Poaching Constrains Supply of Elvers

Poaching Constrains Supply of Elvers

March 5, 2019
Anita Lee-Post, Ph.D.

The supply chain of baby eels, called elvers, is facing tighter controls from Elver Fishery in Maine to Eel Dish in Japan.

The root cause? Illegal poaching.  A pound of elvers goes for more than a thousand dollars.

State law enforcement officers will oversee the weighing, packing and shipping of the eels to ensure elvers are legally harvested from participating fishermen within a quota of 9,688 pounds per fishery.

Video Spotlight: Poaching Threatens Maine’s Eel Fishing Industry

This post is based on the Washington Post article, New controls in Maine to prevent poaching of valuable eels, by Patrick Whittle, February 22, 2019, and the YouTube video, Poaching Threatens Maine’s Eel Fishing Industry, by AP, August 12, 2017. Image source:(c) Erica Simone Leeds

Discussion Questions:

1. Identify the unethical and illegal behaviors spotlighted in Maine’s baby eel supply chain.

Guidance: Examples of unethical and illegal behavior include poaching eels from rivers and streams, exporting poached eels to Asian aquaculture companies, exceeding eels quotas to profit from illegal sales, and tampering with eel shipments to bypass the state’s tracking system. Each of these behaviors is illegal, but student discussion can also focus on ethicality.

2. What steps Continue reading →

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Weather Stopped Beer Delivery With Super Bowl Looming

Weather Stopped Beer Delivery With Super Bowl Looming

February 11, 2019
Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.

Several beer distributors in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area stopped delivery of their products on Wednesday, January 30, 2019.  With extremely cold weather in the area, many organizations shut-down for the day, including several beer distributors.  Many of the beer distributors decided that it was unsafe for their delivery drivers to be out in the extreme cold.  Additionally, their products don’t handle cold weather well.

Bad timing, with the Super Bowl only 4 days away, but winter weather shows no mercy for kickoffs.

This post is based on the Journal Sentinel article, No beer deliveries in Milwaukee today. Thanks a lot, Mother Nature, by Kathy Flanigan, January 30, 2019. Image source: Getty Images/iStockphoto.

Discussion Questions:

1. What operational problems does a shutdown present?

Guidance: Unexpected disruptions in the supply chain are difficult.  With the Super bowl approaching, beer distributors want to have the store shelves full of their product.  However, cancellations occurred in a relatively short time period.  If they had substantial warnings of the impending cold, distributors could have made extra or larger deliveries before the temperatures forced a shut-down.  Weather forecasts can be unpredictable, making it difficult to anticipate such Continue reading →

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Ripple Effects of China’s Recycling Policy

Ripple Effects of China’s Recycling Policy

December 9, 2018
Lisa M. Spencer

Trash piles up around the world as China’s 2018 “National Sword” policy cuts off global recycling at the knees.

It used to be that ships bringing Chinese goods to the U.S. returned home full of our recyclables, feeding a lucrative industry in China.  However, corruption, abuses, and environmental pollution in China led the government there to put the brakes on this industry beginning this year.

Whereas China and Hong Kong bought 60 percent of the G7’s plastic waste in the first half of 2017, that figure decreased to 10 percent in the first half of 2018. Bales of plastic that U.S. recyclers used to sell for $20 per ton now cost cities $10 per ton for disposal.

While China will still accept some cardboard, plastic, glass, and scrap metal, it can only have an impurity level of 0.5 percent, a standard most U.S. recyclers cannot achieve. Recyclers, governments, and consumers around the world are being forced to rethink their use of plastics, paper waste, and e-waste.

Video Spotlight: China Trash Ban Creates Crisis for US Recyclers

This post is based on the Australian Financial Review article, The $280b crisis sparked by China calling time on taking in “foreign Continue reading →

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