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Consumers affected by fishing sustainability

BOSTON — Don’t overfish. Don’t trawl the seabed. Keep aquaculture healthy for the fish as well as the ocean. Some aspects of sustainable seafood are obvious and well-trod, even if the how-to intricacies likely are lost on most consumers. But sustainability today is complicated terrain, as much about business as bycatch, and why, for your next clam chowder, human rights matter as much as healthy habitats. Advocates now want you considering issues of labor abuses, the rights of indigenous populations to use traditional fishing practices, the carbon footprint of a salmon fillet ...

Using the weekend to share a few memories of mom

This Mother’s Day would have been my mother’s 101st birthday. Her birthday often fell on Mother’s Day over the years. I was the oldest of five kids and was born on her birthday. That year her birthday fell on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, and I conveniently arrived just in time for her first Mother’s Day. She passed away in 2021 at the age of 96, so Mother’s Day now brings a sense of loss along with many cherished memories and reflections. In that spirit, I would like to share again a tribute I wrote to my mother several years ago. My father was a city kid who never ...

Ready to argue that May is the greatest outdoor month

For outdoor enthusiasts, is there anything in Pennsylvania that beats the month of May? For my purposes, May could be three months long and that wouldn’t be long enough to suit me. And all that May has to offer isn’t just linked to hunting or fishing opportunities either. Photography, ...

Barefoot hiking can be found on two continents

GUTACH, Germany — At the edge of a trail in Germany’s picturesque Black Forest region, waterlogged steps sink into ankle-deep water and mud, requiring careful footing. An ocean away, a sandy trail in the ponderosa forests of northern Arizona demands treading just as deliberately when ...

When it comes to fishing, don’t forget about wet flies

A couple of years ago, I was fishing with a group of fly fishermen that included two or three younger guys in their mid to late twenties, as I recall. All of them had a bit of fly-fishing experience, and as we were rigging up our gear that morning, they asked my advice on what fly patterns ...

Town in Alaska tries to revive polar bear tourism

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Late every summer, hulking white bears gather outside a tiny Alaska Native village on the edge of the continent, far above the Arctic Circle, to feast on whale carcasses left behind by hunters and to wait for the deep cold to freeze the sea. It’s a spectacle that once ...