SEAFOOD WATCH

 

Title: SeaFood Watch
Media: App
Genre: Guide, lifestyle, education
Rating: 4+
Creator: Monterey Bay Aquarium
Edition Reviewed: 3.0.14

(My apologies for an even shorter review than last time. I have been preparing for my college final projects and a new job as an interpretive naturalist. When things settle down, I'll try to start pumping out longer reviews again.)

Show of hands: who loves seafood?

There's a reason why health experts say we should eat seafood twice a week. It comes in so many varieties: fried fish, steamed shrimp, sushi, and more. It has a flavor and texture unlike any meat those landlubbers enjoy. It's good for you, too: it improves your heart, strengthens your immune system, and prevents cancer (see http://www.fitnessbegin.com/nutrition/seafood.html for more seafood health information). Best of all, the fish are not treated as cruelly as livestock: they aren't jacked up on hormones or kept cooped up their whole lives (unless we're talking about fishery buildings, but even then it's less “prison” and more “aquarium”). All of these add up to a winning food combo.

 

Unfortunately, the increasing demand for seafood has decreased the numbers of fish. The “plenty of fish in the sea” statement is not as true as one would lead us to believe. Here's a real-life example: in the 1970's, the Texas population of red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus, and now you know where I got my name from) was driven to near extinction. The popular “blackened red drum” dish had increased fishing and poaching rates. At the same time, a severe freeze and a red tide bloom hit the shores. This combination of overfishing and uncontrollable changes in nature depleted the red drum numbers dramatically. We almost wiped them out. Thankfully, people stepped in and stopped it by building some fish hatcheries: this brought up the red drum population whilst educating the public on proper care of the oceans/respectful fishing habits. And now? Our red drum population is thriving: they got a happy ending.

 

Today's review is on an app that attempts to have the public step up and let other fish have their happy endings (as corny as that sounds). Through education!

 

SeaFood Watch is an app created and released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is a continuation of their SeaFood Watch educational program: a program that instructs the public on good seafood choices. If a species is being hunted to extinction, SeaFood Watch provides more healthy ocean-friendly alternatives that taste just as wonderful (and are often much cheaper).

 

The entire program is easy to use: you choose your current region, check the guides for fish species, and then order those the next time you eat out. The app simply streamlines the process: you choose a species, and it lists alternatives for you instead of having to scan the whole guide yourself). You can also access all of the guides, rather than having to print out one for each section. The app also provides some interesting info on the biology and the fisheries for each species, to allow the user to fully understand why the species is in decline/increase.

 

 

 

There isn't much to say about this app. It's an easy way to help the environment/discover new seafood, for starters. It's nicely designed. It provides interesting information on various fish species. And best of all, it's completely free! The only change I would like to see is the addition of more species. Other than that, this app comes highly recommended!

SHARK WARS

Title: Shark Wars

Media: Book

Genre: YA, action, adventure

Rating: N/A

Creator: EJ Altbacker

Edition Reviewed: 2011 Hardback Edition (Library Binding)

(Before we begin the review, I would like to apologize for the lack of reviews last week. My grandfather passed away due to cancer, and I didn't have the time to work on or publish anything. This is also why this week's review is so short: I was busy helping my family prepare for the funeral. And now to the review.)

Books about animals going on gritty and gory adventures whilst existing in their own society have been popular for centuries. Watership Down. Animal Farm. Warriors. And now, Shark Wars. Written by EJ Altbacker, the series chronicles the adventures of Gray the Megalodon (which isn't nearly as big of a spoiler as the first book pretends it is) and Barkley the dogfish as they create their own shiver (aka, their pack/school/herd/other such terms) and battle evil.

Sounds awesome, right? Sharks existing in their own society and playing by their own rules, showing that they are more than mindless eating machines.

If only Mr. Altbacker had bothered to do some research.

 

Yes, he got some things right. Some species of sharks will hunt in large packs, for one. Megalodon could have easily been mistaken for a really big modern-day great white, as well. But there are so many glaring mistakes in the book that could have been easily fixed with a quick trip to the library.

 

For starters, electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) and bettas (Betta splendens) are not saltwater fish. They are freshwater fish. This is the error that annoys me the most. Especially the fact that he placed a betta in the middle of the ocean. I have had experience with bettas since I was a child. Then again, so have most people. Bettas aren't exactly hard to come by. Anyone can raise a betta. Anyone can figure out that saltwater would suffocate them painfully. Anyone can figure this out.

If the author really wanted a fighting fish to mentor Gray, why not use a saltwater fish that is both as beautiful and as vicious as a betta? A moray eel (while not exactly “aggressive”) could have fit the bill: graceful, beautiful, and in possession of a large mouth filled with sharp teeth. Clownfishes, Moorish idols, and groupers are all examples of reef fish that could be considered the betta of the sea: territorial, vicious, and graceful.

There are other issues I have with this book besides the “freshwater fish in saltwater” one. Such as species misplacement, like the leafy sea dragon that shows up in the Atlantic ocean (they are only found on the Great Barrier Reef, which is in the Pacific Ocean). Or the fact that the sharks aren't written to sound like animals at all; instead, they sound like a bunch of human kids. One of the reasons the books I mentioned at the beginning of the review were so popular was because of how inhuman the characters sounded. And there are yet other issues: if I were to list them all, we'd be here all day.

But, to be honest, the “freshwater fish in saltwater” thing is what irks me the most. If a person must write about fish, then do some research. Fish are not all cut-and-paste the same: they have different habitats, different feeding habits, different socialization skills, and so on and so forth. Writing a freshwater fish into a saltwater setting shows that they simply do not care.

Now, I know what you're thinking. I'm being way too hard on this book series. It was written for twelve-year-old boys, after all. You're simply out of its age range.

And who says those twelve-year-old boys will go easy on this book? Twelve-year-old boys are notorious for correcting others they think are wrong. I have had boys correct me many times whilst I was working at the aquarium, even though I have worked there for ten years and would therefore know what I'm talking about. If they have done lots of research on sharks/fish and consider themselves to be experts on the subject, why would they just sit by and let these errors go unnoticed? 

Perhaps EJ Altbacker improves as the series goes on. Maybe he even comes up with a clever excuse as to why a betta is living in the ocean. But my disgust at the lack of research that went into the first book makes me reluctant to see for myself.