Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Many military bases will smell fishier soon


Apparently, seafood customers had the belief that because of the Gulf oil spill, much of the seafood there was tainted. Because of that, seafood prices fell sharply in the Gulf Coast region. However, there was extensive testing on the products and they were deemed safe. To leviate the stress, at least somewhat, on the fishermen and women, the United States millitary has started purchasing seafood from the region. Fish, oysters, crab cakes, and dishes such as jambalaya are being featured on the menus of 72 military bases along the East Coast.

Many fishermen and shrimpers are applauding the decision: "Every sale helps us out, and we need some help to come back," Bobby Barnett, a shrimper, said. "You would have thought they would have been buying U.S. seafood all along."

The Defense Department-run Defense Commissary Agency, known as DeCa, is the agency that is buying the seafood. This aligns with its current emphasis on healthy eating and focusing on domestic products more heavily.

I think this is really great because its promoting business in an area that has been heavily affected by adversity

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Sharks are not a threat to landlocked countires/states

Most sharks attack beaches that are on coastal cities, such as Tampa, FL. In 1998-2004 in Florida alone, there were 280 shark attacks and 4 fatalities were a result of those. Also in Florida, in that same time period, there were over 10,000 boating accidents. Some of those had to be because of a shark attack.

-Notice that in all of this data, no landlocked state is mentioned. Therefore, I assume that the number of shark attacks and fatalities in these landlocked states. Because of this, it is assumed that if you go boating, or swimming in a lake or pool that's landlocked, you are relatively safe from any danger that a shark might pose to you*.

*Does not apply to aquariums.
Boating Accidents and Fatalities Compared to Shark Attacks and Fatalities
State Period Number of
Boating
Accidents
Number of
Boating
Fatalities
Number of
Shark
Attacks
Number of
Shark Attack
Fatalities
Alabama 1998-2009 1,083 205 4 0
California 1998-2009 8,278 599 30 3
Georgia 1998-2009 1,741 173 4 0
Florida 1998-2009 10,172 754 280 4
Hawaii 1998-2009 181 30 41 1
North Carolina 1998-2009 1,972 246 21 1
Oregon 1998-2009 848 177 7 0
South Carolina 1998-2009 1,320 219 28 0
Texas 1995-2009 2,346 543 13 0

TOTALS   27,941 2,946 428 9
Number per Year (average)   2,328.4 245.5 35.7 0.8