Shrimp on the line

07/06/23 • 37 min

2 Listeners

We love shrimp in the United States. As a country, we eat over 2 billion pounds a year, making it the most consumed seafood in the country. So times should be really good for shrimpers, right? In this episode, our friends at the Sea Change podcast from WWNO and WRKF head to the docks and out in the bayous with shrimpers fighting for a livelihood and a culture that has been here for centuries.

This narrative episode goes on a journey from the fishing docks to shrimping in the bayous exploring land loss, climate change, and other issues endangering the future of the Gulf shrimp industry. We also uncover the threats imported shrimp pose to a way of life and human health.

Featuring Justin Kennedy, Thomas Gonzales, Acy Cooper, Gary Mayfield, Eddy Hayes, Donald Dardar, and Steve Morris.

Previous Episode

Do your doo diligence

Most dog owners know they’re supposed to scoop the poop.

But when a pup does the deed off the trail, a lot of otherwise responsible citizens find themselves wondering... Is it really better to pick it up in a plastic bag and throw it in the garbage? Isn’t dog poop... natural?

Listen to the latest edition of This, That, or The Other Thing: our series about the little decisions we make in life to try and build a more sustainable world – whether they have any effect and what we can do instead if they don’t.

This time, we’re wrestling with a major ick factor: should I leave my dog’s poop in the woods, or put it in a plastic bag and entomb it forever in a landfill? And why do otherwise environmentally-minded folks look the other way when it comes to the impact of our furry friends?

Featuring Stephanie Chow, Anthony Drouin, Ben Goldfarb, Rebecca Perlstein, Forrest Schwartz, Jennifer Williams

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Talk to us! Follow Outside/In on Instagram or discuss episodes in our private listener group on Facebook.
Submit a question to our Outside/Inbox. We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).

LINKS

The Leave No Trace organization studied how to get more people to pick up after their dogs in Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks.

Dog waste is a major source of water pollution.

“Dogs are a beach’s worst nightmare” according to Ben Goldfarb in Hakkai Magazine.

Stephanie Chow of Pet Poo Skiddoo breaks down which dog waste bags are truly compostable here.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Jessica Hunt.

Mixed by Taylor Quimby.

Edited by Nate Hegyi and Taylor Quimby, with help from Justine Paradis and Rebecca Lavoie.

Executive producer: Rebecca Lavoie.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Spring Gang, El Flaco Collective, and Daniel Fridell.

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.

Next Episode

Shhhhhh! It’s the sound and silence episode

Humans are noisy. The National Park Service estimates that all of our whirring, grinding, and revving machines are doubling or even tripling global noise pollution every 30 years.

A lot of that noise is negatively affecting wildlife and human health. Maybe that’s why we’re so consumed with managing our sonic environments, with noise-cancelling headphones and white noise machines — and sometimes, we get into spats with our neighbors, as one of our guests did...

So for this episode, producer Jeongyoon Han takes us on an exploration of three sonic landscapes: noise, silence, and something in between.

Featuring Rachel Buxton, Jim Connell, Stan Ellis, Mercede Erfanian, Nora Ma, and Rob Steadman.

SUPPORT

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.

Subscribe to our newsletter (it’s free!).

Follow Outside/In on Instagram or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).

LINKS

Behavioral ecologist Miya Warrington and her colleagues found that Savannah sparrows changed the tune of their love songs as a result of noisy oil fields in Alberta, Canada (The New York Times)

Bats have changed their day-to-day habits because of traffic noise, according to research conducted in the U.K.

Natural sounds are proven to improve health, lower stress, and have positive effects on humans. Rachel Buxton and her colleagues wrote about that in their study from 2021.

Erica Walker’s organization, the Community Noise Lab, monitors noise levels in Boston, Providence, and Jackson, Mississippi. You can read more about her work in this article from Harvard Magazine.

Are you interested in going to a Quiet Parks International-designated quiet park? The organization has a list of spaces across the world that they’ve certified.

Here’s a radio story from NPR that serves as an homage to John Cage’s 4’33”.

If you were ever curious about why bird songs are good for you... This article from the Washington Post should be on the top of your reading list!

This New Yorker piece from 2019 outlines how noise pollution might be the next public health crisis. Since that article, there’s been even more research showing that noise can take years off of our lives.

So, you’ve heard lots of sounds in this episode. But do you want to see what sounds look like? Click here — and this is not clickbait!

Ethan Kross, who is a psychologist and neuroscientist, wrote a whole book about noise — the noise in your head, to be precise. It’s called Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It.

Mercede Erfanian’s research into misophonia and soundscapes is fascinating. You can hear her speak on the subject of different kinds of sounds in a show aired from 1A, or watch her presentation on the effects that soundscapes have on humans...