Free Republic

The more militant members of the N.R.A. and most of its leaders may be un-American. By “militant” I don’t mean those who wish to protect recreational shooting and hunting; nor do I mean those who, like Justice Antonin Scalia, believe that there is a constitutional right to defend one’s home and family with firearms. These are respectable positions (although I am deeply unpersuaded by the second). I mean those who read the Second Amendment as proclaiming the right of citizens to resist the tyranny of their own government, that is, of the government that issued and ratified the Constitution in...

Ever since Asian carp were accidentally introduced into U.S. rivers in the 1970s, the invasive fish have been hungrily making their way to the Great Lakes, causing residents of the watershed to dread the arrival of carp in delicate Lake ecosystems, and their potential impacts on the 7 billion dollar fishing industry that represents a major economic driver for the region. Now, a new study suggests that Asian carp have breached southern Lake Michigan, although they have not yet arrived in numbers great enough to devastate native ecosystems. Scientists at Notre Dame University, Southern Michigan University, and The Nature Conservancy...

About a couple of weeks ago, in one of the political threads, Zatarain's Crispy Southern Style Seasoned Fish-Fri Mix was discussed. I wish I would have saved it because FReepers had included their favorite Zatarain fish recipes which sounded DELICIOUS. Please, could you share them with us again?

This is just the latest revelation in the stealth inflation and food fraud theme I have written about frequently in recent months. The non-profit group Oceana took samples of 1,215 fish sold in the U.S. and genetic tests found that that 59% of those labeled tuna were mislabeled. It seems that “white tuna” should be avoided in particular as “84% of fish samples labeled 'white tuna' were actually escolar, a fish that can cause prolonged, uncontrollable, oily anal leakage.” Oh and if you live in my hometown of New York City, you should pay particular attention: Big Apple has big...

I'll bet no one else around here owns a calibrated radiation survey meter! I have posted this before, but it's worth repeating. A few months after the Fukushima meltdown, I took my survey meter to the grocery store. California veggies...fine. Fish display...fine. Canned tuna shelves....UH OH. I measured .05 rad/hour. That's over one rad/day. Since the tuna was in cans, the alpha and beta particles would not be detected, IIRC. If I remember my particle physics, my meter must have been detecting gammas or neutrons. If someone ingests the radioactive particles in the tuna, they will be irradiated from the...

The acting U.S. Commerce Secretary on Friday ordered federal regulators to return about $544,000 in unjust fines collected from 14 fishermen or fishing businesses, most of whom worked Northeast waters. Secretary Rebecca Blank also directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to forgive two other complainants a combined $150,000 in debt. Her decisions followed the second phase of a lengthy probe into charges by New England fishermen of abusive, unfair treatment by the officers and attorneys who enforce the nation's fishing laws. Blank's decisions mean nearly $1.2 million in unjust penalties has now been ordered returned to fishermen. In May...

The Most Frequently Mislabeled Fish Dina SpectorDec. 11, 2012, 12:46 PMIf you live in New York, and buy or eat fish, then at some point you probably received something different than what thought you were getting, The New York Times' Elisabeth Rosenthal reports. A surprising number of mislabeled seafood items end up in grocery stores and restaurants, a new study by conservation group Ocenana revealed. More specifically, researchers found that 56, or 39 percent, of 142 fish samples DNA tested were were different from what they claimed to be. Fish labeled as white tuna often turned out be escolar (a...

In an unusual development that researchers are calling evidence of adaptive behavior, some catfish have taken to jumping on land to hunt live pigeons. Discover Magazine's Ed Yong writes, "These particular catfish have taken to lunging out of the water, grabbing a pigeon, and then wriggling back into the water to swallow their prey. In the process, they temporarily strand themselves on land for a few seconds."Researchers captured video of the European catfish, which reside in the River Tarn in southwestern France. In the footage, several of the fish, which range in length from 3 to nearly 5 feet, are...

The species, formally known as 'Etheostoma obama,' is one of five newly discovered fish that scientists have named after a U.S. president or VP. President Obama may not have won many Southeastern states in his recent re-election, but he did make waves across the Republican-leaning region. And thanks to two scientists from Georgia and Missouri, his Southern profile is still growing — although some of his flashiest new acolytes don't have a clue who he is. That's because they're fish, one of five new species found by ecologist Steve Layman of Geosyntec Consultants and biologist Rick Mayden of Saint Louis...

• Obama is one of five new species of darter fish discovered by researchers • The freshwater fish has distinctive bright orange and blue colours and is generally found in fast-flowing rivers around America • Other species named after Teddy Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and vice president Al Gore A new species of fish has been named after President Barack Obama by the researchers who discovered it. The freshwater fish has distinctive bright orange and blue colours and is generally found in fast-flowing rivers around America. It is one of five new species of darter - the smallest member...

Want to feel old? Talk to anyone under the age of 50 about meatless Fridays. Odds are, they will have no memory of it. They will have no knowledge of why Catholics were called “mackerel snappers,” nor will they laugh at tired George Carlin routines about going to hell for eating a hot dog. And they sure as heck won’t know why many restaurant chains still have their fish specials on Fridays. But for all you youngsters, you might get ready: Friday abstinence may be coming back. Once upon a time, children, Catholics abstained from meat on Fridays as a small act of...

<p>IRVINE, Calif. – An Orange County woman has asked the city of Irvine to erect a sign honoring hundreds of truck crash victims -- who were fish.</p> <p>About 1,600 pounds of saltwater bass died on Oct. 11 when a container truck hauling them to market got into a three-way crash.</p>

I'm shooting for Thanksgiving week in Central Florida, and would love to charter a boat for some offshore (Atlantic) fishing, but not sure if it's worthwhile. I grew up there, but don't know what, if anything, would be worthwhile. 2-4 anglers, looking for an all day trip.

Pet piranha bites off toddler's fingertip MAINE TOWNSHIP, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) - When a northwest suburban mother discovered her 18-month-old daughter's finger had been bitten, she assumed the family pit bull was responsible. But Cook County sheriff's police said the culprit was actually another household pet: a piranha, Pioneer Press is reporting. Police said one of the child's fingertips was bitten off on the night of June 19 inside the family's home in the Bay Colony subdivision in unincorporated Maine Township. Police said the child's mother reported she heard her daughter crying and noticed the toddler's finger was bleeding,...

I was looking for information about fishing on Lake Corpus Christi. I like to camp there for 2 or 3 days every month or so. Uhmmm...according to published reports, there's some big fish in this lake.

When the steel claw of an excavator slashes into the berm of the Great Works Dam on Monday morning, it will mark the start of a multimillion-dollar project to allow endangered and dwindling species to return to their historic spawning grounds along Maine’s longest river, the Penobscot. When the project is done - scheduled for 2015, after an additional dam is razed and another bypassed - it will open access to 1,000 miles of habitat for the native fish, including endangered Atlantic salmon and short-nosed sturgeon that journey from the Gulf of Maine to breed in the cold, fresh waters...

Nguyen Thanh Nhan in Binh Minh district, the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long last Friday caught a 2 kilo fish that has a jaw looking like a duck beak. According to Nhan, he was sitting on a boat on Hau River when he saw two strange fish rising up from the water. He used a net to catch one. Hearing about Nhan with the strange fish, locals throng his house to watch but no one could tell what kind of fish it is. Although having a body of a fresh water fish, it has a head looking like an...

Getting paid to fish sounds like a dream come true to some. But does it have the same appeal if you're going up against a "fish from hell" that can travel on land and sink its teeth into a steel-toed boot?

It turns out sawfish actually wield their snouts like chainsaw-toting madmen On second thought, that's not entirely accurate. Comparing a sawfish to a "madman" might give you the impression that these cousins of stingrays are unruly or careless when it comes to dispatching prey with their serrated snouts, when, in actuality, recent evidence suggests the exact opposite to be the case. Truth be told, sawfish are a lot more like chainsaw-toting surgeons. This observation was made by University of Queensland Biologist Barbara Wueringer, who used chunks of mullet and tuna meat to observe the predatory behavior of juvenile Pristis microdon...

CHICAGO – People who eat baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis may be improving their brain health and reducing their risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). "This is the first study to establish a direct relationship between fish consumption, brain structure and Alzheimer's risk," said Cyrus Raji, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "The results showed that people who consumed baked or broiled fish at...