GoGreenNation news

At 68, Oldest English Costa Rica Paper – The Tico Times celebrates tradition — and reinvention

News Feed

Saturday, May 18, 2024

As the Tico Times celebrate another birthday we thought we would do a repost from 2016. The Tico Times Of all the stories The Tico Times has reported in its six decades of publication, one of the most remarkable is the story of the paper itself. Its 60th birthday provides a chance to look back on the unlikely tale of a student project that went on to become an intrepid public watchdog, a strong independent voice and defender of press freedom, and a builder of bridges between Costa Rica and the international community. The paper was first created thanks to one of the serendipitous alignments of interest and expertise that seem to happen so often in Costa Rica: a group of Lincoln School seniors asked Elisabeth (Betty) Dyer, a veteran journalist from the United States who was a full-time mother in Costa Rica, to teach them about journalism. Her response? She urged them to learn by doing, and the result was the first edition of the paper, published on May 18, 1956 with a newsstand price of ¢1. Elisabeth Dyer The paper met a need among the growing expatriate community in the country, and grew quickly into a beloved weekly. For founder Betty Dyer and her husband Richard, who would become the paper’s publisher, it was an opportunity to return to what they loved most. Betty had been a trailblazer in New York journalism as the “first woman rewrite man” and p.m. editor for the New York Post, covering traditionally male beats including crime, labor and politics. Richard’s journalism career had included stints as the news editor of the Oakland Post-Enquirer in California and the AP assistant bureau chief in Río de Janeiro. Betty left her career behind after she married Richard and joined him in Río, where he served as bureau chief for the International News Service and King Features syndicate. When Richard got a job as the United Fruit Company’s public relations director for Central America in 1951, they moved to Costa Rica with their young daughter, Dery. (Dery would grow up to become the editor and publisher of The Tico Times.) The Tico Times Over the years, the paper they created attained worldwide readership for its independence in a region marked by turmoil and weak press. Reporters broke stories on secret runways used by the Contras, rampant shark finning in Costa Rican waters and the rise of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. It became a training ground for generations of young journalists. The Tico Times racked up a series of firsts. It was the first newspaper in Costa Rica (along with Eco Católico) to be printed on offset, the first to run color on its front page, the first to do investigative reporting and the first to cover the environment as a regular beat. The Tico Times and La Nación were the country’s first newspapers to have an online edition, and The Tico Times was the first and only paper in the country to raise funds for animal welfare or hold a public blood drive. (“People would come in the office to place a classified ad and we’d grab ‘em and say: ‘Your money or your blood,” remembered Dery Dyer. “We had a great time, served cookies and beer, had people fainting all over the place. But we got a lot of donors.”) The Tico Times Its records included some quirkier feats as well: The Tico Times was the first newspaper in Costa Rica, and probably in the world, to run a “subliminal photo” on its front page, and it was likely the only newspaper anywhere to refrain from publishing anything about the O.J. Simpson case. “SUBLIMINAL PHOTOGRAPH: What Do YOU See In It?” It would be impossible in this brief format to do justice to the changes that Costa Rica experienced, and The Tico Times chronicled, in the past six decades (although our 50th Anniversary Special Edition, published in 2006, went a long way toward that goal – view it below). The paper, in its first year, covered the birth of the millionth Costa Rican; and in 2000, it covered the arrival of the millionth foreign tourist. President José “Pepe” Figueres and First Lady Karen Olsen welcome the millionth Costa Rican in 1956. The Tico Times The Tico Times Those two milestones alone show the dizzying growth the country experienced, and the problems that came along with it, including the controversies of balancing between tourism needs and environmental protections, and the struggle to protect traditions in the face of increasing international influence. The Tico Times covered all of these issues, year after year. The Tico Times In the 1980s, when Central America’s armed conflicts cast the region into chaos, the relative stability of Costa Rica made San José, and often The Tico Times, a home base for some of international journalism’s leading lights. The paper covered all aspects of the conflicts, peace negotiations and the eventual peace accords that earned a Nobel Peace Prize for President Oscar Arias in 1987. During the years of unrest, on May 30, 1984, The Tico Times family suffered a tragic loss when reporter Linda Frazier died from the injuries she sustained in an explosion at a press conference in La Penca, the jungle encampment of Nicaraguan rebel leader Eden Pastora. The message “In Memoriam – Linda Frazier” appeared in The Tico Times masthead each week for as long as the paper was printed and continues to appear on our About Us page today. Like the country it calls home, The Tico Times has often had an impact that far outpaces its small size. One example was its struggle for freedom of expression against a provision of the country’s journalists guild that required reporters to be licensed by that organization in order to be published in Costa Rica. This ban hit The Tico Times hard, since the paper relied on international talent and, since its early days when other English-language news was hard to come by in the country, had served its readers by reprinting news from around the globe. The Tico Times fought the prohibition for many years, eventually achieved its repeal and, in 1995, won the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) Grand Prize for Press Freedom for its efforts. This award joined others The Tico Times has won throughout its history, including the IAPA Pedro G. Beltrán Award for distinguished service to the community (1981); a Special Citation from Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Awards (1985); the National Conservation Prize (1990); the Salvation Army’s Others Award, for launching and supporting the Angel Tree program in Costa Rica (1998); the National Tourism Chamber Media Award (1998); and the Alberto Martén Chavarría Award for best journalistic work in the area of social responsibility, American-Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce Social Responsibility in Action Awards (2015). Through it all, however, the paper sought to retain its home-grown feel in keeping with its grassroots origins. The Tico Times The paper celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006 — but some of its greatest challenges were just around the corner. In the paper’s heyday from 2005-2007, it reached a size of 60 printed pages, thanks largely to a real estate boom that generated most of The Tico Times’ advertisements. That boom, along with the housing crisis in the United States, turned out to be a bubble, and when it burst, the paper faced a double dilemma of advertising flight and the onset of the digital age in Costa Rica. Like most print media around the world, the paper struggled to make ends meet, and on September 28, 2012, its final print edition hit newsstands. The paper’s home of many years, near the Judicial System in San José, was eventually sold, and parked cars now line the lot where writers, editors, sales and circulation staff toiled for so many years. But that wasn’t the end for The Tico Times. In a show of grit, creativity and commitment to the organization’s ideals, various staff members chose to stay on board on a volunteer basis or with drastically reduced salaries to keep the paper going, and an Indiegogo campaign was launched to raise funds. Readers donated more than $8,000 in 30 days to allow the paper to cover basic operating costs as it made the transition to an online media outlet, eventually allowing the organization to find its new home and its new offices in Barrio Amón, under the leadership of publisher Jonathan Harris. So the past decade included a difficult “last” for the paper, but brought a wave of firsts and new developments for an organization used to paving the way. These included a new logo that debuted in 2014; the first book from our Publications Group, “The Green Season,” by former staff writer Robert Isenberg, published in 2015; and the first event from our Events Group, “News and Brews,” held in San José. Through the changes, of course, The Tico Times has continued covering the news shaping Costa Rica, in creative ways made possible by the new digital format. Editorial highlights from the last decade ranged from continuing coverage of politics, trade, environmental issues and international relations, a photo essay to celebrate the country’s astonishing performance at the 2014 World Cup, and the tale of a beloved crocodile that continues to be one of our most-read stories nearly four years after his death. Celebrating World Cup glory in 2014. Alberto Font/The Tico Times Writers have been able to stretch out their legs in the luxury of unlimited online space through longform stories on everything from cycling across the country, to a visiting athlete who survived against the odds, to the extraordinarily life of a previous First Lady, to the crimes of a serial killer that have been largely ignored by other media. What’s next for The Tico Times? As Dery Dyer points out in her special letter in honor of this anniversary, there’s no telling what the future holds, but this is an organization that has persevered through tough times and embraced the future. In the end, what can be said to top the message that accompanied that first edition 60 years ago today? “This is THE TICO TIMES. It’s out. We hope it will come out again next week… and we hope that you find THE TICO TIMES ‘good reading.’” Browse a PDF of our 50th anniversary print supplement All of us at the Tico Times thank you for your support! The post At 68, Oldest English Costa Rica Paper – The Tico Times celebrates tradition — and reinvention appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Like the country it calls home, The Tico Times has often had an impact that far outpaces its small size. The post At 68, Oldest English Costa Rica Paper – The Tico Times celebrates tradition — and reinvention appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

As the Tico Times celebrate another birthday we thought we would do a repost from 2016.

Of all the stories The Tico Times has reported in its six decades of publication, one of the most remarkable is the story of the paper itself. Its 60th birthday provides a chance to look back on the unlikely tale of a student project that went on to become an intrepid public watchdog, a strong independent voice and defender of press freedom, and a builder of bridges between Costa Rica and the international community.

The paper was first created thanks to one of the serendipitous alignments of interest and expertise that seem to happen so often in Costa Rica: a group of Lincoln School seniors asked Elisabeth (Betty) Dyer, a veteran journalist from the United States who was a full-time mother in Costa Rica, to teach them about journalism. Her response? She urged them to learn by doing, and the result was the first edition of the paper, published on May 18, 1956 with a newsstand price of ¢1.

The paper met a need among the growing expatriate community in the country, and grew quickly into a beloved weekly. For founder Betty Dyer and her husband Richard, who would become the paper’s publisher, it was an opportunity to return to what they loved most. Betty had been a trailblazer in New York journalism as the “first woman rewrite man” and p.m. editor for the New York Post, covering traditionally male beats including crime, labor and politics. Richard’s journalism career had included stints as the news editor of the Oakland Post-Enquirer in California and the AP assistant bureau chief in Río de Janeiro.

Betty left her career behind after she married Richard and joined him in Río, where he served as bureau chief for the International News Service and King Features syndicate. When Richard got a job as the United Fruit Company’s public relations director for Central America in 1951, they moved to Costa Rica with their young daughter, Dery. (Dery would grow up to become the editor and publisher of The Tico Times.)

Over the years, the paper they created attained worldwide readership for its independence in a region marked by turmoil and weak press. Reporters broke stories on secret runways used by the Contras, rampant shark finning in Costa Rican waters and the rise of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. It became a training ground for generations of young journalists.

The Tico Times racked up a series of firsts. It was the first newspaper in Costa Rica (along with Eco Católico) to be printed on offset, the first to run color on its front page, the first to do investigative reporting and the first to cover the environment as a regular beat.

The Tico Times and La Nación were the country’s first newspapers to have an online edition, and The Tico Times was the first and only paper in the country to raise funds for animal welfare or hold a public blood drive. (“People would come in the office to place a classified ad and we’d grab ‘em and say: ‘Your money or your blood,” remembered Dery Dyer. “We had a great time, served cookies and beer, had people fainting all over the place. But we got a lot of donors.”)

Its records included some quirkier feats as well: The Tico Times was the first newspaper in Costa Rica, and probably in the world, to run a “subliminal photo” on its front page, and it was likely the only newspaper anywhere to refrain from publishing anything about the O.J. Simpson case.

It would be impossible in this brief format to do justice to the changes that Costa Rica experienced, and The Tico Times chronicled, in the past six decades (although our 50th Anniversary Special Edition, published in 2006, went a long way toward that goal – view it below). The paper, in its first year, covered the birth of the millionth Costa Rican; and in 2000, it covered the arrival of the millionth foreign tourist.

Those two milestones alone show the dizzying growth the country experienced, and the problems that came along with it, including the controversies of balancing between tourism needs and environmental protections, and the struggle to protect traditions in the face of increasing international influence.

The Tico Times covered all of these issues, year after year.

In the 1980s, when Central America’s armed conflicts cast the region into chaos, the relative stability of Costa Rica made San José, and often The Tico Times, a home base for some of international journalism’s leading lights. The paper covered all aspects of the conflicts, peace negotiations and the eventual peace accords that earned a Nobel Peace Prize for President Oscar Arias in 1987. During the years of unrest, on May 30, 1984, The Tico Times family suffered a tragic loss when reporter Linda Frazier died from the injuries she sustained in an explosion at a press conference in La Penca, the jungle encampment of Nicaraguan rebel leader Eden Pastora. The message “In Memoriam – Linda Frazier” appeared in The Tico Times masthead each week for as long as the paper was printed and continues to appear on our About Us page today.

Like the country it calls home, The Tico Times has often had an impact that far outpaces its small size. One example was its struggle for freedom of expression against a provision of the country’s journalists guild that required reporters to be licensed by that organization in order to be published in Costa Rica. This ban hit The Tico Times hard, since the paper relied on international talent and, since its early days when other English-language news was hard to come by in the country, had served its readers by reprinting news from around the globe.

The Tico Times fought the prohibition for many years, eventually achieved its repeal and, in 1995, won the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) Grand Prize for Press Freedom for its efforts. This award joined others The Tico Times has won throughout its history, including the IAPA Pedro G. Beltrán Award for distinguished service to the community (1981); a Special Citation from Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Awards (1985); the National Conservation Prize (1990); the Salvation Army’s Others Award, for launching and supporting the Angel Tree program in Costa Rica (1998); the National Tourism Chamber Media Award (1998); and the Alberto Martén Chavarría Award for best journalistic work in the area of social responsibility, American-Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce Social Responsibility in Action Awards (2015).

Through it all, however, the paper sought to retain its home-grown feel in keeping with its grassroots origins.

The paper celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006 — but some of its greatest challenges were just around the corner. In the paper’s heyday from 2005-2007, it reached a size of 60 printed pages, thanks largely to a real estate boom that generated most of The Tico Times’ advertisements. That boom, along with the housing crisis in the United States, turned out to be a bubble, and when it burst, the paper faced a double dilemma of advertising flight and the onset of the digital age in Costa Rica.

Like most print media around the world, the paper struggled to make ends meet, and on September 28, 2012, its final print edition hit newsstands. The paper’s home of many years, near the Judicial System in San José, was eventually sold, and parked cars now line the lot where writers, editors, sales and circulation staff toiled for so many years.

But that wasn’t the end for The Tico Times. In a show of grit, creativity and commitment to the organization’s ideals, various staff members chose to stay on board on a volunteer basis or with drastically reduced salaries to keep the paper going, and an Indiegogo campaign was launched to raise funds.

Readers donated more than $8,000 in 30 days to allow the paper to cover basic operating costs as it made the transition to an online media outlet, eventually allowing the organization to find its new home and its new offices in Barrio Amón, under the leadership of publisher Jonathan Harris.

So the past decade included a difficult “last” for the paper, but brought a wave of firsts and new developments for an organization used to paving the way. These included a new logo that debuted in 2014; the first book from our Publications Group, “The Green Season,” by former staff writer Robert Isenberg, published in 2015; and the first event from our Events Group, “News and Brews,” held in San José.

Through the changes, of course, The Tico Times has continued covering the news shaping Costa Rica, in creative ways made possible by the new digital format. Editorial highlights from the last decade ranged from continuing coverage of politics, trade, environmental issues and international relations, a photo essay to celebrate the country’s astonishing performance at the 2014 World Cup, and the tale of a beloved crocodile that continues to be one of our most-read stories nearly four years after his death.

Celebrating World Cup glory in 2014. Alberto Font/The Tico Times

Writers have been able to stretch out their legs in the luxury of unlimited online space through longform stories on everything from cycling across the country, to a visiting athlete who survived against the odds, to the extraordinarily life of a previous First Lady, to the crimes of a serial killer that have been largely ignored by other media.

What’s next for The Tico Times? As Dery Dyer points out in her special letter in honor of this anniversary, there’s no telling what the future holds, but this is an organization that has persevered through tough times and embraced the future. In the end, what can be said to top the message that accompanied that first edition 60 years ago today? “This is THE TICO TIMES. It’s out. We hope it will come out again next week… and we hope that you find THE TICO TIMES ‘good reading.’”

Browse a PDF of our 50th anniversary print supplement

All of us at the Tico Times thank you for your support!

The post At 68, Oldest English Costa Rica Paper – The Tico Times celebrates tradition — and reinvention appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Read the full story here.

Photos courtesy of

Related News

Small Alligator Rescued in Boston After Slithering Into the City's Heart on Social Media

Wildlife officials say a small alligator spotted along the Charles River in Boston this week has been rescued and delivered to safety

BOSTON (AP) — It wasn’t a croc — there really was an alligator on the loose in Boston.And the story of the city's slithering saurian appears to have a happy ending. The small alligator, spotted along the Charles River in Boston multiple times this week, has been rescued and delivered to safety, wildlife officials in Massachusetts said Thursday.The approximately foot-long crocodilian startled a few people and became an instant star on social media after confused onlookers took videos of it slithering away from sight. But the animal is not native to Massachusetts, and couldn't possibly survive the harsh New England winter, so the search for the wayward gator was on.A local wildlife educator captured the critter on Wednesday night, and it's now awaiting a permanent home, officials said.Harvard University graduate student Whitney Lieberman was among the residents who caught a glimpse of the exotic visitor. She said she notified wildlife authorities when she saw the creature while she was jogging to work.“Yeah, I did a double-take. For a second, I had to check myself — alligators are not native to Boston waterways, right?” Lieberman said. “I texted my co-workers because I had a morning meeting: ‘Hey guys, this is a good excuse to be late for work. There is an alligator right in front of me and I don’t know what to do.'"The animal was in jeopardy due to the chilly temperatures on the Charles, which was 51 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) on Thursday. Alligators prefer temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius). They are cold-blooded and can't regulate their own temperature, so they enter a dormant, energy-saving state called brumation to survive colder temperatures.Joe Kenney, who runs a wildlife education business called Joe's Craz-zy Critters, captured the alligator, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife said in a statement. The state has temporarily authorized Kenney to keep the alligator while it evaluates the best long-term placement for it, the department said.The wildlife department said the alligator's appearance is still being investigated, but added it was most likely a pet that escaped or was intentionally released.“MassWildlife is working in close collaboration with the Environmental Police to find a safe home for this alligator as an educational animal with a permitted facility. This incident serves as an important reminder that it is not legal to keep alligators or any crocodilian species as pets in Massachusetts,” state herpetologist Mike Jones said in a statement.Alligators have a history of occasionally showing up in urban areas far from their native ranges. One, dubbed Chance the Snapper, turned up in Chicago in summer 2019 and was eventually trapped. Another one showed up on the Charles River in the Boston area in 2010.Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

Animals

Business

Education

What we’ve done to the salmon

This story is part of a series supported by Animal Charity Evaluators, which received a grant from EarthShare. The last few decades have seen, arguably, the most sweeping transformation in how humans produce meat, and it has nothing to do with chickens, pigs, or cows. It has to do with fish. Traditionally, the vast majority […]

Farming salmon is bad at any stage of the fishs’ lives. This story is part of a series supported by Animal Charity Evaluators, which received a grant from EarthShare. The last few decades have seen, arguably, the most sweeping transformation in how humans produce meat, and it has nothing to do with chickens, pigs, or cows. It has to do with fish. Inside this story Over half of the world’s seafood now comes from fish farms, which resemble underwater factory farms. Chickens, pigs, and cows were domesticated over thousands of years, but fish have been domesticated in under a century. It’s created serious welfare issues, especially for salmon. Salmon are carnivorous and migrate thousands of miles. On farms, they’re reduced to swimming in small tanks and eating pellets. Fish farming has taken over the seafood sector, but some experts argue that it’s moved too fast, and we need to better understand welfare issues. Traditionally, the vast majority of fish that people consume has come from the ocean. But in 2022, humanity hit a significant milestone: Seafood companies began to raise more fish on farms than they caught from the sea. And they farm astonishingly large numbers of fish — in tiny, cramped enclosures that resemble underwater factory farms. It amounts to the fastest and largest animal domestication project that humanity has ever undertaken. For most of the land animals we eat today, domestication — or, as French fish researcher Fabrice Teletchea defined it, the “long and endless process during which animals become, generations after generations, more adapted to both captive conditions and humans” — has taken place over thousands of years. “In contrast,” a team of marine biologists wrote in the journal Science in 2007, the rise of fish farming “is a contemporary phenomenon,” taking off on a commercial scale around the 1970s. By the early 2000s, humans were farming well over 200 aquatic animal species, virtually all of which had been domesticated or forced into unnatural conditions in extreme captivity over the course of the previous century, with many in just the prior decade. To put it another way, the marine biologists wrote, aquatic domestication occurred 100 times faster than the domestication of land animals — and on a vastly larger scale. Today, some 80 billion land animals are farmed annually, while an estimated 763 billion fish and crustaceans are farmed each year, a figure projected to quickly grow in the decade ahead. What’s more, this attempt to speedrun domestication occurred even as a clear scientific consensus emerged in recent decades that fish can suffer and feel pain. The revolution in how humans produce seafood has enormous implications for our relationship with species we’ve barely given any thought to. To understand why, consider America’s favorite fish to eat, and one of the most difficult to farm: salmon. Like farming tigers Salmon farming is a relatively new industry, and it emerged largely in response to manmade problems. Over the last century, overfishing — combined with industrial pollution, climate change, and heavy damming — has decimated wild Atlantic salmon populations. By 2000, the species gained protection under the Endangered Species Act after it was nearly driven to extinction in the US, effectively banning the commercial fishing of Atlantic salmon. Salmon populations in Europe, along with Pacific salmon populations on the West Coast of the US and beyond, have also experienced significant declines. To take pressure off depleted wild populations, seafood producers began to scale salmon farming in the 1970s, with ample help from governments in the form of R&D, grants, state financing programs, and more. It’s proven to be a smashing commercial success. Last year, salmon farming companies — which are most concentrated in Norway, Chile, and the UK and export their product around the world — produced 2.8 million metric tons of the fish, or around 560 million individual salmon. They’re typically raised in tanks on land until they’re a year old then transferred to nets and cages floating in the ocean just offshore to be fattened up and eventually slaughtered (they’re supposed to be rendered unconscious prior to slaughter, with either electric stunning or a club to the head, though some aren’t successfully stunned). About one out of every five are shipped off to the US, where “young affluent consumers love to eat salmon,” according to the Norwegian company Mowi, the world’s biggest salmon producer. This taste for salmon and the farming industry it has necessitated has, in just a few generations, dramatically transformed what it means to be a salmon. In the wild, salmon live incredibly complex lives and embark on epic journeys. But on farms, they can’t do any of that. According to Becca Franks, an assistant professor of environmental studies at New York University, salmon farming has created grave welfare problems by denying the animals the ability to engage in two of their essential natural behaviors: migrating and hunting. In the US, Atlantic salmon begin their lives as eggs buried a foot under freshwater riverbeds in Maine, where they remain for six months until they hatch and emerge in search of food. At a few years old, they migrate hundreds of miles northward into the salty Atlantic ocean, then hundreds of miles further out into the Labrador Sea, near Greenland. There, they quickly put on weight — feeding on krill, herring, and crustaceans — which they’ll need for the long journey home that they make after a couple years of dining out at sea. Following scents and using the earth’s magnetic field, Atlantic salmon swim over 1,000 miles back to their home streams to spawn the next generation. The salmon’s life cycle inspires more awe and reverence than most species in the animal kingdom, but on farms, they’re reduced to swimming in tiny circles for years and subsisting on small, manmade pellets. Their “welfare is harmed through loss of agency and choice,” Franks told me in an email. She likens salmon farming to trying to farm tigers. Sophie Ryan, CEO of the Global Salmon Initiative — a coalition of salmon farming companies — challenged the idea that domestication has harmed salmon. “They have been domesticated over more than 50 years — similar to cattle or poultry — and have been selectively bred to thrive in a farm environment,” Ryan told me in an email. “Their nutritional needs, swimming patterns, and energy use are different from wild salmon, because their environment and purpose are different.” The selective breeding that Ryan speaks of has been used to make farmed salmon grow twice as fast as their wild counterparts, which has led to a number of serious health issues: heart problems, spinal deformities, high levels of deafness, and increased risk of an early death. They’re also more aggressive than wild salmon. To boost growth even further, salmon farms keep their lights on up to 24 hours a day, which makes the fish eat more and can damage their retinas. And in a concerning twist, the domestication of farmed salmon is hurting wild salmon. Since the 1970s, tens of millions of farmed salmon have managed to escape and compete for resources with wild salmon and even mate with them, leading to “genetic pollution” that has resulted in a hybrid line of salmon. “We may now need to recognize a new biological entity — Salmo domesticus,” biologist Mart Gross wrote in a 1998 paper, “and treat it as an ‘exotic’ when it escapes into the wild.” Some research has found that these hybrid fish have lower survival rates. That means that the farming of salmon, which was intended to give wild salmon populations a break, created a new challenge for them. “Escape prevention is a top priority, with ongoing improvements in net strength, mooring systems, and real-time digital monitoring,” Ryan of the Global Salmon Initiative said. “Where escapes do occur, companies are required to report them and work with regulators to assess potential impacts on wild populations.” Franks considers fish farming a form of “captive dewilding”: the process of modifying animals to conform to captivity and to the harms that befall them as a result. And the reality of that captivity can be incredibly cruel. Fish farms up close In 2019, animal rights activist Erin Wing worked undercover with the group Animal Outlook for four months at a salmon hatchery in Maine operated by Cooke Aquaculture, one of the world’s largest salmon farming companies. Wing documented workers culling diseased fish by hitting them against the sides of tanks multiple times; fish thrown into buckets still alive, left to suffocate or be crushed to death by other fish; fish born with spinal deformities; and fish dying from nasty fungal diseases that ate away parts of their faces. “Over the years, you kinda get desensitized,” one employee told her. In response to Wing’s investigation, Cooke Aquaculture CEO Glenn Cooke said in a statement that the company would re-train employees at the Maine facility. “We place animal welfare high in our operating standards and endeavor to raise our animals with optimal care and consideration of best practice,” Cooke said, adding that “what we saw today is most certainly not reflective of these standards.” Wing, who has spent her career investigating factory farms, is skeptical of industry standards. “There are these [animal welfare] industry standards that are in place, and there are these guidelines, but at the end of the day, there’s not really any enforcement,” Wing told me. “So these farms will make up whatever rules they want that will work for them, for their workers, and then they’ll operate as they see fit. And that usually results in a lot of these animals suffering needlessly.” Some of the suffering stems from putting farmed animals in the ocean, as crowding hundreds of thousands of salmon together in open waters attracts sea lice — tiny, painful parasites that feed on the salmon’s skin and can even kill them. In 2023, almost 17 percent of Norwegian farmed salmon died before they could be slaughtered for meat, largely from infectious diseases and injuries. To combat the scourge of sea lice, salmon farmers had, for years, dumped chemicals into the water to kill them, along with antibiotics and other chemicals to protect the fish from a range of fungal and viral diseases. These pollutants, combined with vast amounts of animal waste generated by the salmon, fall to the ocean floor and pollute marine ecosystems. That, in turn, contributes to what Franks calls “environmental dewilding,” or the process of modifying natural water bodies with artificial infrastructure — in this case, fish farm pens and cages — and polluting them. Sea lice have since developed resistance to these chemicals, so, over the last decade, salmon farmers have switched to other methods — including subjecting salmon to high heat — which can cause pain, injuries, and death. The International Salmon Farmers Association and the Global Seafood Alliance didn’t respond to interview requests. Not just salmon If we accept that farming salmon is bad for them and the environments in which they’re raised — and that we should protect dwindling wild populations — then we’ll have to accept eating a lot less salmon. We’ll also have to reconsider the ethical implications of farming many other fish species. Fair Fish, a team of fish welfare researchers, has compared the natural behavior and welfare needs of nearly 100 fish species with the conditions they experience on farms. Out of the 100 analyzed species, only two — tilapia and carp — have “the potential to be farmed in somewhat decent conditions,” according to João Saraiva, who researches fish ethology at the Centre of Marine Sciences in Faro, Portugal, and runs the nonprofit Fish Etho Group. But that doesn’t mean that they actually are; both tilapia and carp farms tend to be overcrowded, with poor water quality and high rates of disease. (Saraiva has worked with Fair Fish on its analyses but is no longer involved in the project.) By contrast, he said, salmon is “way down on the list,” meaning it’s especially hard for farms to meet their basic welfare needs. Fair Fish’s research demonstrates how little attention the fish farming industry, and the governments that helped it take over the seafood sector, has paid to the simple question of how its captives experience being farmed. It also illustrates the damage we can do when we flatten “fish” — an incredibly diverse group of species — into a monolith. Franks said industry and government need to pump the brakes on the expansion of fish and crustacean farming, which is currently the world’s fastest-growing agricultural sector, noting, “I think we should not be farming any new species of fish or crustaceans and putting in transition programs for folks already farming those species to move towards seaweeds and bivalves.” The latter is a class of invertebrate animals that includes scallops, oysters, and mussels, which Franks said have far fewer environmental and welfare concerns than farmed fish and crustaceans (whether bivalves are sentient or can feel pain remains an ongoing scientific debate). She’s one of the few academics studying fish farming willing to go there, to suggest that we ought to fundamentally rethink how we produce seafood and how much of it we consume. “I think there is a huge reluctance to even broach the possibility of shifting diets away” from animal protein, said Franks. When the global fish farming boom took off, many in the field had good intentions, and it looked good on paper; a way to boost the global food supply without further exploiting oceans. Plus, fish tend to have a lower carbon footprint than farmed land species (though higher than plant-based proteins). But few questions were asked about what it would mean, ethically and environmentally, to rapidly domesticate, then confine and slaughter, hundreds of billions of animals annually with distinct needs — let alone the capacity to feel pain. Researchers like Saraiva and Franks are trying to convince the world to catch up with what we now know about fish and to further expand our knowledge. As consumers, we can help, and we can start by thinking twice about the salmon on our plates.

Animals

Activism

Climate

Housing secretary tells Labour MPs to vote down planning bill amendment

Amendment restricts protection for animals to allow faster house buildingHousing secretary Steve Reed has told Labour MPs to vote down an amendment to the new planning bill intended to protect British wildlife and its habitats from destruction.The amendment, which was passed with a large majority in the House of Lords, restricts the most controversial part of the draft bill by removing protected animals such as dormice, badgers, hedgehogs, otters and nightingales, and rare habitats such as wetlands and ancient woodlands, from new rules which allow developers to sidestep environmental laws to speed up house building. Continue reading...

Housing secretary Steve Reed has told Labour MPs to vote down an amendment to the new planning bill intended to protect British wildlife and its habitats from destruction.The amendment, which was passed with a large majority in the House of Lords, restricts the most controversial part of the draft bill by removing protected animals such as dormice, badgers, hedgehogs, otters and nightingales, and rare habitats such as wetlands and ancient woodlands, from new rules which allow developers to sidestep environmental laws to speed up house building.Under the draft legislation proposed by Labour, developers will be able to pay into a national “nature recovery fund” and go ahead with their project straight away, instead of having to carry out an environmental survey and to first avoid, then mitigate damage, before putting spades into the ground.Experts say this is a regression on decades-old environmental law and it has been criticised as “cash to trash” by ecologists and environmental groups.The Lords’ amendment would mean the nature recovery fund is restricted to impacts from water and air pollution, meaning developers would still have to take the usual measures to mitigate damage to wildlife and habitats.Reed has recommended rejecting the amendment when the bill returns to the Commons on Thursday for the final stages before being passed into law.In a letter to MPs some of the UK’s biggest nature charities, including the Wildlife Trusts and RSPB, say the government rollback of environmental law “lacks any rigorous scientific or ecological justification.“There is no credible, published, or well established evidence that this model can simply be scaled or replicated for multiple species nationwide without risking serious ecological harm, legal uncertainty, and increased costs for both developers and land managers,” the letter reads.The Guardian revealed this week how the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and housing minister Matthew Pennycook have met scores of developers in the past year over the planning bill. Reeves has not met a single environmental organisation or the body for professional ecologists, while Pennycook has had just four meetings with such groups, compared with 16 with leading developers.A spokesperson for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The planning and infrastructure bill will remove barriers to building vital new homes and infrastructure and this amendment is an unnecessary limit on the benefits which the nature restoration fund will create for both nature and the economy. There are already safeguards in our legislation to ensure environmental delivery plans are effective for the environment, as we get Britain building again and deliver the homes we need.”

Animals

Government

Pollution

I discovered a new Australian native bee, but there are still hundreds we need to identify

The discovery of a horned native bee that pollinates a rare plant highlights how little we know about Australian pollinators.

The female of the species has devil-like black horns, and a taste for extremely rare pollen. But until now, this Australian native bee has never been officially named or identified. My discovery of Megachile (Hackeriapis) lucifer, underscores the lack of knowledge and investment in Australia’s unique native bees. Whilst considerable funding and attention has been focused on the introduced European honey bee, Apis mellifera, there are still hundreds of native bees that are yet to be identified and named. How was this bee found? This fascinating new megachile (or leaf cutter) bee was first discovered while on a surveying trip in the Bremer Ranges in the goldfields region of Western Australia in 2019. I was conducting surveys for pollinators – such as bees, other insects, flies and wasps – of a critically endangered plant called Bremer marianthus, or Marianthus aquilonaris, which is only known in this region. Sadly, as is common for many threatened plant species, the pollinators for this straggly shrub with blue-tinged white flowers were completely unknown. One of the native bees collected on this visit immediately caught my attention because the female had large devil-like horns protruding from her clypeus – the broad plate on the front of a bee’s head. When I investigated, it was clear this wasn’t a species that had been found before. Whilst some native bees have horns or prongs, none have the large and slightly curved horns of this one. Comparing it with museum specimens, along with DNA barcoding, confirmed this species was new to collectors and to science. DNA barcoding also revealed a male native bee I had collected at the site was her partner, but he lacked horns. This is the opposite of the situation in much of the animal kingdom, where the males are more likely to be amoured. Bringer of light When you discover a new species, you have the honour of choosing a name. The first new species of native bee I “described” (or scientifically identified) in 2022, Leioproctus zephyr, is named after my dog, Zephyr. For this new species, the horns meant the name Lucifer was a perfect choice. Lucifer is also Latin for “light bringer”, and I hope this new species brings to light the wonders of our native bees. Australia has more than 2,000 species of native bees. They help keep our ecosystems healthy and play a crucial role in pollinating wildflowers. We need to understand native bees This new native bee, Megachile lucifer, is only one of an estimated 500 native bees that are not described. Far more attention has been given to the introduced European honey bee Apis mellifera. Whilst the honey bee is important for crop pollination, this species is not threatened, and can in fact harm our native bees. The truth is honeybees compete with native animals for food and habitat, disrupt native pollination systems and pose a serious biosecurity threat to our honey and pollination industries. Currently, there no requirement to survey for native bees in areas about to be mined, farmed or developed. Even if they are found, any species that has not been officially identified it has no conservation standing, which is one reason why taxonomic research is so important. Protect the pollinators Megachile lucifer was collected on a flowering mallee plant that attracted thousands of native bees and other insects. In subsequent years of surveying this site, the mallee was not flowering, Megachile lucifer was not seen, and far fewer insects were recorded. With no monitoring of native bees, we also don’t know how their populations are faring in response to threatening processes, like climate change. More interest and investment into the taxonomy, conservation and ecology of native bees, means we can protect both them and the rare and precious plants they pollinate. Kit Prendergast received funding from the Atlas of Living Australia, with a Biodiversity Mobilisation Grant and Goldfields Environmental Management Group Grant. The surveys were conducted as an ecological consultant, subcontracted to Botanica Consulting, who were commissioned by Audalia Resources Limited.

Animals

Climate

Conservation

Margay Rescued in Costa Rica After Backyard Sighting

A young margay wandered into a residential backyard here, prompting a swift rescue by environmental officials who found the wildcat in an oddly calm state. The incident unfolded on November 5 when a local resident noticed the small feline resting on a low branch in their yard. Concerned about potential risks to a child or nearby farm animals, the family contacted the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), part of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE). Officials from the Tortuguero Conservation Area arrived quickly and identified the animal as a margay, known scientifically as Leopardus wiedii and locally as caucel. The cat’s docile demeanor stood out—it appeared asleep and showed no fear of people, which raised questions about its background. For the safety of both the community and the animal, the team captured it without incident. They placed the margay in a secure carrier and moved it to an approved wildlife rescue center for assessment. Veterinarians at the center sedated the margay for a thorough check. They reported the animal in solid health overall, with no major wounds. However, they removed several porcupine quills from around its mouth, signs of a recent failed hunt in the forest. Experts now observe the young margay over the coming days to check for any human habituation, which could suggest prior captivity. If tests confirm it retains wild instincts, authorities plan to release it back into a protected natural area. SINAC used the event to stress proper handling of wildlife encounters. Residents should avoid contact and report sightings to officials or emergency services at 9-1-1, allowing trained teams to step in safely. Margays rank among Costa Rica’s six native wildcat species, sharing forests with jaguars, pumas, ocelots, oncillas, and jaguarundis. These agile climbers can descend trees headfirst and grip branches with a single hind paw. Yet they face ongoing pressures from shrinking habitats and illegal pet trade captures. This rescue highlights how human expansion brings wildlife closer to homes, calling for balanced conservation efforts in regions like Pococí. The post Margay Rescued in Costa Rica After Backyard Sighting appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

GoGreenNation news

At 68, Oldest English Costa Rica Paper – The Tico Times celebrates tradition — and reinvention

Related News

Small Alligator Rescued in Boston After Slithering Into the City's Heart on Social Media

What we’ve done to the salmon

Housing secretary tells Labour MPs to vote down planning bill amendment

I discovered a new Australian native bee, but there are still hundreds we need to identify

Margay Rescued in Costa Rica After Backyard Sighting

Suggested Viewing

Silent Forests

The Monarch Ultra

Kaziranga

Sentinels of Silence? Whale Watching, Noise, and the Orca

Total Disaster

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

At 68, Oldest English Costa Rica Paper – The Tico Times celebrates tradition — and reinvention

Related News

Small Alligator Rescued in Boston After Slithering Into the City's Heart on Social Media

What we’ve done to&nbsp;the&nbsp;salmon

Housing secretary tells Labour MPs to vote down planning bill amendment

I discovered a new Australian native bee, but there are still hundreds we need to identify

Margay Rescued in Costa Rica After Backyard Sighting

Suggested Viewing

Silent Forests

The Monarch Ultra

Kaziranga

Sentinels of Silence? Whale Watching, Noise, and the Orca

Total Disaster

Join us to forgea sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

What we’ve done to the salmon

Join us to forge
a sustainable future