Free Republic

She’s so comfortable – if not at home – in the water now, it’s hard to believe Valentine Thomas once almost drowned in it. Of course, that was a half a lifetime ago, when this spearfishing maven from London via Canada was vacationing seaside with her family in the south of France. Just 14, Thomas got caught in an undertow – not far from the shore, but far enough for a harrowing few seconds. “I was caught by the underwater currents. The current had suddenly changed and I remember sticking my head up and there was nobody in the water,”...

Across Northwest Wisconsin there has been much discussion about the decline of the walleye population. In response one of Governor Scott Walker’s initiatives has been stocking lakes with larger “extended walleye” versus small fry in the hopes that the larger fish have better chance of surviving and then reproducing. However, Governor Walker in his proposed biennium budget has also proposed cutting some key Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) scientists in the Bureau of Science Services, scientist behind the extended walleye initiative and who also created the modeling for the three-bag limit of walleyes using length as the critical factor...

An animal rights group wants the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach to gut its cafeteria menu of fish and seafood, arguing that "serving fish at an aquarium is like serving poodle burgers at a dog show." Like Lilo in the animated "Lilo and Stitch," who refused to make a tuna sandwich for her friend, Pudge, a fish, because it would be "an abomination," the head of the Fish Empathy Project for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said serving fish at an aquarium just isn't right. "An institution with a mission that includes teaching people to respect...