Shark fisherman defies protesters

[skener]

TW@T!!!!

[Finless]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]TW@T!!!!

Just the well thought out, reasoned and enlightened kind of response that really does change attitudes.

Although, I must say that response has confirmed one opinion I have.

[Finless]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (John Gulliver @ Dec. 04 2003,17:27)]

John,

Thanks for the info - v/interesting reading.

It makes me quite depressed when I think about the state of the world and what we are all doing to it.

Did you do the "bacteria culture in a petri dish" experiment at school? You watch the bacteria expand and grow in its limited environment and eventually die off having consumed everything whilst being poisoned by its own waste.

Well, that's how I remember it. Of course, the Earth, whilst being a limited environment, has the facility to enable regrowth of resources if they are not depleted too far, it is still a depressing analogy to me.

It is easy to imagine that outbreaks of disease etc are a design safety feature to stop excessive expansion of a species. By luck or by design I wonder?

Oh well, I'll just go and slit my wrists now. Actually, I think I will leave it until Monday as it is weekend and there is beer to be consumed first.

Rgds
Bryan

[daveyclayton]

Long line fishing may be an improvement on trawling and purse seine netting, but it's hardly target specific. It's currently being considered largely responsible for the impending extinction leatherback turtles and several species of albatross, as well as heavy cetacean bycatch.


http://www.eurocbc.org/page764.html
http://www.eurocbc.org/page528.html

[lizardfish]

<font color='#810541'>Red List info

would just like to point out that this shark is not even considered vulnerable on the Red List. It is in the low risk category. I doubt, though that a population estimate has been carried out recently and it is obvious that this species needs a reassesment.

Governments will not waste their time protecting a commercially valuable species, which is not at high risk. Sad, but true. We wont ever do something until the sh!t hits the fan.

The fact that these sharks are being caught, is because there is the demand for them. The reality is, IMO, that you will have to crush the demand for these sharks in order to reduce the fishing of them, or find something else wrong with the way they are being caught. Long lining for instance can kill seabirds. So sometimes, &nbsp;it's not target specific.

There are actually a lot more sharks and other fish and marine species, which are at higher risk than this shark, and are still being commercially exploited.

We really do need to focus our limited efforts on species which are more at risk.

I don't like the thought of over 100 of these sharks being caught in one week, as much as any other, but to some extent I feel we are sucked in by the media. They report the fishing of a 100 odd sharks and we are up in arms... but you don't hear much about what is happening to cod for instance or salmon unless you look hard for the info. Basking sharks and leatherback turtles in the UK need more attention than the porbeagles IMO. Not saying that this shark issue does not deserve attention, just saying if you are going to get steamed up about this isse you really should be aware that there are many more issues to be concerned about also.

Looking at it from the flip side. I don't know this fisherman, but perhaps he's got a family to feed, perhaps he's had a really bad run of luck for many years and has been really struggling to make ends meet. I don't know if I was in his position that I would not go out and catch a bunch of sharks, which to my knowledge were not threatened much. I don't know that I wouldn't do that. I think it is very harsh to judge when you don't know the full story. &nbsp;

I support writing to VIPs about these issues, but I also think we need to spread the word among the public more about the consumption of overexploited marine life (including these sharks) and environmentally unfreindly ways of harvesting sea creatures.

Tell friends about the safe seafood lists...
go here to get links for the lists


Anyway - that's my 2 cents.

Call me extreme but I do think we are like the bacteria in the petri dish. I do think we are wiping the carpet out from our own feet and from every other species. We are the most destructive species on the planet and the only way to stop, is to stop making more of us! I am against having babies. Broody as I am, I do not feel that the world is going to be any better for any of us, of we leep replicating. Sadly, it is only people in developed countries that may share my thoughts, while developing countries will just keep getting more and more populated. But still, doesn't make me feel like I should just go ahead and make some more.... selfish genes.

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement



MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

[Dominic]

VHEM has some excellent links - who's watched Austin powers and wished they could have their own MiniMe?

[Dr Stevil]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Finless @ Dec. 05 2003,11:51)]It is easy to imagine that outbreaks of disease etc are a design safety feature to stop excessive expansion of a species. By luck or by design I wonder?

Design only if you're a religous type (which believe it or not I don't have a problem with shock ! horror!)

I prefer to think of it in terms of natural systems of biological organization, or as something as inevitable as gravity.
Of course being something of a short-haired hippy I'm still quite partial to The Gaia hypothesis

[Dr Stevil]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Dominic @ Dec. 05 2003,14:07)]VHEM has some excellent links - who's watched Austin powers and wished they could have their own MiniMe?

But I am Dr Evil and one day you and your offspring will all serve me and my mini-me baw haw haw haw haw....

PS Austin Powers is on this weekend, think it's sunday, can't remember which channel

[John Gulliver]

I think the picture on this issue is, for once, quite clear.
1) Scientists are agreed that it's a species with very low resilience (for the reasons explained by Steve). It may not yet be on the Red List but we know that stocks have been greatly depleted by heavy fishing in Canada and the USA and that different populations are fairly stationary – the populations on the western and eastern side of the North Atlantic do not seem to intermingle.
2) I don't know the figures but it's a reasonable assumption that the 100-odd sharks recently taken in Cornwall were a substantial fraction of the local population.
3) The Shark Trust, who know a lot more about these things than you and I, have protested against Ellis' fishing.
4) He chooses to ignore their protest, evidently cheered on by his colleagues.
I therefore have difficulty understanding the charitable attitude expressed by some people on this board. We are not talking about a desperately poor, ignorant third-world fisherman who doesn't know better. Ellis is fully aware of the likely consequences of his actions but obviously doesn't give a damn, as long as he makes a fast buck. I'm not a vindictive person but I hope he pays a high price for what he is doing.

[MATTBIN]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]but I hope he pays a high price for what he is doing

He will John, but unfortunately other people might too.

If it was mass slaugher I suspect pressure could be brought but a lone fisherman is very likely to be ignored by all the agencies that should be involved.
Any pressure brought about by a well meaning group of divers is also likely to be ignored.
The outcome sadly will be when he has slaughtered enough to wipe out the population he will stop. It may be that it will become uneconomic before he has actually caught the last animal but he will continue until the population probably becomes too low to sustain itself resulting in their destruction.

No doubt then he will turn his attention on some other species or convert his boat into a dive charter and we can all go visit the area devoid of marine life and he will wonder why that venture fails too.

Matt