Whole Foods To Ban Sale Of Unsustainable Seafood: The Global Impact

In a landmark move, Whole Foods has just announced that starting on April 22 — Earth Day — it will no longer sell seafood from depleted or otherwise unsustainable fisheries, or species harvested with ecologically damaging methods such as trawling. The industry ratings for these species are determined by the Blue Ocean Institute and California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium, which produces a popular “Seafood Watch Recommendations” pocket guide and phone app for shoppers. Say bye-bye to Atlantic halibut, skate, octopus and sole.

It’s a bold move for the world’s largest, most powerful green grocery chain to defer customer demand for better buying practices, but according to Whole Foods’ seafood quality standards coordinator Carrie Brownstein via an AP article, “In the long term, what we’re really looking to do is help reverse trends of overfishing and by-catch, so that really we can move the industry as a whole toward greater sustainability.”

So how does what you eat here at home have a global impact? Depletion of any fishery always has a negative effect on the food chain because of a ripple effect. Foreign fisheries may also employ unsound fishing methods that increase by-catch (think dolphins and other aquatic species, albatross, etc.). You may love Chilean sea bass (it’s actually Patagonian toothfish) but it has long been a fishery on the verge of collapse and by purchasing it at the store or ordering it at a restaurant, you create demand for that product. Once a species is extinct, it can seriously throw a marine ecosystem out of whack. Plus, you know, extinction kind of sucks.

It’s harder for world travelers to be on top of what’s sustainable and what’s not, especially if, like me, you love street food. In developing nations, especially countries with a coastline, fishing is usually a key part of the local economy. But saving our rapidly depleting oceans trumps putting a few pennies in local pockets: they’re not looking at the big picture, which is the more seafood we consume, the less there is to sell.

Order something besides seafood unless you’re positive it’s caught in a non-environmentally degrading way, from a healthy fishery. Go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Recommendations site for a global guide to what’s sustainable and what’s not. It offers alternatives, so odds are, you can travel and have your lobster dinner, too.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Eneas]

Mountaineer summits Everest, tweets from the top

Yesterday we mentioned that the Sherpas had finished fixing the ropes to the summit of Everest, clearing the way for all the commercial climbing teams to soon follow. We predicted that the big push to the top of the mountain was still a week away, but a British climber took advantage of good weather and empty slopes, to rush to the summit yesterday. Once there, he not only savored the view from the highest point on the planet, but he also took time to send the first ever tweet from the top of the mountain.

Mountaineer Kenton Cool, who climbs with the Dream Guides company, set off for the summit two days ago, not long after getting word that the Sherpas had finished the route. He reached the top at 7:30 AM local time, notching his ninth successful climb of the mountain. Cool was sponsored by Samsung on this expedition and he used one of their smartphones to send the following tweet from the summit:

“@KentonCool: Everest summit no 9! 1st tweet from the top of the world thanks to a weak 3G signal & the awesome Samsung Galaxy S2 handset! @samsunguk”

Cool was able to send his tweet thanks to a 3G cell tower that was installed near Base Camp last fall. That tower has provided very spotty service to the climbers this season, but is still a marked improvement over years past when only expensive satellite phones were able to provide any kind of communications from Everest. The tweet is also excellent advertising for Samsung’s Galaxy S2, allowing the Brit to give his sponsor the recognition that they were surely looking for.

Does anyone else find it annoying that climbers can now make phone calls, send texts, and tweet from one of the most remote places on the planet, while I still get dropped service on my nightly commute home?

Photo of the day – Flamenco in motion

When you see flamenco, you probably think Spain, but today’s beautiful photo was taken by the prolific Flavio@Flickr near Tel Aviv, Israel. It’s a beautiful image of movement, color, and light; you even get a sense of music. The sensuality and drama of the dance is refreshing to see compared with many of the serious and spiritual shots we often see from Israel travelers.

Captured any great performances recently? Share them with us by adding them to the Gadling group on Flickr and we might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

Scosche Industries announces first line of Samsung Galaxy Tab accessories

A mere 48 hours after the Samsung Galaxy Tab Internet tablet hit retail stores, Scosche is ready for customers looking for accessories. Their lineup includes an insane 28 different products – including a variety of cases, covers, screen protectors, chargers, headsets, Bluetooth stereo headphones and a car mount.

We’ve always been pretty impressed with the quality of their products, so customers in the market for a way to accessorize their new Tablet won’t be disappointed.

Cases start at a very reasonable $24.99 for a clear polycarbonate case, up to $44.99 for a leather or carbon fiber textured folio case. Later this holiday season, Scosche will also release a flexible Bluetooth keyboard designed for the Galaxy Tab or other compatible device.

Click here for the entire lineup of products.

Boingo and Samsung team up for a WiFi enabled camera – and you can win one!

Two of my favorite technology firms have teamed up to bring travelers a new product – the Samsung CL80 digital camera. This innovative camera features built in WiFi, and can wirelessly transfer your photos any time it is in range of a Boingo WiFi hotspot. To celebrate the launch, Boingo is giving away four of these cameras, worth $399 each.

The CL80 shoots photos in 14.2 megapixels and features a 7x optical zoom, 3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen, face detection and HD movie recording.

Boingo should not require an introduction, but if you’ve never heard of them, all you need to know is that a Boingo account lets you connect to thousands of WiFi hotspots all around the world, for a single monthly fee.

During a summer vacation, a Boingo account can earn itself back in one day – especially in hotels that still dare charge upwards of $25 for a day-pass.

To enter the Boingo contest, you’ll need to share one of your favorite photos in one of four categories – Boingo Hotspot, Travel, Technology and Happiness. To add a photo, head on over to the Boingo contest gallery and click add photo. The contest description and rules can be found here. And while you are sorting through your best photos, don’t forget to enter the Gadling summer photo contest, presented by Tamrac.