but I am opposed to this market in Canada, as you should be as well.

Here are some not so fun facts that have dissuaded me from drinking bottled water in Canada.

• It takes 3L of water to produce 1L of bottled water
• Tap water is tested at least once a week whereas bottled water is only tested around 3 times a year
• To meet North America’s water bottle ‘needs’ more than 17 million barrels of oil a year are used (that can fuel 1.3 million cars for a year!)
• Bottled water=garbage: 1.5 million tons of plastic are created from bottled water each year; or that is to say 75% of bottles end up in a dump
• In the U.S. it would cost $0.49 per year to consume the recommended 8 glasses of water a day from the tap, whereas it would cost around $1,400 to consume the same amount in bottled water
• The big name companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCO and Nestlé have all faced legal cases regarding their water quality

Almost all Canadians have free access to water that comes from taps through our homes, jobs, and recreation facilities. Bottled water costs more, pollutes more, and exploits more, yet many people, including my roommates, insist on only drinking bottled water. Corporations have for a long time been linked to many issues regarding bottled water. An example of this is seen through Coca-Cola’s H2NO campaign. This upselling campaign aimed to dissuade consumers from drinking tap water, but instead point them towards Coke’s more profitable options including soft drinks, juice, or even bottled water. As a result people were sold previously free water, and sold unhealthy options.

I would like you all to join me in saying H2NO to bottled water.

Comments, questions, concerns or even random thoughts? I would love if you shared them with me so please comment below!