Keep sharks in the seas, not on plates!

Food for thought!

Shoot Tiger Sharks from Oceanicallstars: Duncan Brake on Vimeo.

Oceanminds

I've just discovered a new and exciting idea. Oceanminds is a social networking site devoted to marine interests. Sort of like facebook for the oceans. you can join at http://www.oceanminds.com/

Spearfishermen kill tiger shark

This is all a bit after the fact, but for those of you who haven't heard the story....http://www.nypost.com/seven/03122009/news/...ooth_159201.htm

The long and the short of it is that a group of spear fishermen while out fishing for tuna shot and killed a tiger shark. Their apparent motivation for this was that they felt that thye were being threatened by the shark. However examination of the video(!) that they shot shows no sign of aggresive behaviour at all. I used to spearfish back in South Africa, and we regularly had to deal with sharks, normally a bang on the nose was enough to turn them, or if they were really determined, they got away with my catch-but I never envisaged actually shooting one.

In my eyes, they further darkened their act by selling the video they had shot of the event. It is here http://video.aol.com/video-detail/diver-fights-off-12-foot-shark/3475778870

I guess the truth is that when we venture into the water with a gun (or on land for that matter) it gives us the option of using it in self defense as we see it. We are all probbaly quick to pull the trigger when we have a trigger to be pulled! These guys did one of these two things
1. the shark was cruising them and they panicked (this is not cool to admit to!) and shot it and then realised that they had to finish the job. The after the fact marketing of the event was a positive spin on what was a gut panic reaction.
2. the shark was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time-it swam into Craig Clasen's sights whan he was keyed up and he pulled the trigger. This happens! Again all the events after are simply to justify this.
For more info see wetpixel at: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29214 or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=74037951270 The latter has 3379 members from all over the world.

The demise of Morecambe Bay's mussel beds

I spent some time walking out on the mussel beds around my house in Heysham, and was shocked to see how denuded they are. For the past two summers, there has been mussel gathering on an industrial/commercial scale. Large gangs of labourers, accompanied by dozens of quad bikes with trailers have quite literally stripped the mussel beds. I walked out on the beds early last year, and was encouraged by the amount of re-growth that had occurred since the harvesting of the previous year, but the mussels were very small. I assumed that the size would render the beds uneconomic for the 2008 season.However the gangs were back in force-apparently, they were taking these tiny mussel as "seed". They were stripped out of the beds, and taken elsewhere (to Ireland I believe) to be grown on to a commercial size.  This illustrates the ammount of profit that is to be made-and equally that the profits didn't return into the local economy.This strikes me as a ludicrous system, and one that the sea fisheries protection should prevent. The wholesale destruction of any marine species in an area is not acceptable. There was no attempt to do so in either an way that is sustainable or that would encourage re-growth. In farming this would be called slash and burn-and yet it is going on adjacent to a mid sized town in one the most highly developed nations in the world! I will be watching this year!

Sharkwater

I think this film is madatory watching for anyone who spends anytime on or in the water. I shows the level of ignorance and commercial greed that exists in our relationship with sharks, although it act as a euphemism for our relationship with the seas in general.  Farmers practise husbandry, reaering animals and growing  crops for our eventual comsumption. Whether it is moral to eat other animals or not, at least these animals are in affect bred for that purpose. The seas are a virtual free for all without regulation, and as Sharkwater shows clearly, even when this regulation exists, it is flouted or ignored by the people at the sharp end. I don't think there can even be a concept of "responsible" comercial fishing in the light of the plight of the vast majority of marine species.