Giant squid story entangles Western Sportsman; accused of hurting dive tourism in Nanaimo
An article in the Western Sportsman magazine about a giant Humboldt squid dragging a diver to his death off Nanaimo, B.C. has caused consternation in the dive tourism community and resulted in an offer from the magazine to publish an apology and correction.
According to a story in the Victoria Times-Colonist, the mayor of Nanaimo, John Ruttan, says the "silly" story ("Attack of the Giant Squid" in the January-February issue) could hurt Nanaimo's growing reputation as a diving destination.
Apparently, the story is not true. David Webb, the editor of the Edmonton-based magazine published a retraction on the magazine's blog.
In our Jan/Feb 2010 issue, on page 10, we published a news article that indicated a scuba diver had been killed by Humboldt squid while diving near Nanaimo, British Columbia. Following reader inquiries and further investigation, our writer’s source for this information was found to be in error.
The Times-Colonist article said that Webb would also be publishing a correction and an apology in the May-June issue.
Western Sportsman is published by OP Publishing Limited of Vancouver, which also publishes BC Outdoors Sport Fishing, BC Outdoors Hunting and Shooting, Pacific Yachting, Canadian Aviator, Cottage Magazine
[The pictured squid is now part of the Royal B. C. Museum collection.]Labels: editorial
posted by D. B. Scott at
7:40 pm
8 Comments:
"Calamari-gate"? Anyway, shit happens with small staffed mags. Sounds like the Editor is doing the right thing (now, at least).
This story is so blown out of proportion it's not even funny... the controversy stemmed from one sentence in one small news bit. FYI: while we're on the subject of retractions, Western Sportsman is not published by OP Publishing, it's published by KeyWest Marketing. (Signed, the editor)
You should amend your online sites, then. The link I provided in the story [http://www.oppublishing.com/] leads to the OP Publishing site that clearly claims ownership of Western Sportsman. The KeyWest Marketing link leads to Outdoor Group Media [http://www.outdoorgroupmedia.com/], which also claims Western Sportsman.
Sorry, it's pretty bush of you WS guys to have not caught this in fact check -- even if "fact check" happens to be an overworked EIC whose radar should have been going off. Squid drowns man? Please.
....sigh... the relationship between KeyWest and OP may not be clear to those who only do a google search, but rest assured, WS is published by Keywest Marketing, not OP, and we DON'T need to amend our links to please you, I'm afraid.
DW
Then why not say what the heck the relationship is?
Dear Dave: Clearly there's Web confusion regarding the ownership of your magazine. Go to the OP site (http://www.oppublishing.com/). It says, and I quote, "Our Magazines and Publications!" Then it shows your magazine, Western Sportsman. And when you click on it, you end up on the Western Sportsman site. So,WTF? That's what D.B. is trying to tell you guys. And don't worry about pleasing him or not; I suspect he doesn't give a rat's ass. It's your friggin' problem, and he's just pointing it out. Loose the tude, dude.
Tentacly yours,
An observer of this squidly schmozzle.
"those who only do a google search"?? Isn't that what most people do? This being the internet in 2010??
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