Is MSC fish sustainable?

Is MSC labeled fish sustainable?

I think not. I will never buy MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) labeled fish as long as they certify fish caught in trawl.

Please read the following articles and judge by yourself.

Quote from Analysis MSC - The Costs of Certification

It is ironic that while small-scale fisheries, particularly those that employ selective, nontrawl fishing gear and practices in multi-species, tropical fisheries, hardly benefit from MSC certification, several industrial trawl fisheries in the temperate and polar waters have been certified to MSC as sustainable, thus challenging the common perception of trawling as a highimpact, destructive fishing technique, and small-scale fishing as low-impact and sustainable.

Quote from Richard Holland, the chief executive of WWF Netherlands:

The practice of bottom trawling can cause significant and irreversible harm to benthic ecosystems and species, raising questions about its environmental sustainability.

European Parliament published a briefing note: Long-term impact of different fishing methods on the ecosystem in the Kattegat and Öresund. The report concludes that due to the ban on towed fishing gear in place since 1932, the Öresund is now 100 times more productive for demersal fish stocks than the adjacent Kattegat, which has had no such regulations.

All-black and all-white penguins - It is hard to be different

 

It is hard to be different - either you end up on the front pages, or you will be bullied.

Black penguins

The black color is due to melanism that causes an overproduction of melanin, and the birds are wholly or partially black. All- black penguins are so rare that they end up on front pages when seen.

Forest floor with anemones in 3 colors - blue, yellow and white

Anemones in 3 colors are covering the forest floor.

The forest just north of the Munkholm Bridge near Arnakke on Sealand in Denmark is probably the only place in Denmark where Liverwort (Hepatica nobilis), Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa) and Yellow anemones (Anemone ranunculoides) grow right next to each other.

From gallery of Arnakke pictures

Forest floor with blue, yellow and white anemones.

expo-MAX Real Analytics vs. Google Analytics and Statcounter

Free website statistics. expo-MAX Real Analytics vs. Google Analytics and Statcounter - an alternative or supplement? Here is my review.

Combine the best from Google Analytics and Statcounter and then add some more

expo-MAX Real Analytics (go to Analytics tab) is a new service that combine the best from Google Analytics and Statcounter and then add some extra features.

Update 2010-10-12: Google Webmaster Tools now provide much more detailed information about image search and keywords. Expo-MAX Real Analytics also give you a lot of no-value back links from their search engine. I can no longer recommend Expo-MAX Real Analytics.

Black-browed albatross. Photos from Falkland Islands

Black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys) is a large seabird - the most common of all albatrosses. It is the classified as Endangered on the IUCN list due to a drastic reduction in the population.

Most af the Black-browed albatrosses breed on Steeple Jason Island in the Falkland Islands:
From gallery of Albatross pictures

Black-browed albatross colony on Steeple Jason Island

More than half of all Black-browed albatrosses breed here. The colony counts more than 200.000 birds. It is an impressive sight and an awesome experience to be there.

Panoramio photos on Google Earth - Pictures from LichtenHansen

In the last 4 month I have added another 20 photos to Googles Earth from my Panoramio profile: Nature photos on Google Earth by LichtenHansen

The pictures are mainly from Denmark and Antarctica.

New year firework - Funchal, Madeira - Just fantastic

New year in Funchal, Madeira.


The edge of Madeira New Year's celebrations is the fantastic fireworks show in Funchal amphitheatre.

New year fireworks. Funchal, Madeira

Funchal’s amphitheatre is transformed into a magnificent crib illuminated by more than 250.000 coloured lights .... while the hillsides are dotted with white lights, setting the scene for an unforgettable display.

Smugmug and Search engine optimization (SEO) - I give up

Google do have a lot of help pages for webmasters. Here is the one for images: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=114016

Give your images detailed, informative filenames

The filename can give Google clues about the subject matter of the image. Try to make your filename a good description of the subject matter of the image. For example, my-new-black-kitten.jpg is a lot more informative than IMG00023.JPG. Descriptive filenames can also be useful to users: If we're unable to find suitable text in the page on which we found the image, we'll use the filename as the image's snippet in our search results.

Before Smugmug made the changes with filenames the filenames looked like this: 24815903-1qRs4-L-1.jpg.

After the "We have made it so filenames get seen and indexed by Google" the filenames looks like this: 24815903-1qRs4-L-1.jpg.

No change at all to filenames.

Photo hosting sites - Search visits - SEO compared

If you are looking for a search engine friendly photo hosting site yiu might have a look at the statistics from alexa.com. Alexa computes traffic statistics from a lot of sources and are regarded as a great source for information by many webmasters. See more at About the Alexa Traffic Rankings.

You do have to be careful when evaluating statistics. Here is an example: (both sites claim to be SEO friendly)
Seach visits (percent) -  Zenfolio vs. Smugmug

Parameter handling in Google webmaster tools - Suggestions to my Smugmug site

Parameter handling now in Google webmaster tools

It can be found under "Site configuration" - "Settings"

This new Parameter handling filter shows the importance Google places on duplicate content and the problems many websites face with regards to displaying the duplicate content accessible via different URLs.

Parameter suggestions on my Smugmug site.

Smugmug is my photo hosting site and it looks like Smugmug has a big problem with duplicate content.
This is what Google webmaster tools is saying about my Smugmug site:

Photos from Nepal - Kanchenjunga base camp trek

Photos from Nepal - Kanchenjunga (Kangchenjunga) base camp trek.

Kanchenjunga (8.586 meters or 28.169 feet) is the third-highest peak in the world and the second-highest in Nepal.
The route to the north base camp usually starts in flying in to Suketar and then trekking onwards to Phurumbu, Chirwa, Taplechok, Sakathum, Amjillassa ,Ghunsa, Khambachen, Lonak and Pangpema.
An alternative route from Sakathum to Ghunsa is via Magawa , Olanchungola , Nango Khola valley and the Nango La high pass at 4820 meter (15.813 ft).
Here are the first pictures uploaded to Google Earth from this alternative route.

Olanchungola (Walungchung Gola).

Player flags decorate the view from Olanchungola (Walungchung Gola) village in Nepal
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Hannah Point at South Shetland Islands in Antarctica

Hannah Point on Livingston Island in South Shetland Islands is a small but very interesting landing site in visitors going to Antarctica.

Hannah Point landscape with Gentoo penguins.

Gentoo penguins in a beautiful landscape.
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Hannah Point is home to an interesting mix of Penguins. There are lots of Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins and a few Macaroni and Adelie penguins.

Antarctica travel route on Google Maps

I have published the first Google Map from my trips to Antarctica. Both tours started in Ushuaia in Argentina, then to Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctic peninsula and back to Ushuaia.
This first Google Map shows the whole route and a photo from each place.

Arnakke Photo galleries on Smugmug

Smugmug has changed the URL structure and introduced plain-english URL's (They call it NiceNames). Here is the new plain-english links to most galleries on Photo Arnakke.
The links are changed in my horizontal navigation bar which is based on the idea found on Free CSS Drop-Down Menu Framework. I can highly recommend this solution for a horizontal drop-down menu in Smugmug.

Photo Arnakke – Lichtenhansen Photography change website title.

Photo Arnakke - Landscape and wildlife from unusual places is the new title for my nature website. The name LichtenHansen was too hard to remember and hard to spell too. The website address remains the same:

Plain-English URL’s now in Smugmug – a SEO improvement?

The first part of a major SEO (Search Engine Optimization) improvement was released the other day.

Gallery URL-paths are now in plain English. Instead of “/Gallery/1234567-xxxx” you can now control the URL path so it looks like this: “/sports/fishing/Alaska/1234567-xxxx”.

Good news - Smugmug SEO improvements releasing soon

Search engine optimization (SEO) improvements soon to be implemented in Smugmug.

In Smugmug’s feature request forum some of the feature requests regarding SEO have changed status to “Started” and a few posts by Smugmug representatives on the Dgrin support forum have mentioned that some of the improvements are ready to be released and other improvements will be released not long after.

So, what changes can we expect? There is not lot information about this, but there are a few posts on Dgrin that may give an idea about what SEO changes we can expect:

Frog paradise. Garden pond with no fish.

No fish is the key to turn your pond into a frog paradise. Frog and other amphibians like newt prefer to breed in water holes without any fish. Using chemicals to keep your water clear is another major no-no. Plant instead a lot of plants. Plants also give small animals and insects a place to hide and breed.

Water Snake next to flowering Water Lily in our garden pond

The Water snakes in our garden are usually very shy and seldom show themselves more that a few seconds, but the other day one of them swam around between the water lilies for a few minutes and I had time to get my Canon camera and a 300mm lens, and take a few photos before it disappeared again.
At the same time one the big egg laying dragonfly - background and reflections almost perfect. It was hard to choose the target for the photos - I knew that it would only last for a few second more, but I got a few photos. Here they are:

Page titles - Smugmug versus Google SEO-recommendations

Frustrated of the - in my opinion - very poor SEO (Search Engine Optimization) performance in Smugmug, I have posted this on Dgrin - Support forum for Smugmug: