Dr. Daniel Pauly

I wanted to share an interesting NY Times piece about Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter and are asking for a multi-million dollar ransom to release the ship and its crew. It's odd to think that piracy still exists in this day and age, but people are driven to commit crime for all sorts of reasons: greed, lust, insanity, necessity and so forth.

The twist here? The pirates claim that they were driven to piracy because of illegal tuna fishing. Since Somalia has essentially been without a government since the early '90s, there was no one patrolling the shore. Enter the pirates. Somali diplomat Mohamed Osman Aden is quoted as saying, "It’s true that the pirates started to defend the fishing business...and illegal fishing is a real problem for us."

By no means are the pirates justified because of Somalia's struggle with illegal fishing off its coast, but this article demonstrates how precious the sea's protein is -- in the absence of a legitimate coast patrol, criminals took it upon themselves to protect the plundered resource.

The oceans got glam treatment this month, as Vanity Fair's Green Issue features Oceana in a two-page spread photographed in California and New York. The photo, shot by famed art photog Art Streiber, paired Oceana's celeb champions and policy wonks. I think they all look dignified, intelligent, and dedicated; also, I want to buy that cable-knit sweater Sam Waterston's selling.

From left: movie producer Keith Addis, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, fisheries guru Dr. Daniel Pauly, actress Amber Valletta, Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless, Oceana board member María Eugenia Girón, former Colombian president César Gaviria, and Jack McCoy, er, Sam Waterston. The Vanity Fair issue is available online and will hit newsstands later this week.