U.N. fails in bid to ban ocean trawling: “United Nations negotiators failed to agree on Thursday on a measure banning a fishing practice known as high-seas bottom trawling that environmentalists say chews up the ocean floor and depletes fish stocks.”  This is the most destructive fishing method every designed.  It annihilates deep-sea floors and destroys the habitats for all life, and it also snags unbelievable numbers of creatures not used for food but nevertheless killed via this atrocious practice.  It should be outlawed worldwide.

Talk about biting off more than you can chew… or at least swallow safely.  “An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida’s swamps. The Burmese python tried to swallow its fearsome rival whole but then exploded. The remains of the two giant reptiles were found by astonished rangers in the Everglades National Park.”  Check out the article for a photo of the aftermath.  It ain’t pretty.  And by the way, the Burmese python is non-native to Florida.  People began dumping them about 20 years ago, and they are now challenging the native alligators for the top spot in the food chain.  This specific case shows the snake is capable of displacing the alligator as the new top predator.

I hope the Inuit win.  “MORE troubles have bubbled up for petroleum giant BP in its Alaskan oilfields. In March, pesky bacteria ate holes in the pipeline carrying crude oil over the permafrost from Prudhoe Bay, causing the largest-ever oil spill on the Alaska North Slope. Now a court may decide BP owes a local Inuit family millions in unpaid royalties. In the 1980s, the US federal government, which represents Native Americans in contracts involving natural resources, arranged for BP to pay Andrew Oenga royalties for a pipeline and road built over his land. His family has since received $670,000. BP also built an oil-drilling platform on the land and has brought oil worth $1.6 billion to the surface. The Oenga family is suing the government for failing to negotiate royalties on the platform.”  This is also yet another example of how the U.S. government has given the shaft to Native Americans via the troubled and oft corrupt management of their land and resources.

Friday Ark #114 is available for your weekend nature needs.  Be sure to visit over the next few days to fix your jonesin’ for animal photos.

This is just too funny.  “RAMSEY, N.J. – Some wild turkeys, it appears, were trying to get out of New Jersey before Thanksgiving Day. A spokesman for the NJ Transit said train officials reported a dozen or so wild turkeys waiting on a station platform in Ramsey, about 20 miles northwest of New York City, on Wednesday afternoon. The line travels to Suffern, N.Y.”  Take a look at the picture captured by the station’s security camera.  It’s hysterical; they look like they’re waiting on the train, perhaps attempting an escape before Thanksgiving catches up with them.