Mammals are known to reduce in size in response to environmental risks. It has been studied in great detail.

The icecap may not be the only thing shrinking in the Arctic. The genitals of polar bears in east Greenland are apparently dwindling in size due to industrial pollutants.

That might not be the best example; it has been known for some time that polar bears are losing weight overall.

A new ecology study now says mammals are not the only species. It turns out even fish can shrink under harsh living conditions

In examining how juvenile salmonid fish responded to harsh environmental conditions, we were faced with unexpected and previously undocumented observations in terms of growth performance, indicating that fish do shrink in harsh winter conditions. Young salmonids showed significant shrinking of individual body length, up to 10% of the body length, over the course of winter. The dynamics of the growth in length of these fish can be explained by a combination of anorectic stress and environmental conditions. Under stable, sheltered underwater conditions fish were best able to maintain positive growth in length.

The Office of Inspector General in the US Department of Energy has just released a “Letter Report on ‘Inspection of Allegations Relating to Irregularities in the Human Reliability Program and Alcohol Abuse within the Office of Secure Transportation” (OST):

Specifically, a review of OST documentation and interviews confirmed the occurrence of 16 alcohol-related incidents involving OST Agents, Agent Candidates and other personnel from 2007 through 2009. To put this situation in some perspective, the 16 alcohol-related incidents experienced by OST from 2007 through 2009 were from a total population of approximately 597 OST Agents, Agent Candidates and other personnel. Of the 16 incidents, 2 were of the greatest concern because they occurred during secure transportation missions while the Agents were in Rest Overnight Status, which occurs during extended missions where [nuclear weapon] convoy vehicles are placed in a safe harbor and Agents check into local area hotels. In 2007, an Agent was arrested for public intoxication, and, in 2009, two Agents were handcuffed and temporarily detained by police officers after an incident at a local bar. OST management took what appeared to be appropriate action in these cases. However, in our judgment, alcohol incidents such as these, as infrequent as they may be, indicate a potential vulnerability in OST’s critical national security mission

Vehicles with nuclear weapons go into safe harbor overnight but Agents can go out on the town. That pretty-much says it all.

The 16 incidents could implicate 3% of staff. The report does not make any formal recommendations and so it also does not try to figure out if this is a case of a few bad apples or a loosely managed and thereby insecure operation overall.

Either way, the report concludes that nuclear weapons and thereby national security is in the hands of staff who often become involved in “incidents” related to alcohol.

A report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) condemns government authorities for ignoring global exploitation of tuna. The magnitude of the problem was found in 2007 when France hauled in almost double its allowed quota.

The report details systematic over-fishing, falsely reported catch volumes, ignored bans of spotter planes to track down schools of tuna and illegal sales of national quotas from one vessel to another.

All told, the investigation paints a bleak picture in which thousands of tons of fish were illegally hauled between 1998 and 2007 – as many as one in every three bluefin tuna may have been caught illegally during this period.

Reasons for the illegal trade are said to be obvious.

As marine biologist, Daniel Pauly told the ICIJ, the promise of a slice of such wealth is too enticing for many to resist.

“Fisheries are one of the most criminalized sectors in the world,” Pauly said. “This generates so much money that it’s like drugs.”

The report said the black market trade in tuna was worth at least $4 billion (2.9 billion euros) between 1998 and 2007.

Tuna populations have been devastated by the practice. Quotas have been ignored, if not difficult to monitor, and regulators are facing a tough situation. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has suggested a simple answer — drop quotas to something very easy to monitor that also may be necessary to save the species — zero.

A “trading standards” operation in Ireland used ‘Pretend’ drunks to catch out Conwy and Denbighshire pubs serving alcohol illegally.

Roly Schwarz, community safety enforcement manager for both authority areas, said they used three professional witnesses to act out the drunken display as all the tradings standards officers are so well known in the area.

Sounds like a case of “everyone act normal, the auditors are here.”

He said: “On one of the occasions we actually dressed one of them as Frank Gallagher, the very dishevelled main character in the series Shameless and had him trying to buy a drink in character with change and smelling of drink and he was still served.

“We also had them knocking over furniture, falling over, telling staff they had been drinking all day and walking in and out of places.

“We were very surprised by the findings as we went along and decided to up the anti, with them acting more and more drunk and always making sure they told anyone who listened they had been drinking all day.”

I can only imagine what “up the anti” looked like on Facebook the next day.

About 45% (11 of 25) failed to stop serving. The trading standards officer suggests to the BBC that stopping the practice of selling to drunks will help reduce other crimes.