Crazy Eddie's Motie News: fishing

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Saturday, September 16, 2023

Fish Pirates from 'Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller' among nominees for Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form at the 2023 News & Doc Emmy Awards

My reaction to Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's "Amazon Mafia" in Outstanding Science, Technology or Environmental Coverage nominees cover plastics, the Amazon, school surveillance, and mental health concluded with a program note.

["Amazon Mafia"] is another video I can recommend to my students. It's just as strong on the environment as In Real Life: Plastic Time Bomb, even if it's weaker on the science. It, like all the other nominated episodes of Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, makes up for it by being strong on long-form investigative reporting and crime coverage. In fact, "Fish Pirates" earned a nomination for Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form as well as Outstanding Writing: News and I've already mentioned that "White Supremacy" has nominations for Outstanding Crime and Justice Coverage, Outstanding Editing: News, and Outstanding Research: News. I will try to get around to covering those categories, if I haven't already, and embedding their videos.

In addition, I mentioned that "Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's 'Cocaine Queens' earned a nomination for Outstanding Writing: News" in 'Beyond Fentanyl' and 'Vice News Tonight' lead Outstanding Health or Medical Coverage at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, so I've decided to examine all of the nominations for the National Geographic long-form news series, beginning with the nomination of "Fish Pirates" for Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form in today's entry.

First, the nominated episode, Fish Pirates (Full Episode) | Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller.

As much as 30% of our seafood has been caught illegally. Mariana searches for the fish pirates who make billions each year while destroying our oceans.
...
About Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller:
TRAFFICKED with Mariana van Zeller is an original documentary series that explores the complex and dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, black and informal markets. Each adventure follows Mariana on a mission to follow the chain of custody of trafficked goods, understand how to obtain the contraband, or see the 360-degree view of the trafficking world from the point of view of the smugglers, law enforcement and those caught in the crossfire.

Watching this video reminds me that I've been blogging about overfishing since 2013, when I quoted an article about climate change that mentioned overfishing as an additional threat to biodiversity, then quoted another article that detected evidence of it in old restaurant menus from Hawaii. It's been a topic of Earth Overshoot Day and a theme of World Wildlife Day and especially World Oceans Day. Most recently, I included a video about overfishing I show to my students in Whales and fish, two stories I tell my students. Today's entry fits well with my continuing coverage of this threat to the environment and the global food supply, which means it's another video I can recommend to my students along with "Amazon Mafia."

Now for its competition in its two nominated categories.

Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form FRONTLINE Afghanistan Undercover PBS
FRONTLINE, The Associated Press, SITU Research Crime Scene: Bucha PBS
Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha The New York Times
Trafficked with Mariana van Zelle Fish Pirates National Geographic
VICE News Tonight Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department Vice

All of the nominees except "Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department" have another nomination, so I can't use that to handicap the category. Both of Frontline's nominees, "Afghanistan Undercover" and "Crime Scene: Bucha," and the New York Times' Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha are also nominated for Outstanding Research: News, a category that I expect Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's "White Supremacy" will win. Normally, I'd forecast based on the lack of other nominations that "Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department," one of VICE News Tonight's 28 nominations, would be the least likely to win, but the video views say otherwise.

I couldn't locate a single video from VICE News Tonight for "Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department," instead finding two episodes, Money & Drugs Keep Going Missing After Louisville Police Raids with 6,024,271 views and A Pattern of Sexual Misconduct by Louisville Police with 3,459,445 views. Based on viewership, I'd say this is the favorite, at least if popularity equals quality. The next most viewed is Exposing the Russian Military Unit Behind a Massacre in Bucha | Visual Investigations, which I think is the alternative title for Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha, which earned 1,742,946 views as well as winning The 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner in International Reporting. I think that's Vice News Tonight's main competition. "Fish Pirates" follows with 396,464 views, then the excerpt of Crime Scene: Bucha on Frontline's YouTube channel with 106,123 views, and finally Afghanistan Undercover (full documentary) | FRONTLINE with 63,449 views. I'm glad I looked at the numbers. Otherwise, I feel that I could have gotten my prediction wildly wrong.

Continuing on, here is the other nominated category for "Fish Pirates" as well as one of two nominations for "Cocaine Queens."

Outstanding Writing: News
60 Minutes The Lost Souls of Bucha CBS
60 Minutes Pathogen X CBS
60 Minutes Platform 4 CBS
Fault Lines The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh Al Jazeera International USA
Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Cocaine Queens National Geographic
Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Fish Pirates National Geographic

60 Minutes has three nominated segments, two of which have two nominations, "Pathogen X" in this category and Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Long Form and "Platform 4" in this category and Outstanding Edited Breaking News Coverage. "Cocaine Queens" also earned a nomination for Outstanding Editing: News. Using page views to break the tie, I'd say "Platform 4" with 700,899 views is in the lead to walk away from the podium with this award.

That concludes today's installment of this series. Return tomorrow as I plan on looking at the remaining nominations for Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller. Stay tuned.

Previous posts about the 2023 News & Documentary Emmy Awards

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

'Born This Way,' 'Deadliest Catch,' and 'United Shades of America' — society and nature in reality TV programs at the Emmy Awards

Even after writing about documentary nominees I still have more to say about nominees depicting nature and politics at the Creative Arts and Primetime Emmy Awards. For that I'm turning to a category that gets less respect, reality shows.* I begin by recycling what I wrote about the nominees for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program last year.

The political show here is "United Shades of America," which examines race relations in America with a light touch. However, I doubt it will win. "Deadliest Catch" has won twice and "Born This Way" is the returning winner. I watch "Deadliest Catch" occasionally, as it has a nature aspect, but "Born This Way" makes its own subtle political point, so I would be O.K. with it repeating.

The same three shows earned the most nominations for unstructured reality show this year with the difference being that "United Shades of America With W. Kamau Bell" being the returning winner. I'll get to Bell's CNN series after I examine "Born This Way," which has the most nominations in the genre with four, Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, Outstanding Casting For A Reality Program, Outstanding Cinematography For A Reality Program, and Outstanding Picture Editing For An Unstructured Reality Program. I'm modifying what I wrote last year about this show making a subtle political point into it making an explicit social point about acceptance of differences and celebrating what makes us all both human and special. Those make this a worthy program.

While it didn't repeat as Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, losing to "United Shades of America With W. Kamau Bell," it is still the returning winner for Outstanding Casting For A Reality Program and Outstanding Cinematography For A Reality Program. Its competitors for the casting award for a reality program are all either competition or structured reality shows, "Project Runway," "Queer Eye," "RuPaul's Drag Race," and "The Voice." That's tough competition, enough so that, as much as I hope it wins, I'm not optimistic about its chances.

The returning winner for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, as I mentioned above, is "United Shades of America With W. Kamau Bell," which also earned nominations for Outstanding Host For A Reality Program and Outstanding Picture Editing For An Unstructured Reality Program. I watched two episodes of this show the weekends after Anthony Bourdain died. I found it fascinating, and not just for its humorous take on race and race relations. I had no idea Bell was three-time Hugo winner N.K. Jemisin's cousin until I saw Bell interview her on his show. I also saw little distinction between "United Shades of America" and "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" even though they are in different categories; the line between an informational nonfiction show and a reality show must be very fine. I'm sure it also helps that they are promoted in different categories so that they don't step on each other at awards time.

The above image depicts Bell's fellow nominees for Outstanding Host For A Reality Program. Bell faces stiff competition, in particular from RuPaul, who is the returning winner of the award as well as the current winner of the Critics' Choice Award. By the way, any of the nominees winning would be a victory for diversity, as four of the six nominees are LGBT, two are African-American, and RuPaul is both. I'm rooting for RuPaul, whose shows make quite the social statement of acceptance and self-expression as well.

The most nominated reality TV show that takes place outdoors, pitting humans against nature, is "Deadliest Catch" with three nominations, Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, Outstanding Cinematography For A Reality Program, and Outstanding Picture Editing For An Unstructured Reality Program. It is the longest running and most award-winning of the nominees, spanning 14 seasons since 2005 and earning 16 Emmy Awards, last winning all three of the categories in which it is nominated this year in 2015. By the way, its awards history reflects the fine line between informational nonfiction and reality programming, as it was nominated for Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming as recently as 2016.

The last nominee for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program that examines nature is another outdoor reality show, "Naked And Afraid," which I consider to be what "Survivor" would be if it really were about humans versus nature (Player versus Environment or PVE in MMORPG parlance) instead of humans pitted against each other in social competition (Player versus Player or PVP). I prefer PVE and nature, so I'd probably like this show.

Competing against "Born This Way," "United Shades of America," "Deadliest Catch," and "Naked And Afraid" for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program are "Intervention" and "RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked." I doubt either of the latter two have much a chance at winning this category, although both examine serious social issues with the last doing so obliquely and light-heartedly. Instead, I'm rooting for "United Shades of America" to win again.

"Life Below Zero" did not earn a nomination for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, but it did garner nominations for Outstanding Cinematography For A Reality Program and Outstanding Picture Editing For An Unstructured Reality Program. It is competing against both "Born This Way" and "Deadliest Catch" in the first category along with competition reality shows "The Amazing Race" and "RuPaul's Drag Race" and structured reality show "Queer Eye." As I mentioned above, "Born This Way" won Outstanding Cinematography For A Reality Program last year, so I expect it will win again. In the second category, it faces all three of "Born This Way," "United Shades of America," and "Deadliest Catch" along with "RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked." Here, "Life Below Zero" holds the trophy and would be my choice to win.

I'm done with unstructured reality shows for now, but I plan on writing more about the Emmy nominees after I post a driving update. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Lionfish: Student Sustainability Video Festival 61

As I promised yesterday, this will be the final installment for this semester of this series. Today, I'm sharing National Geographic's Divers Fight the Invasive Lionfish.

The lionfish is invading Florida's coastal waters, harming native wildlife and habitat. This non-native species has venomous spines, lacks natural predators, and is able to reproduce quickly, which allows it to dominate other fish species that compete for resources. Divers are helping researchers catch the fish to learn more about its biology and develop ways to control the population.

I have to go back to episode 10 about Asian carp in 2013 and before that episode 4 on biodiversity from 2012 to find installments that feature invasive species. As for what to do about lionfish, it's the same as for Asian carp; if you can't beat them, eat them--but that's a topic for another time.

With that, Crazy Eddie's Motie News will return to its regular programming, which this year will likely be about the presidential election.

Friday, August 21, 2015

Overfishing: Student sustainability video festival 41

The next installment in this series features Ending Overfishing.

Join the campaign to end EU overfishing, http://bit.ly/Xiyz7E - this animation was first launched in May 2012, some of it is out of date, but not the part about citizens responsibility to support decision-makers ... you can help end overfishing.

Stay tuned for more in this continuing series.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

CNN on the San Joaquin, America's most endangered river

Despite my promise at the end of Ebola news from campuses on the campaign trail and Discovery News, my readers will have to continue to "stay tuned for a delayed entertainment entry." Tonight's entry is instead an exercise in blogging as professional development, a series of videos from CNN that I'm posting to my blog so that I can use them in this week and next. What's the topic? A 417-mile trip down the San Joaquin, the 'Apocalypse River.' John Sutter writes, "I spent three weeks trying to kayak (and walk) down the “most endangered” river in America, California’s San Joaquin; I quickly learned why no one does that."

The San Joaquin is a river that would flip my boat, steal my camera, throw me into trees, take my food, tweak my muscles, acquaint me with heat exhaustion, scare the s--- out of me, trap me in the mud and leave me hiking for three days across a desert.

It even fertilized me in the middle of the night.

And that’s just the me-complaining part.

Far worse, it also deforms birds (or did, in the 1980s), taints taps, steals jobs, causes the ground to sink irreversibly, kills fish, destroys wetlands -- and harbors shady people with semi-automatic weapons.

Still, it’s somehow also a river that supports a valley that grows 40% of the nation’s fruits and some vegetables as well as more than 80% of the world’s almonds. It’s a hugely important river, but one that’s been engineered almost to death.

The rest is a great article that all of my readers should also read, but I'm interested in the videos for my classes, beginning with this one, Opinion: The 'most endangered' river.

The San Joaquin river is on life support. John D. Sutter looks at the extreme measures taken to keep the river flowing.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the videos from CNN about Sutter and what he found out in his voyage/trek down the San Joaquin River.

Pacu caught in Lake St. Clair

I'm still in an "I can't be all DOOM all the time" mood, so here is a weird local biodiversity story. WXYZ reports in Husband and wife reel in Piranha looking fish at Lake St. Clair.

For people interested in a text version, click on the Detroit Free Press article Fish caught in Lake St. Clair looks like piranha, but it's no man-eater. As the headline states, it may look like a piranha and it is related to the notorious predator, but it's a vegetarian. Still, it does not belong in the wild here. Fortunately, pacu will not survive a normal winter in Michigan.