Moirs Environmental Dialogues

Sea scallops have black eyes and bay scallops are blue-eyed. Skylar Bayer describes the survival strategies of bay and sea scallops in Maine. Bryce Stewart tells of the life of king and queen scallops in Scotland. Young king scallops wear byssus threads to hold onto to high-rise hardscapes. Adolescent scallops loose the threads to become remarkably active, out maneuvering crabs at the click of a claw. Adult scallops settle in to a low-profile couch-potato lifestyle on ocean floors where the sediments are not too fine or pebbles too big. Skylar reveals the truths behind the story of two buckets of scallop gonads lost during a hand-off outside a convenience store on Mount Desert. Flyers of missing scallop parts went up and out to media. Journalists from the Colbert Report traveled to the far-flung lobster state and were shocked by what they imaged – an obsessed woman with diabolical intentions to take over the world by doing science from her laboratory.

Eric Jay Dolin describes the history behind the Oscar Winner movie, The Revenant. Eric talks with Rob Moir about his acclaimed book Fur, Fortune and Empire. He separates fiction from the facts of Hugh Glass and Mountain Men working the Northwest to enable the development of the West Coast. Beaver, buffalo, seal and sea otter were all heavily exploited and only survived because market forces drove hunters westward. Finally, on the west coast sea otter were so over harvested that many of their populations never return. The book ends with the advent of conservation laws. Eric explains how he went from studying fiddler crabs to writing page-turning histories. No animals, nor men, were harmed in the making of this episode of Moir’s Environmental Dialogues.

David Helvarg, founder and Executive Director of Blue Frontier, spoke with Rob about what is happening in Washington and about his latest book: Saved by the Sea, Hope, Heartbreak, and Wonder in the Blue World. The Blue Vision Summit 5 was held in Washington DC with Peter Benchley Ocean Awards for excellence in stewardship, science, policy, marine exploration and youth activism. More than 200 ocean conservation advocates met with 163 legislators on the Hill. Rob talks of his New England delegation meeting with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as staff members of 7 other NE legislators. Issues of concern included support of the Illegal International Unregulated, Unreported Fishing Bill; opposition to Offshore Drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans; Bristol Bay Alaska fishermen and tribal groups’ effort to stop a 4 mile in diameter copper pit mine called Pebble Mine; and a Climate Change Education Bill involving families and adult decision-makers.