Free Republic

The Obama administration is taking steps to extend new federal protections to a list of imperiled animals and plants that reads like a manifest for Noah's Ark - from the melodic golden-winged warbler and slow-moving gopher tortoise, to the slimy American eel and tiny Texas kangaroo rat. ... With a Friday deadline to act on more than 700 pending cases, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already has issued decisions advancing more than 500 species toward potential new protections under the Endangered Species Act... Patrick Parenteau, an environmental lawprofessor at the University of Vermont. "They are moving through this large...

The Norfolk headquarters of People for the Ethical treatment of Animals was vandalized this weekend when someone dumped dead fish and crabs outside the building. PETA employees found the foul mess Sunday. Someone had also smeared fish.

It is a stark reminder that the Asian carp infestation that has overwhelmed stretches of river in the Mississippi River basin and is now threatening the waters of the Great Lakes isn't going to go away anytime soon: The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has hired a Louisiana chef for a made-for-media event this week to demonstrate just how good these fish can be to eat. It's part of the Target Hunger Now campaign, a state-sponsored humanitarian effort to turn the jumbo jumping carp into "healthy, ready-to-serve meals" for the needy. The program also provides venison to the poor. It...

A highly aggressive species of fish has been found in Lake Tahoe, and environmental scientists are afraid the nonnative invader will gobble up native fish and ruin decades of work to improve water clarity, researchers said Tuesday. ... "It really shocked us. You can think of it this way: There is a new bully in the neighborhood," said Sudeep Chandra, a university limnologist who was working with the California Department of Fish and Game on a study of invasive species when the discovery was made six weeks ago. .. The Department of Fish and Game has been working with Chandra...

An angler who caught a huge fish in the White River and kept it but didn’t accurately identify his catch may be paying as much as $1,500 for his mistake as well as losing his licenses for three years, according to a press release from the state. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, Ryan McCullough of Bethel was fishing downstream of the federal fish hatchery in Stockbridge on July 25 when he hooked and landed a 9.5-pound anadromous Atlantic salmon that measured 31½ inches long. He misidentified it as a brown trout and kept it. A photo of the...

First kittens, then puppies and hamsters and now goldfish? San Francisco's Animal Control and Welfare Commission is recommending that the City ban the sale of goldfish, tropical fish and guppies in its borders, according to Matier and Ross. The recommendation to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is part of the commission's ongoing efforts to discourage "impulse buys" of animals. The commission's ban would cover pet stores and breeders in the City. It comes after more than a year of study and findings that aquarium fish are often mass bred under inhumane conditions or stripped from the wild.

More mysterious animal deaths have surfaced, this time in a volcanic lake in the Philippines. Reports say that 800 tons, or 1.6 million pounds, of fish have turned up dead in a lake near the Taal volcano, which is located south of the capital city of Manila. Officials say the deaths may have been a result of sudden temperature change in the water.

Scientists aiming their gene sequencers at commercial seafood are discovering rampant labeling fraud in supermarket coolers and restaurant tables: cheap fish is often substituted for expensive fillets, and overfished species are passed off as fish whose numbers are plentiful. Yellowtail stands in for mahi-mahi. Nile perch is labeled as shark, and tilapia may be the Meryl Streep of seafood, capable of playing almost any role. Recent studies by researchers in North America and Europe harnessing the new techniques have consistently found that 20 to 25 percent of the seafood products they check are fraudulently identified, fish geneticists say. Labeling regulation...

TOLEDO — Wildlife researchers in northern Ohio want to know what’s killing thousands of walleye in Lake Erie. Many of the dead fish have been washing up on beaches between Toledo and Port Clinton in recent weeks. Ohio Department of Natural Resources biologist Roger Knight says it looks like the worst might be over. The walleye is Lake Erie’s most popular sport fish and draws anglers from across the Midwest and beyond.

Today, a redneck friend was trying to explain the difference between a Sunni Muslim and a Shi'ite Muslim. He says that, when Osama was dumped into the sea, he was a Sunni Muslim. But after being eaten by the fish and crabs, he was digested and converted into a Shi'ite Muslim. Somehow, my friend does not strike me as an expert on Islam, and I have to seek a second opinion. What is the difference between a Sunni and a Shi'ite Muslim?

We've got a book review for Baseball Fans-George Will's "Men At Work". Yes the man's a Conservative Pundit but he knows a thing or two about baseball. Or a thousand, or a million, things or two. Couple of TV reviews-For the 2011 season, a "Dancing With the Stars" update as well as what will turn out to be the best season ever for "Celebrity Apprentice". Also, a former Desperate Housewife turns Medical Examiner in "Body of Proof". Some political tidbits, including a horror story of the gubmint coming to "help" and our terror at same. Some Delaware politics and an update on...

A 55 feet long fish has been found in the seashore of Guangdong, China. According to a local newspaper, the big fish weighs at least 10,000 pounds. Hwang, a 66-years-old fisherman living in the near area, said he has never seen anything like this in his whole life and that the fish was tied with ropes when it was first found. Many people have flocked to see this strange specimen since its discovery, although its rotting corpse already emits a foul smell. The people living in the area think the fish was caught by some fisherman but was abandoned due...

Wanna go fishing?..bring your boat and a net. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Bf0WhvsNk&feature=player_embedded

Biologists have just discovered two new species of freshwater stingray in the Amazon rainforest, informally christening them "pancake stingrays" for their distinct IHOPian appearance (see below). Naturally, one of their first orders of business was to x-ray one of the specimens, the unearthly result you see above. The two new species, Heliotrygon gomesi and Heliotrygon rosai, are quite large, though other stingray species in this family (comprised of freshwater stingrays from the New World tropics) can reach an unnerving five feet in diameter. The x-rayed specimen is a preadult male in the Heliotrygon gomesi species, found in the rainforest near...

ISLAMORADA— A spotted eagle ray that made spectacular leaps from the turquoise waters of Islamorada on Friday gave an Illinois family an unforgettable fish tale to take home from their Florida vacation. The Hausch family was enjoying an eco-tour boat ride on Friday afternoon when the 200-pound spotted eagle ray with a 5.5-foot wing span that they were photographing leaped into their boat and struck Jenny Hausch in the chest, officials said. "She was not harmed and managed to get out from under it," said Officer Robert Dube of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Division. Hausch was with...

VICKSBURG, Miss. -- A Vicksburg man pulled a 327-pound alligator gar from Chotard Lake in Issaquena County, Mississippi wildlife officials said. Kenny Williams caught the fish on Valentine's Day. Biologists with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks weighed the fish at 327 pounds. It was 8 feet 5 ¼ inches long and 47.95 inches around the body. Williams said he used nets to catch the fish and then grabbed it by the gills and pulled it into the boat. "At first I didn't think he was that big. But as I was getting him into the boat, it...

See Site for see the pictures. It is Huge!

Debate strategy for mayoral rivals: Go after Rahm EmanuelBy Fran Spielman and Abdon M. Pallasch Staff Reporters Jan 15, 2011 02:36AM The race to replace Mayor Daley entered a new phase on Friday. You might call it, “Gang up on Rahm.” **SNIP** They hammered him on his stint as a member of home mortgage giant Freddie Mac, which critics blame in part for the foreclosure crisis. Braun even accused Emanuel of throwing women “under the bus” by excluding abortion coverage from President Obama’s health care reform act. Given the opportunity to question her opponents directly, Braun jumped on Emanuel for...

Reason TV gives a report on the problems plaguing California’s Central Valley, once a breadbasket to the world, and now a government-created basket case of dust, unemployment, poverty, and now starvation. The short documentary focuses on two federal policies that heavily impact the farming region, the first water policy and environmentalism, and the second immigration: The crisis in the Central Valley comes directly from the application of the Endangered Species Act to the Delta smelt, one of a number of bait fish species indigenous to the area. The order by a federal judge relying on that law cut off irrigation...

The recent mysterious deaths of birds and fish are causing alarm among naturalists around the world. Birds are literally falling dead out of the sky, and fish are washing up dead on shores and rivers across North America and around the world. The reaction from the mainstream media seems strangely subdued, as if they're all just blowing this off as some unexplained quirk about the natural world that should be largely ignored. NaturalNews readers think differently. We are concerned when thousands of dead birds fall out of the sky for no apparent reason. The sky itself may not be falling,...