AUGUSTA, Maine — A handful of Maine’s winter hunting seasons for small game animals are ending for the spring. The bobcat season ends on Feb. 21, while the fox season lasts until Feb. 28.
There’s also a season for snowshoe hare that ends on Feb. 28 on Vinalhaven Island and March 31 everywhere else. Hunters who pursue gray squirrels via falconry can continue to do so until Feb. 28.
The main season for squirrels ended Dec. 31. Maine’s major hunting seasons mostly take place in the fall.
The next big season begins in May when it becomes legal to hunt wild turkeys.
Such an exceptional event is thought to occur only once every 1,300 years. And unless the buoy had been taken for a ride, we might never have known it even happened.
For centuries, rogue waves were considered nothing but nautical folklore. It wasn’t until 1995 that myth became fact. On the first day of the new year, a nearly 26-meter-high wave (85 feet) suddenly struck an oil-drilling platform roughly 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Norway.
At the time, the so-called Draupner wave defied all previous models scientists had put together.
Since then, dozens more rogue waves have been recorded (some even in lakes), and while the one that surfaced near Ucluelet, Vancouver Island was not the tallest, its relative size compared to the waves around it was unprecedented.
Scientists define a rogue wave as any wave more than twice the height of the waves surrounding it. The Draupner wave, for instance, was 25.6 meters tall, while its neighbors were only 12 meters tall.
In comparison, the Ucluelet wave was nearly three times the size of its peers.
“Proportionally, the Ucluelet wave is likely the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded,” says physicist Johannes Gemmrich from the University of Victoria.
“Only a few rogue waves in high sea states have been observed directly, and nothing of this magnitude.”
Today, researchers are still trying to figure out how rogue waves are formed so we can better predict when they will arise. This includes measuring rogue waves in real time and also running models on the way they get whipped up by the wind.
The buoy that picked up the Ucluelet wave was placed offshore along with dozens of others by a research institute called MarineLabs in an attempt to learn more about hazards out in the deep.
Even when freak waves occur far offshore, they can still destroy marine operations, wind farms, or oil rigs. If they are big enough, they can even put the lives of beachgoers at risk.
Luckily, neither Ucluelet nor Draupner caused any severe damage or took any lives, but other rogue waves have.
Some ships that went missing in the 1970s, for instance, are now thought to have been sunk by sudden, looming waves. The leftover floating wreckage looks like the work of an immense white cap.
Unfortunately, a recent study predicts wave heights in the North Pacific are going to increase with climate change, which suggests the Ucluelet wave may not hold its record for as long as our current predictions suggest.
“We are aiming to improve safety and decision-making for marine operations and coastal communities through widespread measurement of the world’s coastlines,” says MarineLabs CEO Scott Beatty.
“Capturing this once-in-a-millennium wave, right in our backyard, is a thrilling indicator of the power of coastal intelligence to transform marine safety.”
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. — Authorities located a hunter in Baldwin County Wednesday afternoon who had been lost since Tuesday.
Around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, troopers with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Marine Patrol Division were notified by Baldwin County 911 of a hunter lost in the Mobile-Delta area.
The troopers responded and were able to locate the 39-year-old man around 1 p.m. in Bayou Jasmine near the Tensaw River. He was uninjured.
ALEA says the man left his home Tuesday morning
“At some point during his hunt, [he] had become separated from his motorboat,” a release states. “The hunter stayed out overnight before contacting 911 to advise he was unable to find his way back to the motorboat.”
With all of the focus on whether or not Russia will invade Ukraine, and how the West might respond, little public attention is being given to the day after in this crisis. Few are asking the question, “What will Moscow do in response to the West’s answer to Russia’s aggression, and where will that leave the West, in turn?”
From the outset, if the West and NATO are to maintain credibility, there must be a response. Uncontested aggression only breeds more uncontested aggression and not responding could well set a dangerous precedent further afield.
Every crisis develops, however, its own dynamic and it is critical that this dynamic be considered when planning a slate of responses. Every geopolitical contest of wills requires thinking through the move after the immediate move, and right now it would appear that Washington, London, Brussels and indeed Moscow are not considering what comes next or what comes thereafter.
On Saturday, in a call with President Vladimir Putin, President Joseph Biden warned that the U.S. and its allies would “respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia” if Moscow expands its invasion of Ukraine. What that entails remains to be seen. Previously the United States indicated
The United States indicated that multiple options are on the table for responding to expanded Russian aggression against Ukraine. Thus far, sanctions up to and including measures against President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT banking network and supporting an insurgency against Russian forces, have all been floated as possible options. It now appears that U.S. and European officials are preparing to target Russian banks such as state-backed VTB and Sberbank, and sanction the country’s tech and defense sectors, as well as its oligarchs.
This is, however, where the dialogue has ended. There has been no follow-on discussion for if or how Russia will respond in kind.
This is part of sensible strategic planning and cause for a measure of caution when increasingly hyperbolic claims of imminence or inevitability are making the rounds. One can be sure that Russia will respond to any Western response to its expanded invasion of Ukraine. What that response looks like, likely will be contingent upon what the West does. It is here that there is an alarming possibility of unintended consequences and escalation.
Russia has options should to respond to the West’s actions, which Western planners would do well to consider. Economically, there is, of course, the potential for the suspension of the oil and gas transshipment, a not insignificant weapon Moscow has wielded in the past to influence countries’ behavior. But Russia is also a key exporter of other critical resources and has threatened to withhold those, as well; at the end of January 2021, the vice speaker of Russia’s Federation Council suggested that Moscow would slow or halt natural resource transfers to Europe. The disruption of the sale of critical raw materials will have considerable knock-on effects in other markets, perhaps just as much as oil and gas prices.
Russia has hinted at possible responses to proposed Western actions. In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, there were discussions of potentially disconnecting Russia from SWIFT, then, to which Dmitri Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister, hyperbolically warned would be a “declaration of war.” At the end of January, the vice speaker of Russia’s Federation Council suggested that Moscow would slow or halt natural resource transfers to Europe if Russia was disconnected. This is to say nothing of the potential knock-on market impacts of disconnecting Russia from the network.
Would Russia respond with cyberattacks? The reality is that they already are engaged in an aggressive cyber campaign against both Ukraine and the United States. Moscow will continue this line of effort regardless of the outcome of the present crisis. Indeed, just last week the FBI asked businesses to report any suspected Russian hacking activity. Russia will target, in the event of kinetic activity, Ukrainian command and control, communications and other critical infrastructure. If and when the West responds to Russia’s aggression, Moscow will escalate in turn, but using capabilities of which American intelligence is likely aware.
Thus far, the West has been fortunate enough to avoid an outright war in cyberspace. There have, of course, been cyberattacks, intelligence operations and criminality online, but an open war in cyberspace has not yet happened. Imagine a NotPetya-style attack on the United States in which computers of the financial sector and power grid, along with regular businesses, are wiped.
Would Russia increase its political warfare campaign? This too is a likely possibility. Moscow could expand its efforts to exacerbate existing schisms within European countries and in the United States through online manipulation and more. Moscow has demonstrated an ability and interest in interfering in elections, and while it has thus far refrained from outright intervention, it could change that course of action to something more direct. Indeed, there is already evidence that Russia has penetrated electoral rolls and stolen election data in the past. With an alarming portion of the American population already questioning the veracity of elections, little additional effort would be needed to cause further chaos and division.
Would Russia risk something bolder and more aggressive, seeking to increase pressure elsewhere? That is where the dynamics of escalation become of greater concern. Would Moscow consider seizing Gotland from Sweden? Would the Kremlin seek to foment a crisis in a country with an ethnic Russian population, like Estonia? Crises and responses tend to create their own inertia and their own momentum. While Putin, President Biden, and President Volodymyr Zelensky are all rational actors operating within rational systems crisis dynamics, an urge to respond and the pressure of the moment can and indeed do overwhelm rationality.
This dynamic should be kept in mind as the West engages with Russia and potentially responds to Moscow’s aggression. There are some things that should be said publicly to reassure allies and others that should be said privately to deter adversaries. Things said and left unsaid, actions taken and actions avoided, all have consequences, and in the field of geopolitics, those consequences can be dire.
Right now, we do not know what Putin’s intentions are and to suggest otherwise is pure fantasy. We do not know what Moscow will do and, as such, we do not know how the West will respond. It is, however, important to think through what could happen and what could happen next. Planning and preparation are not assumptions that any specific outcome will occur, but are prudent measures in advance of any crisis. We do not want to find ourselves unprepared for Russia’s response and fall into an escalatory trap.
There was at least one fatality out of four firearms-related hunting incidents during deer season. All were self-inflicted, according to Missouri Department of Conservation.
Aconservation official is sharing gun safety protocols because deaths like these can be prevented, he said.
There’s not much known about the juvenile who died this past deer season. The News-Leader requested the incident report from MDC, but there were few details.
The unnamed individual was deer hunting and reportedly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest in Clark County, in the northeastern corner of the state, on Dec. 4, 2021. They were younger than 18 years old.
Hunter Education and Shooting Range Coordinator Justin McGuire works with MDC staff and volunteers alike to plan hunter safety classes while also providing direction and guidance. He also coordinates programs for the department’s staffed and unstaffed shooting…
Freddie Armstead, Sr. – Photo from Marengo County Commission
A longtime Marengo County Commissioner has died after accidentally shooting himself.
Demopolis Police Chief Rex Flowers says Commissioner Freddie Armstead, Sr. had returned home from deer hunting last night and was getting his rifles out of the backseat of his truck. That’s when Flowers says one of the rifles accidentally fired, and shot Armstead.
He was taken by ambulance to Whitfield Regional Hospital in Demopolis where he died.
Armstead represented District 1 on the commission for many years.
Stay with Alabama News Network for funeral information.
Former seal hunt defender Brian Peckford, 79, makes political last stand at expense of cattle, pigs, & public health
OTTAWA, Canada––Canadian cattle and pigs fed grain from the United States are going hungry. Some cattle and pigs en route from Canada to finishing and slaughter in the U.S. may be stuck aboard trucks.
Entering a third weekend, a blockade of major Canadian transportation corridors by truckers opposed to COVID-19 vaccination and testing mandates may be lifted by a court injunction reportedly issued late on February 11, 2022 and by a provincial state of emergency declared by Ontario prime minister Doug Ford.
Meanwhile the truckers––representing just a tiny fraction of the total Canadian trucking industry––have for two weeks obstructed access to the Canadian national capital district in downtown Ottawa, blocked traffic at the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan, and sporadically shut down other border crossings into the U.S., as well as disrupting traffic in the provincial capitals of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and British Columbia.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Anti-vaccination, anti-testing
Behind the chaos lurks the ghosts of past political impasses over cod fishing quotas and the Atlantic Canadian seal hunt.
What the long depleted Atlantic Canadian cod stocks and the nearly moribund seal hunt have to do with horn-honking truckers, cattle and pigs mooing and oinking with hunger pangs, and widespread public and political exasperation with the anti-vaccination and anti-COVID testing truckers becomes clear only after looking behind the protests themselves to the people amplifying and orchestrating the truckers’ blockades and convoys––almost entirely from far behind the scenes.
Summarized Robin Levinson-King of BBC News, from the Windsor border crossing, “A ‘Freedom Convoy’ was organized last month in response to the introduction of a new rule that all truckers must be vaccinated to cross the U.S.-Canada border, or quarantine upon their return. The protest has since grown into a broader challenge to all COVID health restrictions.
“The vast majority of Canadian truckers are vaccinated and trucking associations have distanced themselves from the protests,” Levinson-King stipulated.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Peckford chairs influential leadership group
Nonetheless, thousands of demonstrators have gathered with trucks and farm equipment at potential pinch-points, where local obstructions of traffic can have national repercussions.
“The trade disruption has been estimated to cost some $380 million dollars each day,” Levinson-King said.
CTV News reporter Maggie Parkhill on February 10, 2022 identified Brian Peckford, 79, former prime minister of Newfoundland & Labrador, as “chairman of the group ‘Taking Back our Freedoms,’ which claims that COVID-19 restrictions and mandates are ‘unlawful.’
“The group also says it encourages Canadians to reject ‘forced’ COVID-19 vaccinations for children, a practice which is not currently happening in Canada,” Parkhill wrote.
Peckford in addition is “pursuing a lawsuit against the federal government,” Parkhill added, “claiming the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for international travel is unconstitutional.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Seal hunt defense failed within Peckford’s own party
Peckford, heading the government of Newfoundland & Labrador from March 26, 1979 until March 22, 1989, helped to lead the Canadian defense of the Atlantic Canada seal hunt throughout his political tenure.
But Peckford, elected as a Progressive Conservative, found his position undercut when Brian Mulroney of Bai Comeau, Quebec, a fellow Progressive Conservative, rode a rare tide of Quebec support for the Progressive Conservative Party to become prime minister of Canada.
Mulroney, the first and only prime minister of Canada elected without substantial support from Newfoundland, responded to international pressure––and growing losses from lack of demand for seal pelts––by suspending the Atlantic Canada seal hunt in 1984.
The suspension held until 1995, more than a year after Mulroney left office in 1993.
Atlantic Canadian sealing survived the 1914 loss of 78 sealers from The Newfoundland, above, and 173 from the Southern Cross, lost with all hands.
“Grandfather spent 49 springs at the seal hunt”
Peckford entered politics in opposition to the Liberal Party domination of the Newfoundland & Labrador government begun by Joey Smallwood (1900-1991).
Smallwood, who led the former British Dominion of Newfoundland into Canadian confederation in 1949, served as Newfoundland prime minister until 1972.
Smallwood throughout his political career advocated for the Atlantic Canada seal hunt, against growing opposition not only from abroad, but from the rest of Canada, as many Canadians wearied of the annual bloodbath and of the mounting cost of subsidizing it.
Peckford, trying to establish his bona fides in dethroning the Newfoundland Liberals, “brags that his grandfather spent 49 springs at the seal hunt,” reported Douglas Martin of The New York Times in 1984.
Whatever the economic future of Newfoundland, it likely will have little to do with either cod or seals. (Beth Clifton collage)
Contributed to the Atlantic Canada cod stock crash
Earlier, during the negotiations that produced the 1982 Canadian constitution, Peckford unsuccessfully sought greater provincial authority over fisheries regulation.
This brought him into bitter confrontation with federal Liberal Party fisheries policy. Soon after the Liberal Party succeeded the Mulroney government, the federal Department of Fisheries & Oceans licensed three foreign factory trawlers to fish in Atlantic Canadian waters.
Peckford called this “a disaster of monumental proportions,” as it proved to be, albeit partly because of his own politically motivated fisheries management decisions, not just because of federal excesses.
The Atlantic Canada cod stocks collapsed three years after Peckford left office, and have yet to recover.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Moved to British Columbia
Loss of cod fishing, meanwhile, increased political pressure on a succession of Canadian federal governments to continue subsidizing sealing in a futile effort to quell Newfoundland resentment by creating makework jobs.
(Beth & Merritt Clifton)
With no political future left for him in Newfoundland & Labrador, Peckford relocated to British Columbia, where in 1998 he conducted an inquiry into Fraser River salmon fishery management and became increasingly associated with right-leaning political extremism.
“The chickens try to hide their head from you by sticking it under the wing of the chicken next to them on the slaughter line. You can tell by them looking at you, they’re scared to death.” – Virgil Butler, former Tyson chicken slaughterhouse worker
Beth Clifton’s collage depicts the contrition of Virgil Butler & Laura Alexander, who wrote: “We could no longer look at a piece of meat anymore without seeing the sad face of the suffering animal who had lived in it when the animal was still alive.”
A “Super Bowl” of Suffering for Nothing
Chicken “wings” aren’t wings, since real wings contain full-grown bones.
An industry article about “more wings from every chicken” explained that “A new patented cut uses the chicken’s scapula bone and surrounding meat and skin to yield six – not four – wing pieces per bird.”
The scapula is the chicken’s shoulder blade – skin, bone, flesh, and cartilage mishmashed into “wings” to disguise what they actually are.
CHICKEN DREAMING
(Ancestral memories in a metal “broiler” chicken shed.)
He sits in this house of feces and pain With thousands of others All the same, call it a triumph or Call it insane. His eyes are burning. His liver is leaking. His legs are aching and lame. But he will be Eaten with pleasure All the same.
His nerves, bones and tendons will be nuggets in a bucket Chewed by a fan At a game. His “wings” (don’t ask) will prove What it means To be a Man Like every other Man and his brother, Inane.
His breast will water The mouth of a lady trying To lose weight with this Lump on her plate. For this he was made For supper.
Meanwhile he dreams his Impossible dream: Ancestral memories Of family and friends Of tropical forest all rainy and green From which he came To suffer like this For a foul mouth of chicken bliss. – Karen Davis
