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Jack Moyer
For Jack Moyer's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 29, 2004
Japan's longliners devastate world squid stocks
It was early spring 1968, I had received a Fulbright Foundation educational grant to produce a 16mm movie about Japanese fisheries. The grant provided for the latest "state-of-the-art" Canon 16mm movie camera (there were no video cameras in those days), and with it I had successfully completed and edited a 15-minute film on the hook-and-line mackerel fishery at Zeni-zu, an isolated reef at the western edge of the Izu Islands, many kilometers southwest of Kozu Island.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 30, 2003
Our oceans' ecology is all at sea
For many years, I have been attempting to inform people that our life-supporting oceanic wildlife is being rapidly destroyed by human misuse and overuse.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 31, 2003
What's natural about shizen?
As anyone with an iota of awareness and no partisan ax to grind must surely know by now, this planet's nature is in danger of being mostly destroyed within the next century, with catastrophic consequences for human life.
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 12, 2002
Mobbing comes naturally, too
Some years ago, while doing research on angelfish on the Papuan Barrier Reef, I was lying on a white sandy bottom 30 meters down observing males competing for females during the sunset spawning time.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 14, 2002
Cleanups are only drops in the ocean
The year was 1980. I was conducting fish research on the Great Barrier Reef, off Cape York in Queensland, northeastern Australia. After a lengthy dive, I decided to take a short rest and then explore a small, unoccupied sandy islet nearby for signs of nesting sea turtles and terns in that wonderful ocean wilderness far removed from civilization.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 7, 2002
Distant decimations
Due to the volcanic eruption at the beginning of July 2000, it's been a fairly long time since I experienced a normal Miyakejima summer. Miyakejima, my island home for many years before that, was beautiful in summer, with lush green forests, numerous birds and the deep, blue ocean all around.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 31, 2002
Farming out death
Man years ago, while doing research related to environmental assessments of the Shiraho coral reef on Ishigaki Island, I witnessed an extreme example of a destructive human impact on a pristine, unspoiled reef.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 29, 2002
How is marine Miyakejima now?
In early July 2000, Miyakejima Island's 7,000-year-old volcano roared back to life. Continual eruptions led to the entire population being evacuated over the next two months as emissions of very fine, extremely heavy ash were replaced by lethal gases gushing daily from a new 400-meter-deep crater. What we islanders had expected to be a "normal" Miyake eruption has turned out, instead, to be the most severe volcanic activity there in 2,500 years.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 25, 2002
The decline and fall of biodiversity
In Johannesburg over the next few weeks, the biggest talk fest there's ever been will ensure that few people on the planet remain unaware of environmental issues such as global warming, sustainability and rapidly decreasing biodiversity.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 8, 2002
Rules with teeth required to save a natural splendor
Mikura Island, the southernmost of the Izu Islands south of Tokyo, which are administered by the metropolitan government, is a natural-history treasure house of global value.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 1, 2002
Tokyo's paradise isle under threat
Mikura Island in the Izu Islands south of Tokyo is a spectacular natural paradise known the world over for its community of bottlenose dolphins, estimated to be almost as numerous as the island's 240 inhabitants.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 21, 2002
Think aquatically, dive locally
Scuba diving in the waters of Palau, Hawaii, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, Grand Cayman Island and the Red Sea certainly provides exciting and unforgettable experiences. I can say this with confidence because I have dived in then all.

Longform

High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?