Rachel Billings 2/5/15
Core Chemistry current events
Galbraith, Kate. "The Horrors of Fishing With Dynamite." The New York Times. The
New York Times, 04 Feb. 2015. Web. 05 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/business/energy-environment/the-horrors-of-fishing-with-dynamite.html?ref=science&_r=0>.
This article by Kate Galbraith talks about a fishing method called blast fishing that is still used by fishermen in small areas of the world. Blast fishing is where fisherman throw an explosive, usually dynamite, into a body of water and then capture the fish that are hit by the shock waves. This use of this method started around the time of World War I. Its not that common anymore, but the fishermen that do use it are severely harming the ecosystems living in these bodies of water. Its mostly used in Lebanon, but also in Tanzania, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, and other parts of southeast Asia. Police forces and environmental organizations are really working to detect and stop these fisherman and their blast fishing before they can do any more damage to the underwater ecosystems.
I chose this article because protecting the environment is really important to me. I love nature and I believe it should be preserved as much as possible. Too much of it is getting destroyed by humans and if we want to survive on Earth in the future, we need to protect the environment. I believe everyone should be aware of the damage that acts like blast fishing are causing. Yes, it is a very helpful way to capture fish, but its not the only way. And not only is blast fishing dangerous to fish, but also to humans. This article starts off by telling the story of how a woman was hit by the shock wave of a dynamite explosion when she was diving in Borneo. “‘I could feel it in my chest — like a dull, booming sound,’ she recalled in an interview.”
In my opinion, this article was well-written. It started off by giving a scenario and then explaining the scenario. Ms. Galbraith includes many statistics about blast fishing and what it’s effects are. She talks about where blast fishing is most common and what other countries are doing to try and prevent it. She also explains what some environmental organizations are doing to prevent the use of this method. There are quotes included from experts and victims as well. This article by Kate Galbraith is very informative and professional.
Rachel’s review of “The Horror of Fishing with Dynamite” does a good job of explaining the article. I liked how she presented the material so that it was clear and easy to understand. In the first paragraph Rachel gave a brief history of what blast fishing is and then brings it nicely into its usage today, which gave the reader a better sense of why this technique of fishing is important to look at closely. In the second paragraph Rachel looks at the broader scheme of things and explains how it is important to keep the earth a good and balanced place, and how blast fishing is effecting this ideal. This helps contextualize blast fishings’ consequence. Lastly I liked how Rachel raised the question for another solution to fish that is as effective as blast fishing, but not as wasteful or harmful to the environment. The review was well written, but if I were to change anything, it would be to add more details directly from the article. For example the article talks about different countries reaction to blast fishing, such as Tanzania’s effort to raise one million dollars to fund the reducing of blast fishing. Secondly if Rachel went into more detail about why certain parts of the world continue to use blast fishing it would be easier to visualize the reasoning behind blast fishing and what we can do the stop it. Rachel’s review of the article was definitely informative and was a good choice. It opened my eyes to blast fishing, because I had never heard of it before, but I now think that it is a struggle in certain parts of the world that should be further looked into. When reading the article and Rachel’s reviews I was surprised by the events and risks that people go to in order to get food in some developing countries around the world. These risk include getting arrested for blast fishing; so to stay away from the police fishers tend to go out at night and fish, this shocked me because of the contrast people in America’s way of getting food, which is just going to the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteRachel did a great job with her current event. I really enjoyed reading this article because I had never heard of this fishing method until reading her article. I also liked that she chose an article that touches upon something she believes in, which was preserving nature. She gives great supporting details to show where in the world this method is still occurring. Something Rachel could have improved upon was her use of vocabulary to help strengthen her point. Also Rachel could have used more supporting details to explain how the organizations against these actions are trying to stop this act of aggression towards ecosystems. Overall I am glad to have learned about fishing using dynamite because I had never heard of the action until today and am looking forward to hearing about the future news of this topic.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very well written current event. This review was very interesting to me because I have never heard of this method of fishing and the review really explained this method to me. I liked that she gave the time period that this "Blast Fishing" method and that gave me an idea of how long it has been effecting the sea creatures. I also liked how she chose an article about something that she really loves. One thing that Rachel could have done better was refer back to the original article to find more details. Also she could have described how it effects the human body if effected. I never herd of this type of fishing and I was surprised that it could effect humans. This article really interested me and how a type of fishing could effect so much.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Rachel's review on the article "The Horrors of Fishing with Dynamite". I was surprised to learn that fisherman are using violence as a way to catch fish. I hadn't heard of blast fishing before so this article was a very interesting read. Rachel used good details from the article to help explain it better. One example is when she included the different countries using blast fishing today. I liked how Rachel included the story of the woman. It helped me to understand how dangerous blast fishing really is. What really appealed to me in this review was how Rachel connected this to her personal life. I enjoyed reading that she wrote about the article because she cared about the environment. One area I feel Rachel could improve on is adding more examples from the article to support how it is well- written. She could've included some of the statistics she said were used well. Another area Rachel could improve on was using more of the examples from the article that helped show how awful this kind of fishing is. The article describes, "the aftermath of blast fishing as fish flapping around in severe shock". Rachel could've used that as an example to help her article. Overall, Rachel's review was well-written and I enjoyed reading it and being able to be informed about a very interesting a new topic to me.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading Rachel’s review of the article “The Horrors of Fishing with Dynamite.” I enjoyed this article due to three reasons. The first, due to the brevity of the article which increased its readability. The next reason is because she chose a very interesting topic, which I had heard about in the past but never really understood the effects of it until now. The last because she identified both sides of the argument which helped me to understand why people catch fish using this method. Finally another thing that interested me was that in the past I thought that only fish could be harmed by this kind of fishing until I discovered that a woman had been hit by one of these explosions, which helped to prove that Dynamite Fishing is bad. Even with all of the good things going on in this article, there were two areas of improvement. The first one was that she could have included more specific facts about how people are working to stop dynamite fishing. For example, in the NY times article it mentions that the WWF will be deploying sound sensors soon to help stop this issue, this should have been included in the review. The final thing that would make this article better would be add more expert opinions on the topic; which also should have been mentioned. I learned some very interesting facts while reading this article. I learned that people in desperate countries (thats where dynamite fishing exists) will do anything to get food or make money because they are desperate. This specifically left an impact on me because of the similarity in NYC some desperate people might commit crime to get what they want, while in Tanzania people harm the environment by Dynamite Fishing. Overall, Rachel presented a well written review on an interesting topic.
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