Sustainable Fisheries Takes Off BIG TIME!

OK, I know as a die-hard liberal, I'm supposed to hate-no, ABHOR Walmart...but my cheapass Jew self loves the low prices the big box store offers. But they treat their workers and the environment like crap...until now.

Ah ha! Walmart vows to buy sustainable seafood!!! They are now stewards of my favorite cause, Sustainable Fisheries. I just found out from Seafood Watch that Walmart is going to source all of its wild- caught fresh and frozen fish for the North American market from fisheries that meet the Marine Stewardship Council's independent environmental standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. The decision will make dozens of fish products bearing the MSC's distinctive blue eco-label available to Wal-Mart's North American customers in coming years. Do you know what this means? Poor people can now buy eco-friendly fish!!! HOORAY!

I'm so excited to see sustainable fisheries is finally taking off! Check this out! And this! And people told me this wouldn't catch on. It's a grass roots effort baby...and it's finally taking off!!! W00T!!!

Work Dodgeball Tourney

Yeah, that's right, a dodgeball tournament. Somehow I got strong-armed into signing up to play dodgeball for my company's team. It turns out it's quite a complicated game.

Now, as anyone who's seen the movie dodgeball knows, there's 5 things you have to remember when playing dodgeball: Dodge, dip, duck, dive, dodge. In addition to these strategies, there are rules. Once you grab the balls at the start of the game, you have to "check" them behind a mid-court line. You also cannot hold a ball for more than 10 seconds or throw the ball at someone's head.

The balls we used were basketball-sized nerf balls. They were ridiculously hard to throw. They either went no where (if you aimed low) or flew off into space. Now I, someone who throws like a girl, simply practiced the act of dodging. That worked out OK...but once, I was 1 of 2 players left on the field; not a good thing. I can't throw, I can barely catch. I totally got knocked out...but it's OK, we had team unity.

That whole 10 second rule was rarely enforced...but it was a great psychological tool. Someone on my team would mention the opposing team members had been holding the balls for more than 10 seconds, so me, being the loudmouth I am, felt the need to shout "10....9....8....7..." and every time they just started frantically throwing without aiming. That and catching a ricocheting ball were my only real contributions to them team.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon. And in addition to tumbling in the grass (a beautiful round-off followed by two back handsprings), playing with a fabulous Weimaraner named Cally (who belonged to a complete stranger), and the great weather, one of my teammates and I enjoyed the beautiful eye-candy walking around the field on the opposing teams. Mr. Blue Shorts Guy...your body is ab-tastic...Steve the Pirate is so jealous.

I touched it!!

This past weekend, to top off my 52 hour work week, I took a 2 day long training course. It was frought with parties, a murder mystery, and larvae handling.

Alright, the party was in the hotel room next door and kept me awake. And the murder mystery, well...I'm not quite sure if there was an actual murder, per se, but there was a whole lot of screaming and thudding and a eerie silence (I did my good samaritan duty and called hotel security and then hid under my covers until the aforementioned eerie silence...But the larvae handling, that was allllllll real baby.

I got to take a class on sampling the Threatened (and in some areas Endangered) California Tiger Salamander larvae (pictured below)

Now, when I'm at work, I get to get close to these animals, but touch them? No thanks, I don't have $50,000 to fork out for "harrassing" them without a permit. But at this class, it was allowed. They teach you how to grab these guys using a dip net (a "D" shaped net that you run along the bottom of the pond and catch all kinds of cool stuff with). I was totally sucking and only catching treefrog tadpoles (NOT a threatened OR endangered species and therefore, not as cool).

Then, the instructor (who does a majority of the research on these critters) said,"You have to go faster. They swim really fast and they can sense you coming." So I RAN (as fast as as you can in felt soled chest waders) with my net firmly pressed against the bottom of the mud, quickly pulled up my net so no one could escape my grasp and there he was: a 105 mm (tip of the nose to tip of the tail) California Tiger Salamander larvae.

It was so exciting. Not only did I capture, but I was holding an endangered species in my hands. I got to transfer it into the bucket and measure him all by myself.

I'm so cool, I know you're all jealous!