A new episode of the periodic PBS series "Strange Days on Planet Earth" tonight focuses on the global implications of overfishing. It features the work of UC Berkeley assistant professor of ecosystem sciences Justin Brashares.
Says host Edward Norton in the program's online preview, "Follow a fish, and you can end up in unexpected places." Check your local listings for the show's broadcast time in your area. In the Bay Area, it will air at 9 p.m. on KQED; in the Central Valley, it will air at 9 p.m. on KVPT.
Speaking of strange days on planet earth . . . many newspapers covered the strange late frost in the San Joaquin Valley this week that put some farmers' crops at risk.
According to the Fresno Bee, temperatures that dipped as low as 27 degrees early Monday caused damage in some vineyards, mostly on the valley floor near the Sierra foothills. Bee reporter Dennis Pollock talked to UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Bill Peacock.
"Industrywide, this was not a huge event," Peacock was quoted, "but for individual growers, the losses could be pretty severe. Some vineyards were marginally and mildly hit; others were absolutely clobbered."
The Tulare Advance-Register also quoted Peacock:
"We got hit Monday morning just before daybreak. Most growers escaped having any damage, but those that got hit hard are pretty much gone."
Reid Fujii of the Stockton Record spoke to Paul Verdegaal, a viticulture farm advisor in San Joaquin County. He said that he had received a few reports of frost damage in southern San Joaquin County, generally around Manteca and Ripon.
Overall damage to Valley vineyards in terms of affected acreage was minor, he said, "But if it hit where you were, it wasn't so minor."
Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune spoke to UCCE farm advisor for Yuba and Sutter counties Janine Hasey. According to the story, Hasey was tallying the damage the unnaturally late frost did to Yuba-Sutter orchards and fields.
"Normally we'd produce 10,000 tons, but now I'll be a lucky son of a gun if I get 2,000," a farmer told Hasey, the story said.