Talking about swordfish...

The editorial ‘When swordfish conservation biologists eat swordfish’ editorial published in Conservation Biology by Tethys president Giovanni Bearzi is receiving considerable attention.

A number of blogs - including 'The Great Beyond' by the journal Nature - are discussing the opinions stated in the essay.

Some of the readers commented:

Giovanni here is talking about a real, widespread issue and he has hit the nail on the head. Being a conservation biologist myself I am appalled at how some ecologists leave their passion for conservation behind at the office. When i have confronted friends or colleagues about their questionable practices, the response has been "oh, just one person can't make a difference". As scientists, we need to distinguish ourselves from flag-waving environmentalists, but we still need to apply the same principles to ourselves that we are preaching.

and

This essay stands out as more inquisitive and though-provoking than nearly any other.

But not everybody liked it:

This proposal is just absurd. No one looks to scientists for advice on how to live their lives - not even other scientists!

So it appears that the editorial generated some wavelets, and people are at least reading it...

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The editorial:
Bearzi G. 2009. When swordfish conservation biologists eat swordfish. Conservation Biology 23(1):1-2.

Some blogs:
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/01/teaching_conservation_biology.html
http://greenstream.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/can-ecologists-live-ethically/
http://blogfishx.blogspot.com/2008/11/when-swordfish-conservation-biologists.html
http://consblog.org/index.php/2009/01/21/deep-and-shallow-ecology/
http://scienceblogs.com/shiftingbaselines/2009/02/january_wrap_up_shifting_basel.php